Things You Need To Consider When Creating A New Website
A website is one of the most important aspects for any business. This is essentially your shop front and what will give your potential customers or clients their first impression of your company. It is this which will likely make people either want to do business with you or not, and therefore it is paramount that it is as good as it possibly can be. If you are currently thinking about upgrading your existing website, or you are starting a new website and don’t really know where to start with it, there are a few things you need to consider. Here we have rounded up some of the most important things for you to think about…
Design with the user in mind
When you are creating a website, it is important to keep the user in your mind at all stages. While a site might be aesthetically fantastic, if it is difficult to use, then there is no point. You want it to look great, but be simple to use and find the information that your visitors are after. It is a good idea to make a site map so you can easily see how everything will link together and to check that it is easy to navigate. You want the most key information to be at the top of your site and things such as your contact details to be in the footer. Use the site as a customer would and think of their journey from start to finish. You could use a remote unmoderated usability testing guide to see how users will work your site.
Don’t forget to incorporate a blog
When it comes to ranking, you will want a blog. As any expert will tell you, not having a blog will be one of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make. A blog is a great way to target specific keywords to get others to find you on Google and other search engines. It will also display you as an expert in your field and further your credibility. Make your posts on topics that are shareable and informative, so people will put them on their own social media channels. This means that you will drive in other customers that would not have discovered you otherwise.
Implement SEO as you go
SEO is vital for any website, so it is a good idea to try and implement it as you go, wherever possible. This will save you the mammoth task of going back through your site when it is completed and doing it this way. There are many different elements of SEO which you can add into the back end and you will want to include them all. You will want to ensure you target specific keywords on your pages - it is a good idea to get the Yoast plugin if you are using WordPress that can help with this. You will also want to add in alt text to your images that helps to tell search engines what your image is of. Add in metadata such as your title tags, meta descriptions and url structures too - these will all assist with your chances of ranking.
Use A/B testing
When you finish your site, it is important that you try A/B testing. This is vital for getting valuable data about your website and how users will interact with it. What it does is creates two different versions of your site, sometimes only with minimal differences and sees which one performs better. This way you can see which site is best for the final result and how users will engage with the website once it is done. Through this you can apply any tweaks you think it might need and have the best chance of it succeeding. Some of the elements that might have the biggest impact on your website include your sites CTA's, your sites colours, the images you use, the words you use for the headings and the content that is on your website. Use an analytics program to measure the differences.
Consider your website speed
Website speed is a really important factor for both search engine optimization and also for the user. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to use a website only for it to be super slow and laggy, not showing any of the elements you are trying to see. Prior to launch, make sure that you do plenty of site speed tests to check that it falls within the optimal amount. The best website load speed is between 1-2 seconds and it has been found that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take over three seconds to load. Ways you can optimise your site speed include by using smaller images, using a CDN and choosing a good host. If you have large volumes of traffic or are expecting to, then you will need to ensure your site will be able to cope with this.
Think about if it will stand the test of time or if it’s easy to adapt as you grow
Website rebuilds can be expensive and take a lot of time, so you don’t want to have to do this very often. Instead, when you get your website built, think about how it can not only be timeless, but also to be easily changed and adapted when it needs to be. It can sometimes be tempting to pack loads of features onto your website, but these might go out of style or look dated rather quickly. Instead, think of things that can easily transition as you grow.
These are just a few things that you need to consider when you build a new website. Your website is one of the most important elements of your whole business and therefore it is important to treat it as such. If you think carefully about these right from the off then it will make it much easier for you in the long run.