First of all, congratulations on deciding to build a website for your business. Things can go wrong if you decide to design your website for the first time. An effective website strategy is what you want otherwise things just get too complicated to work with.
Creating a website development strategy, incorporating the website design considerations is like paving your road through a jungle. You can get to your desired destination no matter how rough the path is.
As a business owner, you need to understand the important factors of a website design strategy. Think long-term by taking the design and marketing into concern and not settling for short-term plans with less ROI.
What Makes A High-Performing Website?
When embarking on the exciting website creation journey, one might wonder, “What do you need to know to make a website?” Well, let me walk you through the top five important factors of a website development strategy to help you on your website creation journey.
High-performing, result-oriented websites are not built using DIY website builders. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not all bad but you have to plan and choose a better alternative.
A simple question to ask is this: How can I design a good website that can deliver results?
First, you need to know the technical requirements for building a website. Check out the complete website checklist of what those components are. This will give you an idea of the things to consider when designing and developing a website.
The next set of steps is what I call the “perfect website design strategy”. These aren’t your regular “10 things you need to <fill in any issue to address>” content. We’re talking serious business here and these steps are guaranteed to help you create a website that’s built to deliver.
Website Strategy Step #1: Set Actionable Goals
Setting actionable goals for your website strategy is like giving it a turbo boost! It’s all about having a purpose, keeping you focused and helping you track progress.
When you are lost while traveling, you stop, find where you are, and decide where you want to go. This is the first step in your website development strategy as well.
When you enter the online market with a new website, your competitors might already be popular. That does not become a disadvantage. Everyone has to start somewhere and the right website design strategy makes a big difference in your business’s performance.
To answer the question “How to develop a website strategy? ”Simply ask yourself what your business goals are. Is it online traffic that you are looking for or do you want to improve sales of your physical product? Whatever it is, pen them down in your website development strategy. You won’t regret it.
Creating a website makes a big impact on your business so you need to assess your business’s goals and resources. Clear, short term and long-term goals are non-negotiable.
Understand your Business Objectives vs. website Objectives
If you have a bookstore and a website to promote the store, you have different objectives in hand.
The bookstore sells books while the website promotes the outlet. In this case, your outlet’s objective is more sales and the website’s goal is more traffic so more people get to know about your bookstore. If it’s an e-commerce store, then you want to sell more books online and build your brand.
See! Different objectives.
A website strategy must outline what you need for your website and your business. That means the strategy can only be streamlined if your website is in mind.
Make progress, one step at a time
Ever heard of Kaizen, the Japanese concept of continuous improvement? One to consider when you design and develop a website is that you cannot move from level 1 to level 10 overnight.
Online growth through a website happens at a decent pace and you need to have patience. Design a website strategy by breaking down your ultimate goal into achievable checkpoints and that is what Kaizen is about: you move forward one step at a time.
2. Prioritize the important website design constraints
There are some basic things to consider when designing and developing a website. These are crucial factors that decide the rankings, traffic, and customer interest in your business. Out of all those, here are the top three that should be on your priority list:
- Website responsiveness: Creating a responsive website is a general rule of thumb. Why should the customer spend time adjusting the look of your website? Ensure a seamless experience for viewing your products and services.
- Loading Speed: Google defines the threshold as under two seconds which makes a website’s loading speed the most critical factor of them all. The slower your website is, the more traffic you lose because people exit a slow-loading, buffering website.
- Mobile compatibility: Almost 45% of people have a smartphone. So the website development strategy here is “Mobile First” because there’s gonna be more users in the years to come. Making your website universally accessible across smartphones of varying screen sizes is one of the essential technical requirements for building a website.
These are steps to improve your website’s performance from day one. Nail them, and your website will be smooth, snappy, and a joy to browse. But you also should be aware of what hinders the performance of your website as well. Read our article on the web design mistakes to avoid them at all costs
3. Incorporate Customer-Friendly Features
The beauty of a website might be that it slingshots your brand to every possible internet user in the world. But does everyone want to hear from you? The honest answer is no.
The smart thing to do while coming up with a website strategy is to focus on the appropriate audience. Grooming products don’t attract pet lovers and automobile service pages do not attract computer programmers.
This impacts the content that you put out on your website. People want to hear authentic stuff that provides value than other average business websites. Not only does a targeted audience yield positive results but also provides feedback for future growth.
- Give what the people want: The website strategy must not drift from what the audience wants otherwise you will be selling to a crowd with zero interest. Figure out what they want. Physical products, services, find out your outlet or just to get knowledge on something. Each of these is distinct and the strategy must be distinct as well.
- Design to make the visitors take action: The primary goal is to convert the visitor. No matter what your business is. You either want them to enrol in your course, buy your products, reach out to you, or download brochures. The website development strategy must be designed so that the visitor acts the way you want. With the competition online to grab attention, you got shot and you better capitalize on it.
