Steps for a Successful Website Design and Development – The Definitive Guide

There are over 1.8 billion websites on the internet but a handful 200 million of them are active. The failure of a majority of the websites has been attributed to poor formulation process. So how do you come up with a successful website?

Well it is our initiative to take you through the step to step guide of formulating a workable website design and development.

Preliminary research

Carry out some background research of what is expectant in the market. This will be critical in guiding you come up with the vision for the website. Subsequently, the research work will be

Branding

The first thing you have to consider is the brand name of your website. This calls for strategizing based on the target audience, purpose and material.

1. Target audience- Who are they? What are the demographics? What is their scope? How will the website change their lives?
2. Purpose of the website- simply refers to the content expected to be covered by the website
3. Competition- Who is you up against? What is their marketing strategy?

Proper design framework

As highlighted earlier on, designs are fundamental in forecasting the success of the website. Let’s look at the top procedures entailed

1) Selecting a suitable template

Pick a template that compliments your website content and style. Additionally, you can customize the template with a layout that clearly outlines the website content. Make sure you edit, use images and links to make your site catchy.

2) Make the website user friendly

You might have the right content and articulated clearly but fail to woe users. To capitalize on conversion rate it’s important that the website offers a user friendly experience. So how do you make your website user friendly? Here are some things to observe;

• Ease navigation flow- the website content should seamlessly flow from one page or subpage to another. Also entails adapting a simple structure that appeals the users
• Content hierarchy- ensures that the most prominent information is captured first. In doing this you ought to arrange the content in manner that expresses your interests.
• Call to action (CTAs) – these are messages that persuade visitors to take action. This includes “Join free for a month” “Find out first” or “Start now”.
• Include footers- the footer is the bottom part of the webpage (though not easily noticed by users). Nevertheless, it plays a number of roles such as to ascertain the credibility and offers legal and technical information to your website.

3) Add attractive features

Apart from using texts, links and images, it is advantageous for websites with creative features. These include; dynamic motion, background videos, wide strips and parallax scrolling.

Ensure you increase conversion rate: once you launch the website it’s important that you attract more customers to subscribe

Search Engine Optimization

This analysis is used to make your website perform better in ranking on the search results. It entails going through the metrics picked by search engine algorithm to determine which website tops the rest.

• Title and name
• Description
• Icon
• Use of links
• Use of keywords
• Image optimization
• Authority and trustworthiness
• User friendliness
• URL
• Meta description
• Page loading speed

Go for mobile optimization

An estimated 57% of internet traffic hails from mobile users. It is for the wise web owners to take advantage of these numbers and optimize their websites.

To achieve this, the designers should introduce the website for mobile use. Here are some guidelines on how to go about mobile optimization;

1. Use web imagery and video content. It should be available for mobile users via the preferred media players.
2. Provide fast loading speed. Website owners should ensure that the content is displayed immediately on the page. This keeps users engaged and reduces frustration.
3. Consider compatibility. It’s important to acknowledge the diversity of mobile platform thus crucial to code the mobile app to work in all.
4. Make the text visible
5. Minimize pop-up ads- users get annoyed when countless ads keep on popping impromptu thus they should be minimum and removable in a single click.

Promote and market your website

In world we live in, there are tons of digital platforms launched on a daily basis thus the need to device ways to be at the top. One of the techniques is adopting effective digital marketing and promotion strategies.

The marketing team should have the target group in mind. Some of the main marketing platforms include social media, TV ads and commercials. Nonetheless, it’s crucial that you incorporate some promotions to entice users to access the website.

Scrutinize and respond to the feedback

Users who have interacted with your website may give you feedback. It’s upon the web owner to go through this response. This will be resourceful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the website.

Moreover, user feedback is one of the cost effective channels of retrieving relevant information. When you integrate this then you are at a better position of converting more users to your site.

Regular update

Nowadays users are pickier and savvy when it comes to the website for access. It’s on this premise that you need that you site possesses trendy designs and technology.

Below are some reasons to web update

1) To remove bugs

Also helps in improving the security of the website. Nowadays it’s quite easy to lose vital information to hackers.

2) To make your website user friendly

After revisiting your website you may realize that the theme isn’t user friendly. To revert this, you can introduce an update to change the theme and attract more users.

3) To include or add Call-to-action (CAT)

For a company website it’s recommended that you include a call-to-action on each page (below relevant information). An update release can add on this so as to enable users to contact you.

4) Re-branding

If you have either changed the aesthetics or photography style it’s important to update your users. This avoids any confusion or loss of users.