Things to Consider Before Creating a Website
Gone are the days when a brand could survive without a website. Nowadays many people make use of the internet by researching for information, looking for new products and services, studying, or spending quality time networking with family and friends; some people have taken up residence online, they practically live on the internet and linking up with the next person is just a click away. Almost everyone is connected at all times.
If you want to make your brand known, you need to go where our potential customers hang out. Thus creating a functional website essential. A simple, self-made ready to use website should be perfectly adequate if all you are interested in is an online domain to publish content on. However, with the help of a reputable web design agency, if what you want is for your website to attain some level of popularity, or you want to use it for your business, or it is your business, then a few salient tips have to be taken into consideration.
Determine what is the purpose of the website
The foremost thing you have to consider when creating a site is the purpose. The first question you need to ask yourself is why are my creating this website? A website can be used for a lot of things like; branding, for information purposes, to generate awareness or as a viable means to sell your goods and services to the public but focusing on the main reason for its existence is of the essence. Once you have ascertained the purpose of your website, every other decision would come naturally; decisions on who your target market will be, the looks and features your website should have, and the form it needs to take will become more evident.
Who is your target market?
Once the purpose is established, the next consideration will be your target market. Who are you expecting to visit your website? The population of your target market will determine the looks and design of your website to a large extent. Are you targeting business owners? is your site going to be exclusively for teenagers? is it going to be for women, men, older citizens and so on? Your website has to conform with the profile of your potential customers, and you can achieve this by conducting market research on your target market to discover what is likely to attract them to a website.
Choose a creative domain
If your website has a complicated web address, people are not likely to remember it even if your product is the most revolutionary product in the whole world. For you to stay at the forefront of people’s mind, you need to make your address memorable, simple and easy to enter. A site for a brand or a company should have the name of the brand or company as part of its address. Another important consideration is the age of the domain. Some people prefer to purchase a domain that is already existing, and this comes with a lot of benefits. It is an established fact that older domains often come with pre-existing traffic, backlinks, or even Alexa Ranking. Purchasing an older domain is a sure way to get your business up and running in no time all.
Make sure our website works on mobile
It is crucial to ensure that your website works on mobile. a recent survey by Google revealed that 72 percent of mobile users prefer mobile-friendly websites, yet 96 percent of such mobile users have come across sites that did not work well on their mobile. If your website is not mobile friendly, there is every likelihood that you could be missing out on some businesses and when you think mobile first, you would definitely not go wrong.
Remember the backend
You cannot successfully develop a reliable website without taking care of the backend which involves, developing a functional program. Small and medium-sized businesses often consider a robust backend infrastructure as an afterthought, but it can pose a disaster if a website declines to load at a business crucial time. Once your website is up and running, certain scenarios can come to play; the site may encounter hitches from time to time, it can go down at the point of closing a sale or possible a client may find it difficult to order their desired product at a certain price. As the saying goes, customers are always right, they can be unforgiving, and just one mistake is all it takes to lose a good business. Just bear in mind that if your website does not sport solid backend services, it can never be able to wow your customers.
Keep it simple
Whatever you do on your website, you have to remember to keep it real and simple. Potential buyers are known to take a split second to make up their mind about a purchase, it only takes one bad experience, and a snap decision will be reached; they would decide that they don’t like it, and they won’t ever buy it again. You must make the conscious decision to keep your buyers in mind often, though dazzling and exciting websites may be initially attractive, simplicity is likely to go further to actually meet their needs. You have to constantly think of what will encourage clients to navigate around the site and ultimately purchase your goods and services. Simplifying the site and reducing clutter will definitely go a long way in achieving this.
Easy navigation
Visitors are averse to websites that are confusing and difficult to navigate, they would simply leave the site and may never go back to it again. To make your site’s navigation more appealing and useful, you have to assume the stance of a new visitor and conduct a site review that is in-depth and profound. You have to be conversant with the navigation streams that are useful and those that are not.
One sure way to ensure that visitors navigate your site without hitches is to make a site map available. In addition, there is the need to streamline navigation by removing underperforming and superfluous pages which goes to reduce load time and at the same time, enhance the quality of your brand’s online presence.