1) Determine your goal
Before you can design an incredible website, you need to understand what the purpose and overarching goal is for your website.
Is your website a blog that is designed to inform or entertain?
Is your website designed to drive calls and enquiries to your service-based business?
Do you want your customers to make a booking on your website?
Is your website an online store, with your goal being that customers make all of their purchases online with as little correspondence with you as possible?
Once you have clearly defined the goal of your website, the next step is to determine what functionality your website needs to have, in order to align with that goal.
2) Outline your scope & technology requirements
You have figured out what the goal of your website is, but what functionality do you need in order to achieve this?
Do you require an eCommerce website - where you can list your products for sale and customers can purchase them?
Do you require an online booking platform?
Do you need your website to work with any existing technology platforms you are already using? (E.g. your accounting software, your ERP, your CRM)
Once you have defined the scope of your website, you will be able to identify which CMS (Content Management System) is best suited for your website.
3) Choose your CMS platform
You know the goal of your website, you know what functional and technical requirements there are and in the last step, you have likely shortlisted which CMS platforms would be able to meet your requirements. Now it is time to compare each of these platforms and determine which is best for your business.
Important questions that you should ask are:
What is the cost of setup and ongoing management?
Can I, or my staff update the website ourselves or will we need ongoing assistance from a developer?
What support does the CMS have available? Is there a capable community of other users?
Does it identify and support Google best practices?
Will it allow for mobile first design?
Does it interfere with page speed at all?
4) Create compelling content
Before you start designing your website, you need a solid outline. That outline, in it’s most basic form, contains: a website sitemap - a layout of all the pages in the website and how they flow together to create unique customer journeys, and a website content plan - an outline of what you’re actually going to share on each of the pages. This is the biggest obstacle for most companies because it can be a lot of work to write copy that both engages prospects well AND best represents the company. In addition to being the biggest obstacle, it’s also the most important. People take action because of the works they read or heard on a page. Great copywriting is absolutely mission-critical for the success of your website.
When creating the content for your website it is important to ensure that it:
- Communicates with your customers in a relevant way, providing them the content they want to see (i.e. rather than making brand based statements “We are the largest parts store in QLD”, articulate how this benefits your customers “As the largest parts store in QLD we always have the part you need to get back on the road”)
- Contains all of the information that your customer will need in order to do what it was that you identified as your goal in step one. I.e. If booking appointments is the goal; what is the appointment about? What’s in it for me? Where do we meet? What other information do you need from me? What happens after the appointment?
- Leverages keywords and phrases that you would like to rank for online (it is often advisable to do some keyword research using the likes of Google Keyword Planner or tools like Keywords Everywhere to understand search volumes of particular keywords)
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5) Create and source original and engaging imagery
You have taken the time and effort to ensure that you have a sitemap for how someone engages with your website, and great copywriting on each page to speak to the prospect in a relevant way. Now you need to ensure that the imagery on your website is unique and engaging too. Where possible, avoid using stock images. Ensure that photos of your products are actually photos of your products. Include photos of your offices, your staff and, if relevant, your customers (for an eCommerce website, this might be done by rewarding your customers for sending in pictures of them using your products).
6) Pull all of your content together with professional website design
Website design is a profession that combines the use of data, psychology and an exceptional eye for design to create a website that engages customers to undertake the identified goal. For many website designers they have undertaken years of study and practice in order to develop the skills required to effectively design websites.
Key considerations will include:
What devices will the audience primarily be viewing this website on? (for most businesses it is mobile)
What information will need to be prioritised highly in order for customers to enjoy a good user experience and easily find what they are looking for?
What colours and shapes are most likely to effectively lead customers through the onside journey we want them to follow?
At this stage, you will create wireframes for each type of page in the website, along with page layouts so you can see how each element interacts with each other.
7) Develop the website
You now have all of the content that you require, and a functional website design that has been designed specifically with driving as many conversions of the goal that you identified in step one in mind. It is time to develop your website. During the development process, it is important that not only is the physical design implemented, but that all of the technical components of the website are developed properly too.
Have correct heading structures & URL structures been used?
Has the developer requested and implemented meta titles and meta data with the goal in mind?
Is the website fast loading, and optimised for mobile, with sufficient room for easy navigation using fat fingers?
Is the website correctly integrated with all of the functional and technical requirements that you identified in step two?
Has the developer set up:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Embedded Facebook Pixels and any other marketing tracking codes that you require (Google Ads etc).
If you follow each of the above steps, you should have an exceptional website that has been planned, designed and executed to convert!
The next step will be to drive traffic to your website, so that you can start getting those conversions.
