In this digital age, having a web presence for your small business is a given. Before you begin, here are ten critical steps to creating a website that will hit the ground running and immediately begin converting visitors into clients and customers.
Most of the lessons you’ll learn in a web design agency will come from your work experience; learning is an iterative process, and there is no better way to gain knowledge than to make mistakes (and then learn from them). This article will cover ten essential and general web design tips that every beginner should be aware of it.
Here are the following Top 10 Things You MUST DO Before Starting Your Web Design Business:
Identify your goal:
What is the main goal of your website? What do you need users to do? Sign up for your mailing list. Make a purchase or an appointment? Did you call? This information is critical. Every page on your site, as well as all content, photos, and design elements, should be planned to guide users toward your goal and provide them with the basic information they need to complete it.
Choose Your Website Colors Carefully:
When choosing colors for your website, it is tempting to go with the default color scheme that comes with your website-building software or theme. That’s not necessarily bad to do as long as the color scheme complements your brand and message. If you are unhappy with your color choices, you must resolve the issue before the launch date.
Check and approve all of the colors on your site, stick to your brand’s colors, and avoid choosing too intense colors. Avoid using a high-contrast color scheme or colors that do not complement the aesthetics and layout of your website.
Conduct Market Research:
Market research, like a travel plan to a foreign country you’ve never visited before, is your first step in figuring out your journey before you start pouring money and effort into it.
This will assist you in determining who your potential customers are, learning more about them, and determining where to find them. This will help you conduct a competitive analysis to learn more about the different players in your industry and what will give your company a competitive advantage.
Thorough market research will entail learning about economic trends, how the New Orleans Web Design agency is doing today, and consumer behavior. Because web design is a global service, there is a lot of opportunity in the global market; however, there is some competition.
Secure a URL:
Your URL is your website’s web address. It must be memorable, concise, and simple to spell. If your company’s name is lengthy, consider shortening it while retaining its distinctiveness. For example, if your web design agency is Bob’s Fantastic Hot Dogs, a URL like BobsDogs.com would help your clients find you faster on the web. Because a URL does not recognize capitalization, make sure your company name does not run together into something awkward: Once you’ve decided on an available URL, buy the domain name right away.
Connect Your Social Media:
It has become essential to many people’s personal and professional lives. As a result, if you want to promote your business, you should have a presence on as many social media platforms as possible.
You can choose which popular social networks to link to, but a direct link to your Twitter and Facebook pages is an excellent place to start. Numerous website plugins and utilities are available to help you connect, so do some research to determine which will work best for you.
Give each webpage a purpose:
How many pages should your website have? What is the purpose of each page? Is text required on every page? If so, what will the text say?
Before you begin working with and eventually hiring a web design agency, you should probably have all of these questions (and more) answered. As previously stated, it’s always a good idea to look for websites that you particularly like within your business’s industry – we’re not suggesting you copy them! More specifically, you should draw inspiration from them and incorporate ideas into your new and improved site.
Here’s an excellent example of the leading web pages that almost every website has:
- Home
- About Us
- Product or Service Information
- Contact
- FAQ
Identify SEO keywords:
You want to attract search engine users who are looking for what your business has to offer. Choose 3-5 target keywords for your products or services to sprinkle throughout your website copy. Then, consider using a keyword tool to drill down into popular keywords that will improve your website’s organic search results (i.e., your website will show higher results when users Google that phrase). It’s okay if this section starts to sound like gibberish! Many professionals can perform basic keyword research for your company for a small fee.
Edit, proofread, and spell check:
If you’re like most website owners, you understand the importance of well-written content, whether it’s an interview, product review, or news article. If users encounter grammar, spelling, and sentence structure errors, they will conclude that you are not paying attention to or care about your content.
Misspelled words can potentially detract from your message, so spell check as thoroughly as possible. You must avoid making a negative impression, so proofread thoroughly before publishing to your website. There are numerous free online spelling and grammar tools, including WordPress and Joomla plugins.
Choose Your Products and Services:
Choosing which products and services to include in your offerings will require time, careful planning, and analysis. Although in high demand, web design and development remain a competitive market, and your offerings will determine the success or failure of your business venture.
Some questions to consider:
- What is your target market looking for right now? Is it a responsive website? Simple static sites? Mobile apps or marketplace landing pages?
- Would you buy this product? Will your product be something you can confidently recommend to family and friends?
- Does it excite you? Do you anticipate selling your products to a web design agency? Do you look forward to showing clients your web development solutions and website concepts? Without passion, the entrepreneurial spirit quickly fades.
- Can you see yourself selling these items and serving your target market for the next five years? How about ten?
Update your logo:
A robust and consistent logo will help to solidify your brand image. If your logo isn’t up to par, consider putting your website on hold and hiring a professional to create a logo that will last. If you change your logo after launching the site, customers and site users will be confused.
Conclusion:
As you can see, you can do numerous things to ensure that your website’s essential features are operational before launch. But we’ve only scratched the surface; there are many more tweaks and optimizations you can make.
There’s always something you can do to increase your visitor count. You can reshape how your website attracts and retains visitors with a little effort and a few tweaks here and there.
