Whether you’re doing it as a hobby project or practising your skills as a web designer/developer, there are no shortcuts on how to make a website that is sleek, professional, and attention-grabbing. Even if you use WordPress or similar software, you will still be bombarded with function and design choices that will require your decision. Here are five things to consider when making a website.
1. Choosing a Hosting Service and Domain Name
Great domain names are catchy, even if they comprise one or two words. Simply look at Google or Yahoo. Both of these one-worded domain names are recognized by anyone with a computer. Aside from a domain name that is catchy and easily sticks to your head, the name should precisely reflect your brand and its product or service.
Finding an appropriate domain name is critical, especially for dedicated business websites. Combining search engine optimization practices, name construction, and brand identity into the domain name can actually yield better chances of being found in search engine results pages. Ultimately, this leads to a higher potential in sales and profit.
2. What’s Your Back-End Plan
It is useless to learn how to make a website without a functional infrastructure supporting the back end. Think of your website as a house. It may have that sleek paint job, luxury windows and doors, and a well-maintained roof, but these are the only parts your neighbours can see. In the tech world, the home’s structure, from the beams to the flooring, serves as the back end of the design. Without it, the design cannot stand.
Fortunately, you don’t have to start from the ground up when making your back-end system. There are several trustworthy engines for eCommerce platforms you can use, such as Magento and WordPress. The latter is the ideal content management system of choice for information-rich websites.
3. Uncluttered Design
Always aim for a clean and crisp design when developing your website. A cluttered design with too many clickable links and unnecessary features makes it difficult for visitors to navigate around. A quality design should be both appealing and easily navigable. Having an uncluttered design helps visitors focus on the value of your business and content rather than get distracted by bright graphics and big chunks of text.
Colour schemes play an important role in designing your website. Most people are unaware of the fact that different colour schemes have the ability to induce different emotional responses. Use this to attract your target audience. When it comes to playing with colours for your website, consider your website’s focus or niche. What colours will attract your target audience? A website catering to funeral services will look awful with a rainbow scheme.
4. Branding
One of the most common goals entrepreneurs set out to do is to build a brand. Branding is essential to all types of business, whether it’s a small start-up or a multinational corporation. Placement and design of your company logo affects how your brand is perceived by customers and investors. Ideally, your brand logo should be placed in an area on your website that is readily visible, such as the upper right side.
Being consistent with your business’ brand provides customers with an embedded and memorable experience that will keep them coming back for more and even lead them to refer you to their family, friends, and colleagues. This is the best kind of marketing strategy since it’s completely free and can occur on a large scale.
5. Loading Times
In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, when people want something, they want it right away. Even a second too slow can send potential customers out of your website and into your competitor’s. Test your website ahead of time to identify any loading time issues. If there are issues detected, fix them before launching your website.
Even if your website runs smoothly during launch, make it a habit to periodically check your website’s loading time. This increases customer retention rate and promotes a positive experience for visitors. You can do the testing yourself or hire a web engineer to perform more thorough testing with specialized software tools.
Making a website can take anywhere between three weeks to three months. Avoid trying to blaze through the project. Instead, add small elements to it each day.