Website development is a cumbersome task with many things to account for. Luckily, BRICK has created a winning formula and we’re here to break down the 10 things you should consider when developing a website.
1) Consider a web platform that fits your needs
Whether you are building a one-of-a-kind website to fit your blogging needs or using your website to increase sales/ selling products, choosing the right content management system (CMS) that you want to build your site on is key. Of course, you can just build the website with HTML, but why not leverage the ever-changing open-source tech solutions to boost up the process and accommodate your website’s tech and creative needs. Some of the major CMS products are WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and many more. They are all different in their pros and cons depending on your business’ needs and objectives.
2) Make sure your website is SSL secure
This is Website Development 101. However, you will be surprised at how many businesses don’t have an SSL secure website. This issue does not just turn away your audiences, but search engines like Google and Bing also punish websites that are not SSL secure; and rank them lower than others.
3) Put your brand at the core of building a website
Your website should reflect your brand. With the digital age that we are living in, your potential customers might visit your website before visiting your store. A good website should have a strong brand presence through logo image, color palette, brand pattern, typography, iconography, and imagery.
4) Customize your site. Every detail matters.
A custom design can establish a lot more than just a little touch. Continuing with the brand presence idea above, every detail you put into the design to make your website unique will help customers recognize and remember your brand, and make your business stand out from your competitors.
5) Make your audiences work less, so they can trust you more.
You want to put yourself into the customer’s shoes to understand how they interact with the website. Having a good user interface with easy navigation, intuitive function, and effective information flow will help the website’s user experience. The less your customers have to figure out how to use your site effectively, the more they will trust your brand.
6) Enhance your website features to increase audience engagement.
With the understanding of how the users will interact with your website, you may implement features that help them achieve their task. For example, if a user wants to look up the info on your products, a search bar and different info tabs will help to ease the discovering task. If a user just wants to get in touch with you, having a callout contact info in the navigation or having a chat program will be sufficient. More importantly, your website could have features such as an interactive form, email subscription, sticky sidebar, and many more that provide your business with leads.
7) Give your site a boost in Search Engine ranking
Either to index your sitemap to the search engine or to optimize the site content, you need to invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make your website rank higher than others in the organic search results page. SEO does involve many factors, but the main areas include on-page content, off-page content, backlinks, and website performance.
8) Go beyond your website. Integrate it into other channels.
You should consider how your audiences get to your website as well as how they will output your website info. How does the website appear when a user shares one of your pages on Facebook? How about printing out the info on your website or bookmarking your site to their phone? Going beyond what’s on your website indicates that you care for your users’ online journey, both on and off your website.
9) Continue monitoring your site performance
To make sure your website is effective, you need to monitor and analyze your website traffic and the audience’s behavior. You need to leverage the data you learn from the website analytics tools to make edits and improve your website experience.
10) All things e-commerce
Yes, we cheated and put E-commerce as our last item on the list but not all websites will have the E-commerce feature. But think about the bigger picture, whether the audience can buy the products directly from your website or not, your website should highlight your products and services to increase sales. Regardless, a good E-commerce site should provide the audience with the best way to look for certain products, filtering out by categories, price, brand, usage, as well as a quick and reliable checkout process.