- Bring back the mailing list: There is no better customer retention strategy than incorporating a mailing list on your website. They are not bots or random visitors. People subscribe to mailing lists because they want to hear more from you.
- Come up with a strong Social Media Marketing strategy: Do you know what Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have in common? The people who follow you choose to follow you and are not the same as the person visiting your website. This narrows the audience but you retain visitors of quality. This means there’s untapped potential for sales and growth through a strong social media strategy.
4. Your website strategy is incomplete without SEO
SEO plays a pivotal role in achieving website success. Impress Google and win clients. You cannot choose one over the other as they are interlinked, making it an important factor in website design strategy.
The content you design must lure visitors in; to do that, you must rank higher. The key is to have SEO at the top of your website design considerations.
One thing to consider when designing and developing a website is making sure your website is identified by search engines. When you are a stranger to them, the chances are you will end up a stranger to your visitors as well.
- Do not overlook meta tags and alt tags: Alternative texts for images might have been discovered to assist people, but now they also assist search engines. Google crawls through the meta descriptions and alt texts and why would you lose a chance to index them?
- Map everything for the visitor: Navigating through your website can be a game-changer. Well laid out navigation helps customers to browse through with ease while those that are below average will make your website appear like a pile of clothes. Depending upon the website you choose, the website development strategy will vary as landing pages are easier to navigate while eCommerce stores need extra attention.
First-timers can find it difficult to work with SEO because of the fancy jargon. Check out this article where we outline the common SEO mistakes to ensure you don’t make them.
#5 Have a result-driven approach
Once the website is done, the initial outcome can change your mindset as well as your future website strategy.
How will you measure the results in the first place?
In my opinion, Google Analytics is a good place to start. This helps you to stay on track and measure how your website is performing. You should visibly see the ups and downs to make tweaks to your website strategy to move forward.
When it comes to a website’s success, it is subjective. As you achieve new heights, you should modify the website development strategy to newer goals and expand your customer base.
As a business owner, you will be bombarded with new updates about the market’s new tools and widgets. While restructuring or designing a new website strategy, do include them in the picture as you don’t know what they will bring you.It might seem safe to stick with what you are familiar with but if you don’t reap the benefits of young inventions, someone else will. Effective website design can help communicate your brand’s message and values effectively.
Your Common FAQs on Website Strategy Addressed
1. What are the key technical features to pay attention to while designing a website?
Key technical features include responsive design, fast loading times, SEO optimization, secure hosting, cross-browser compatibility, and a user-friendly CMS. Ensuring mobile-friendliness and accessibility standards are also crucial.
2. What should I discuss in the first meeting with a web design agency?
Discuss your business goals, target audience, budget, timeline, design preferences, essential features, and examples of websites you like. Clarify their process, communication style, and any past relevant experience.
3. How do I ensure the strategy is free from errors?
Ensure the strategy is error-free by conducting thorough planning, regular testing, gathering feedback and performing quality assurance checks. Involve stakeholders, use checklists, and review each stage meticulously before finalizing.
4. How long does it take to build a web design strategy?
Building a web design strategy typically takes 2-4 weeks. This includes research, planning, stakeholder meetings, defining goals, and creating a roadmap. The timeline can vary based on project complexity and scope.
5. What factors influence the web design strategy?
Factors influencing web design strategy include business goals, target audience, budget, industry trends, competitor analysis, brand identity, and technological requirements. User experience and SEO considerations also play crucial roles.
6. Will the web design strategy deliver a powerful website?
A well-crafted web design strategy will deliver a powerful website by aligning design. But understand that the quality of the strategy impacts the quality of the website. The performance of your website depends on the steps you take later and how adaptable you are to your market.
Before wrapping up the strategy
This is the website development strategy that will help you design a good website. Hope I have answered your burning question “What should I know before designing a website?”. I have broken down the cost of making a website to give you a good estimate. With this, you can draw the lines wherever you want and not let your website rob your bank.
The strategy continues with this. You need to revamp and improve your website occasionally to keep it customer-ready. Incorporating website strategy consulting into your website design process can be the key to unlocking success.
When it comes to website design, what to think about and what to prioritize can be confusing for a business owner. Although you know everything you need to know about building a website, to make things comfortable, reach out to an experienced website development company where they take care of the technical work
Hire a Professional Website Design Company For Your Business
Seeking professional guidance through website strategy consulting can be a game-changer.
A website stands taller and speaks louder when you join hands with a web design company like GyanDevign Tech Services in India. When we talk about a website development strategy, we provide affordable website design services in India and our portfolio speaks for itself.
To get things started, contact our experienced web development consultant now so that we can discuss what you have in mind.
