Building a successful website is crucial for the growth and success of any business in today's digital world. In order to build a website that is both functional and effective, there are several things that you need to consider.
First, to build a website from scratch, you will need the following things in place:
Purpose or Goal: Determine the purpose or goal of your website, whether it be a space to provide general information about your business (such as an informational site) a sales or landing page, or an e-commerce site. Next, make sure to state what your business does and provide this information on the homepage. Make sure your homepage answers the critical questions that a new visitor will be asking, such as who you are, what your business does or provides and what they can do on your website. Consider the impression you want to make and the message you want to communicate. The important thing is not to overload your homepage, for instance, ensure that it isn’t too text-heavy, which can be distracting and confusing for clients; keep the design simple, fresh and unique.
Domain Name: Your domain name is an important feature of your website and should be descriptive and memorable. Keep it short and simple and avoid abbreviations or confusing words and letters. Most domain names cost anywhere from $10 to $50 a year. A typical domain name may cost you about $15/year, however, most web hosting platforms will provide the first year for free with the purchase of a premium plan for a hosting site.
Website Hosting: Every website needs a host, or server, to store data that is accessible to visitors. The type of host you choose will depend on your business model and the type of website needed for your business (landing page, informational site or e-Commerce). There are several options available to browse such as Wix, WordPress, GoDaddy, Square Space, Shopify, and many others. Take time to browse through various hosting platforms to determine which will be most beneficial for you and your business. Prices of web hosting premium plans can vary, and it also depends on the type of website that is required for your business (e-Commerce/informational). So, depending on the type of website that your business will require, it will help you to decide which hosting platform and premium plan to choose. Below are two images (screen captures) of examples of what it would cost you to host your website through Wix (the business premium plan will include e-commerce).
Now that you have a basic understanding of what you’ll need to start your website, and once you have these things in place, you can then focus on the website design.
Let’s discuss five tips to help you design a more efficient website:
Simple and Unique Design: The design of your website, especially the homepage, is the first thing that potential clients will see when they visit your site. Make sure that it answers critical questions, such as who you are, what your business is, and what clients can do on your site.
Keep the design simple, fresh, and unique and avoid making it too text-heavy or distracting; and ensure to include CTA (call-to-action) buttons to help a visitor be able to easily navigate through your website.
Mobile Optimization: Mobile optimization is just as important, if not more, as designing for the desktop version. Your site should be designed for laptops, tablets, and mobile phones and be simple and clean to ensure optimal viewing on any device.
Showcasing Products and Services: Clearly showcase the products or services that you offer. This can be done through professional photos, images, or videos. The quality of the product photos and descriptions is crucial to making a good impression on potential customers. You can have great site design, but if your product photos are of poor quality, potential customers may think twice about buying your products.
Load Times: In today's fast-paced world, people are often impatient when browsing websites. Make sure your site has fast load times to keep potential clients engaged and interested. Here are some things to consider:
Minimize files: The number of files that need to be loaded to display a website can have a big impact on the load time. Reducing the number of files, for example by combining files can speed up the load time.
Optimize and compress images: Large images can significantly slow down a website. By compressing images and scaling them to an appropriate size, the load time can be improved.
Minimize the use of plugins: Plugins can add functionality to a website but can also slow it down. Only use plugins that are necessary for the website's functionality.
Minimize the use of videos: Videos can be beneficial to the visitor’s experience; however, they can also slow down the speed of a website. Consider only including videos that are absolutely vital to enhance the experience for a visitor; otherwise, consider including a link to the video on a different platform (such as YouTube).
Optimized User Experience (UX): When potential clients visit your site, they are often looking for specific information. A well-designed site that presents information in an eye-catching, yet orderly and organized way will be much more successful than one that appears chaotic or unorganized. Additionally, a well-designed and optimized site will give potential clients a great user experience, ensuring that they can find and access the information they’re looking for and help to increase the chances of them becoming a client/customer.
Now that you have these things in order, you can now focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure that your site is fully accessible to clients and ready to be optimized and indexed for search engines to rank higher in search results (SERPs).
Learn more about SEO in our blog post here.
Download our free guide, ‘the Ultimate Guide to SEO for Small Business’ for a full list of what you need to know to optimize your website for search engine rankings.
written by:
Adriana Leos
Chief Creative Officer
vznayres