Designing and creating a website can be a tricky process, requiring a lot of time and effort. However, if you have a good plan in place, things tend to go a lot smoother.
This article will talk through some of the key things to consider before creating your new website. Whether you are going the DIY route or hiring an agency or freelancer to help, having these things in place will make the whole process much less stressful, as well as saving you time and money.
1 – Set Realistic Expectations
It’s always best to start with a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Creating a new website is like building or renovating a home – you need a good foundation and a plan that takes into account your circumstances and needs. This might take a bit of time and effort, but getting this stage right will save headaches in the long run.
The best way to do this is to identify your goals. What is the primary aim of your website? What do you want visitors to do when they reach your page? Perhaps buy a product, or subscribe to a newsletter? Adding too many features to your website can leave visitors overwhelmed or confused. Every page should be planned out to serve a purpose. Think about the beginning, middle, and end of your website; the pages should be logical and flow into each other.
2 – Think About Your Audience
Successful websites all have one thing in common. They prioritise the audience and make it easy for them to complete their task. Creating a profile of your target audience can really help to identify what would work best for them. Think about:
- What age are they?
- How good are they with technology?
- What mood will they be in when visiting your site?
- Are they on a mobile or desktop?
These answers should give you some ideas about what parts of the website will be most important to your audience, and how you can optimise the layout and content to help them find this information easily.
3 – Get A Domain
Another major step is to purchase a domain. Having a memorable, succinct domain is a great first impression for your website visitors. Make sure your domain makes sense, is easy to spell, and represents you as a business.
It doesn’t have to be exactly the same as your business name either. B&Q use diy.com as their domain, and if you have a long business name, using a shorter version might be much easier. Ableforth, Barnaby and Clarkson Solicitors is tricky to type out, whereas abc-law.com is much snappier and still clearly relates to the full name. Having a proper domain name instantly boosts your credibility (would you trust abc-solicitors.coolwebz.com to take on your case?!) and can really help you get found by customers.
Most domains cost about £20 per year, but you can often get hosting deals that include a free domain, or save money by buying several years upfront. While buying a domain can feel like a huge decision, the relatively low cost means that you don’t have to get it right first time. If you buy a domain in the prep stages and change your mind before launch, it’s very easy to switch to something else. You can point several domains at the same website, so you can try out both and see what works best.
4 – Build Your Brand
Having a good brand design and logo is essential, and we talked about this in more detail in our post about writing a website brief. A strong and consistent brand makes it much easier to create a professional and coherent website. Make sure your colour palette goes well together, and that your fonts are readable and fit with the image you want to portray.
Now is also a good time to think about brand assets too. Things like customised icons, illustrations and quality photography can really help turn a fairly basic page into something really eye-catching. Using your own photos rather than stock images also feels more authentic and trustworthy.
5 – Design Inspo
If you already have branding for your business, then it’s fairly easy to extrapolate a website design from that. You’ll already have colours, fonts and a ‘feel’ that you’ll want to recreate. Look at any printed brochures or leaflets, how your shop or business premises are decorated, and even branded items like shopping bags or letterheads. One client sent us the packaging they used in their cake shop and asked us to create a website design from that!
As we’ve discussed before here, if you’re starting from scratch or struggling with inspiration for website design, one of the best things to do is consider your competition. Review other websites offering a similar service to you and take notes on what catches your eye. Is there a particular style or layout that seems to work well in your market niche? Maybe they are all very similar and you can stand out by being totally different? You can also use colour schemes, layouts and features from anywhere as inspiration. As a web designer, knowing you like these three websites, but hate the colour scheme on this other one is really useful.
6 – Make A Start On SEO
Identifying your SEO keywords is another important aspect of creating a successful website. Keeping search optimisation in mind at the planning stages ensures that strong keywords are baked into your site from day one.
Think of 3 to 5 target keywords related to your business, then make a list of searches related to each word that users may type into their search engines. You can use keyword tools to get other ideas and related phrases. Keep the list of key search terms to hand at all times, and use these for guidance when thinking about page titles, menu headers or blog content.
It’s often better to target precise terms related to you and your offer than go for more general searches. For example, if you try to optimise your site for “yoga”, you won’t get very far. There is too much competition, including big fitness chains with huge marketing teams and budgets. However, if you aim to capture more specific searches like “gentle yoga for over 60s”, “pregnancy yoga Bristol” or “recovery yoga for runners”, you can tailor your class names, descriptions and site structure to highlight those terms.
7 – Get Ahead On Content
One of the most common reasons for delays when building a site is a lack of content. Writing up some draft content prior to creating your site is the best way to avoid this problem. Think about all the important information that you want people to know about you and what makes you stand out from the competition.
A good general structure is to start with introducing yourself and your business, move on to your services or products, then mention any significant business milestones or previous projects you have completed. The exact content is completely unique to you and your business and should tell your own story. Even if you aren’t the best with words, collecting some notes and key facts together in one place will make things a lot more straightforward.
If you want to try writing the content yourself rather than hiring a copywriter, aim to be clear and concise. Use simple language, avoid too much repetition and don’t ramble.
Going through all of this before you’ve even hired a web designer might seem a lot, but considering these areas before creating or rejuvenating your website is likely to save you time and stress in the long run. Many projects we’ve worked on have been delayed while people wait for photoshoots, or struggle to write content, and it can be frustrating for everyone. Getting these things done and dusted beforehand makes the actual build process much quicker and smoother, therefore saving you money too.
If you need help with getting things ready for a new or refreshed website, or have everything prepared and are looking for an agency to build it, we’d love to talk. Book a call or drop us a message to find out more.
