6 Steps Process to Consider When Designing a Website
A must-have for your website
The number one challenge businesses face in rebuilding a website is not devoting enough time to it to make it successful. When designing a website it is important to consider, a good website is always changing. New content is added based on user feedback or fresh articles provided to encourage new conversations. Understand that designing a website isn’t something you do once and forget, it is a successful ongoing process. Once you’ve figured out your purpose for getting a website and the type of audience you want to attract then we will jump right into the basics that make up a website.
- Domain and host
Finding the right name for your brand is crucial because it speaks to what the business offers. Incorporating a combination of SEO, simple spelling, and brand identity into the domain name leads to a higher chance of being located in search engine results. In addition to being memorable, a domain name needs to accurately reflect your brand’s voice. It usually contains the name of the business then there’s the domain name extension, it identifies what kind of website it is. There are over a thousand domain extensions although these are the most common:
- .com
- .co.za
- .net
- .org
- .edu
When comparing hosting packages, it’s vital to consider the nature of your website and business. Make sure that your hosting plan supports your ideas for the website; WordPress, advanced databases, root application development, or anything else. It’s no secret that your web page's loading speed affects your visitor’s bounce rate. Apart from the speed and up-time, you should also consider different hosting options from shared hosting to dedicated servers. Your hosting choice is very dependent on your budget, potential traffic, and the planned size of your website.
2. Navigation
How will users navigate around the website?
Users need to find their way to the correct pages quickly. If a website is confusing and difficult to navigate, your customers may leave and never return. When a user logs onto your website, they should understand what they can do next and what actions to take to reach their destination. In addition, a clear site hierarchy makes your website easier for Google to crawl.
The navigation must be eye-catching and should often be at the top of the page. Given that Google uses metrics that indicate a good user experience, such as bounce rates and the amount of time a visitor spends on the website. It is important to have clear categories and subcategories, for google bots to have an easier time understanding the layout of the site. To increase the efficiency and appeal of your site’s navigation, conduct an in-depth site review as if you are a new visitor. One way to improve a visitor’s ability to navigate your site easily (and help search engines crawl your site) is to add a site map.
3. Design
How will the information be presented?
One of the most important things to remember during the process of website development is to create a clean, appealing design. Things like mixed colour palette, which contains plenty of conflicting colours and text colours and also mixed with the background colour. All those make it difficult for users to read at all or may overwhelm visitors. A quality design is attractive and easy to read with intuitive navigation. Most importantly, a clean design helps viewers focus on the value of your brand and content instead of distracting graphics and large amounts of text.
A grid can make everything clean and organised on your website. It keeps all your elements in their proper places and helps you to determine their sizes, and space of the text, etc. With a grid, you can create a consistent, well-designed interface. Often, customers associate website designs with the quality of a particular company or product. Hence, a clean design is vital to providing a positive user experience that encourages customers to return and improves the quality of your brand’s online presence.
4. Functionality
When thinking about functionality, there are a few matters to consider. Namely, what your website can do and how it works? is the website functional in the literal sense? Are there loading issues or broken links? Are the site’s security features adequate for your business’s needs? In addition, to these potential operational issues, providing the right functionality is crucial to the success of a website, and it should be an essential part of the planning phase. Before your website is even written, designed, or coded, you should have a clear scope of the feature it will offer from the user’s perspective. Getting halfway through a website build just to realise that you are missing some essential functionality can quickly derail a project! One or all of these functional issues can prompt a customer to leave your site.
5. Graphics
What graphics are required?
When looking for information online, nothing aggravates visitors more than slow loading times. Graphics can increase the file size of a web page, resulting in longer download speeds and delays. Other, excessive “page weight” caused by poor image use can result in slow load times for pages. Customers to be turned away completely due to these issues. To increase customer retention and provide a positive user experience. Minimise the number of graphics on a website, and ensure that those used are saved to the correct dimensions and resolution. When incorporating images into your site’s content, make sure to receive written permission for use and pay relevant fees, if applicable. Everything found on your website is considered intellectual property and falls under copyright laws.
There are other options, like royalty-free stock photos it doesn’t entail the transfer of copyright. It means that the creator still holds the ownership of the photo. You (the buyer) only have the right to use the photos. The royalty-free (RF) stock photos license that grants you a basic right to use the image over and over again with no additional cost upon purchase (one-time payment). You (or the end-user) may buy the photo size you need and use it as much as you want for permitted uses defined in the licensing agreement.
6. Call to Action
Placing calls to action on your website encourages customers to contact your business. Every time you’re in front of your lead or prospective customer, ask them to take the next step. A friendly suggestion, such as “Contact us today!” demonstrates that your business wants to develop a relationship with its customers. Calls to action are essential for any business looking to convert prospects into customers and clients. It’s important that calls to action are appropriate for a visitor’s level of engagement with your company.
As a business, you can never assume prospects will follow the sales path you predict or want them to take. If they’re just discovering your brand, invite them to subscribe to your email newsletter (‘’Sign up for a free newsletter now’’). If they’re already a loyal customer, perhaps they’ll enjoy participating in your brand’s loyalty rewards program. To increase your social media following encourage them to (‘’Get more tips and follow us on Instagram/Facebook’’) or any other social media platform your business has. Regardless of what you’re asking visitors to do on your site, always include a call to action at least once on each page.
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