Planning your Web Design
There is a lot more to web design than meets the eye. It is not just a question of picking an appealing template and throwing some content into it.
Before you start designing your website or hire someone else to do it for you, you need to give it some thought and plan it.
A website is very much like your "virtual salesman". It has to represent your brand. It needs to address your customer problems. It needs to consider your competitors and compare favorably to what they have to offer. It needs to invoke trust, be functional and easy to navigate, be compelling to read and come back to, but most important - it has to sell.
It is therefore important to begin planning your website with the following questions:
- What is your website trying to achieve? What are your objectives? To sell? To collect leads? To inform? To build a brand?
- Who is your target audience? What kind of visitors is your website trying to attract? What are their characteristics?
- What information areyour potential clients searching for and what search terms (keywords and key phrases) do they use to find it? What problems they might have?
- What is your product/service all about and how is it going to benefit them?
- What websites are you competing against for the position in the search results? What are their weaknesses? What are your strengths? What website content will make you stand out from the crowd?
- What website content is likely to compel your visitors to take action - to bookmark the web page, to place an order, to leave their contact details or to pull out their credit card and buy?
- What pictures, graphics and special effects are likely to enhance your message?
- What look and feel of the website will enhance your sales message and your company brand? Aloof and authoritative? Bright and friendly? Feminine and alluring? Funky and upbeat? Clean and uncluttered? Plain and no nonsense?
One of the main keys to good design is thorough research. If you don't research your market and in result you optimize your site for wrong keywords, you are likely to waste your money, because you will attract the wrong visitors. Or your website will become like your last year's brochure - obsolete and forgotten.
If you would like to get some help with keyword research and planning your website, contact us. We include Website Planning session in all our Web Design Packages, so if you would like a hassle-free, comprehensive solution, head to our Web Design Packages page.
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