An 8-Step Plan for Creating a Fantastic Website!
Building a website with an excellent user experience in today’s competitive online climate can be a real headache for many businesses. Yet it’s no longer something that any company can avoid. Designing and developing an awesome website is best left to the professionals at a website design agency, but we’re going to start off by giving you an eight-step plan that you can follow in the meantime:
Step One: Figure Out the Site’s Goal
Understanding the goal of the website will influence multiple elements such as the layout, content types, sitemap, and so on. You need to develop a website that will be appealing to your target audience but can also grab the attention of others who may help connect you with potential customers. You must also decide whether your website will be strictly for advertising and customer information or will include an ordering system for your products.
Step Two: Figure Out the Site’s “Feel”
On top of your website’s business goal, you need to figure out what the overall “feel” should be. Perhaps you want to exude a high level of professionalism, which means you’ll want to use more neutral colors and a streamlined layout. Or maybe your company has a more relaxed persona, and you’d like to include bright colors, artist-drawn characters, and a more casual design.
Step Three: Sketch the Whole Layout
The last thing you want to do is sit down at a computer and just start throwing together your website. Instead, you need to sketch out, either by hand or in a drawing program, exactly what you would like the layout to be. You should include page navigation, image placement, basic areas of content, and any other features of each page.
Step Four: Gather the Visual Elements
Now you’re getting down to the nitty gritty. There are literally millions of stock images available for websites, but you either want to limit how many you use or exclude them altogether. A much better way to design a website is to include photos that give a visitor insight into your facility, employees, and/or products. Adding animations or drawings is a great way to get attention, too.
Step Five: Create SEO-Friendly Content
When you’re designing a website, you always need to be thinking about search engine optimization. Creating content that takes full advantage of Google and other search engines is better left to the professionals, so keep that in mind. If you can feature SEO-friendly content, more people will be drawn to your site when searching for a product or service that you offer.
Step Six: Connect Your Social Media Accounts
Your company’s website acts as a central hub of information. Somewhere along the lines of its development, you need to consider where to place your social media links. In the past, we would’ve suggested that you limit your social media accounts to maybe two or three.
But these days, people expect businesses to be on multiple platforms. Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, or even Snapchat, make sure you include all of them.
Step Seven: Test and Launch the Site
Once the website has been designed, you need to start testing it. Don’t just sit down at a single computer, navigate through the site, and be done with it. You need to make sure that it works no matter how someone accesses the site.
You probably won’t have any issues between browsers, but mobile can be an issue. Make sure you have a responsive design, which means that your site looks and works well on mobile devices.
Step Eight: Maintain and Update the Website
We’ve all been to a website with outdated information or extremely old images or design. This can make your site look unprofessional, to say the least. Check for broken links, images, or content that needs to be replaced on a regular basis, as well as any other issues that may arise. The best tactic is to use a professional website design agency to keep everything up to date for you.
Which is the perfect segue…
Why You Should Enlist a Website Design Agency
Yes, website development can be tricky, but it’s easy to gain access to the right type of professionals. Simply find a reputable website design agency that can handle everything.
Here’s why this is always your best course of action:
You’ve got more important things to do.
It may sound funny to start here, but it’s absolutely true. As a business owner, you have better things to do than worry about your website. Sure, it’s an important element for success, but it’s better for you to hand it over to a professional agency so you have more free time to manage the business itself.
Website Design Experience
There are many do-it-yourself web design platforms out there, but they’re not really as easy to use as they advertise. Some are set up pretty well, but it always seems like you can’t get the image placement or other site elements exactly the way you want them. An agency has the experience and expertise needed to make your website look perfect.
Access to Advanced Tools
A simple design may be possible on a website builder, but certain things like adding audio, video, or interactive elements can be a lot more difficult. A professional website design agency will have access to advanced development tools that will help create the website you’ve always dreamed of.
Professional Content Creators
If you truly want to make an impact in any industry, you must have well-written content on your website. This includes the content of the pages themselves, in addition to a blog. A website design company that doubles as a marketing agency is the perfect solution for creating professional content.
SEO Optimization Expert
Search engine optimization is essential for attracting potential customers, but it’s also tricky to get right. Rules and guidelines change on a regular basis, often depending on the specifics of a search engine. An agency can help optimize the SEO content of each page to help you get the best results possible.
P3 Agency is the best website design agency in Clearwater.
P3 Agency handles web design in Clearwater, in addition to all aspects of marketing and graphic design, review and reputation management, and more! If you have any questions about why we’re the best website design agency in town, give us a call at (800) 515-9422 today to schedule a free marketing assessment.