At this point, consumers expect your business to have a website. Virtually every business knows that having an online presence is an important step in maintaining relevance in today’s digital age.
But is your website doing all that it should be doing for your business? If not, your website might need a significant overhaul. Before you commit to that, however, it may be helpful to have a better understanding of website design and development.
You Need a Website That Sells!
A business website exists to boost your sales and profitability. Above all, a business website needs to be well-designed and eye-catching. Your website has a matter of seconds to make a first impression—approximately 8 seconds, on average. In that short window of time, each visitor will decide whether to leave your site or to stay and browse.
Do all that you can to make sure your website is visually appealing and that it draws potential customers down the sales funnel. If your web design isn’t visually enticing (and especially if it’s slow), consumers will lose interest and patience, which means you will lose sales. On the other hand, if your website is both beautiful and functional, consumers will be delighted with their experience and will be more likely to stay and make a purchase.
Custom Website Development Company
The visual aspect of your website isn’t the only area that you need to consider, though. The functionality of your website is equally important. If your website development isn’t up to scratch, it’s not going to be as intuitive and easy to use, nor will it have features and elements that make it stand out from your competitors.
That’s where custom website development comes in. Instead of opting for the cookie-cutter route, custom website development gives you an edge because you’re in a better position to create apps and features that make your site unique.
Ecommerce Web Design
Every business can benefit from quality web design and development. It’s especially crucial for e-commerce websites, however. Using the internet as a platform to sell means you have a ton of competition only as far away as the click of a mouse and maybe a few keystrokes. There are also additional security concerns that need to be addressed because of the nature of online transactions, not to mention the legal requirements these types of sites must adhere to. Beyond that, it’s up to the web designer to present products in a visually appealing and compelling manner.
E-commerce web design and development should also account for things like sales tracking, image displays, filters, and categories to make finding products simpler, the presentation of offers or discounts, and the capacity to accept different forms of currency, assuming you want to be able to sell worldwide.
WordPress Web Development
If you had the option, would you ever choose to opt-out of 50% of your sales? Of course not; that’s crazy. But if your website isn’t responsive and mobile-friendly, that’s precisely what you’re doing. Roughly half of internet traffic is done on smartphones these days. If your website isn’t designed for smartphone use, the odds are that anyone using one to access your site isn’t going to be sticking around for very long. As your site is developed, prioritize making it mobile-friendly so that its appearance and functionality are responsive no matter what device a site visitor uses to access it.
Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Web Development
If you had the option, would you ever choose to opt-out of 50% of your sales? Of course not; that’s crazy. But if your website isn’t responsive and mobile-friendly, that’s precisely what you’re doing. Roughly half of internet traffic is done on smartphones these days. If your website isn’t designed for smartphone use, the odds are that anyone using one to access your site isn’t going to be sticking around for very long. As your site is developed, prioritize making it mobile-friendly so that its appearance and functionality are responsive no matter what device a site visitor uses to access it.
Our Web Design Process
STEP 1
Discovery
A quality business website starts at the very beginning with an understanding of the business itself. What are your business’s goals? What are the characteristics of the brand? Who are your customers? Who are you trying to target?
STEP 2
Design
Once there is an understanding of the business, the design creation can begin. It will start with a concept that can be reviewed and edited as needed, after which it can become fleshed out further as the concept is solidified.
STEP 3
Development
After the design has been determined, the development begins. This is where all the bells and whistles are created, along with the stuff that makes your website tick. After the development has been completed, you can view the website before it’s up and running for the general public to check it out. This is your chance to make revisions or corrections before it goes live.
STEP 4
Deployment
At this point, your newly revamped website has gone live. You can begin to attract consumers, generate leads, and earn sales conversions. Make sure you have a solid understanding of your site and how it works so you’ll be in a position to answer customer questions as they come up.
STEP 5
Content Migration
Because you’ll probably have a decent amount of content from your website before the overhaul, migrating it over to the newest version of your site should be a priority. Take some time to review the content as you send it over, making sure it is current, correct, and high-quality.
STEP 6
Performance and Security
Hopefully, you took some time to beta-test your site before it went live. That should have helped identify and correct major bugs before customers had to deal with them. Don’t think your work is done, however. You must continually monitor your site’s performance and keep up with security measures. Address bugs and update your security software as needed to keep your site running smoothly.
STEP 7
Support & Maintenance
Chances are, something on your website will break eventually. Hopefully, the problems will be minor and easy to fix. However, regardless of the size of the problem, it’s important to have site support available and to conduct regular maintenance and upgrades.
STEP 8
Analytics
Keep track of your website’s effectiveness by regularly running analytics on it. This will help you determine what pages are effective, which ones aren’t, your sales conversions, and more.
What a Website Needs To Be Succesful
Your website isn’t going to be successful just by existing. There are some things it needs to have in order to work for you the way that it should. If it’s missing any of these things, that’s reason enough to revisit it and make some changes.
Optimized for Search Engines
Part of the point of having a website is to make your business visible to online consumers. In many instances, the best way for you to get discovered is via a search engine.
Therefore, optimizing your website for search engines is a must if you want to have a desirable ranking and earn traffic for your site.
Mobile-Friendly
Since about half of all web traffic comes from smartphone devices, a mobile-friendly website is a must. Ideally, this should be addressed during the development process as a part of the website development services you paid for. If not, that’s something you’re going to want to tackle immediately
Secure
Your reputation is directly tied to your success as a business. If your website suffers from security issues, you can bet that your reputation is going to take a hit, and you’ll lose business. Customers want to know that you’ll protect their information from those who would use it to harm them. Regularly update your site’s security to protect you and your customers.
Fast
The digital age has done a number on people’s willingness to wait. If your website takes more than a few seconds to load, visitors will navigate away from it and straight into the arms of your competitors. Make sure your website is optimized for fast loading, so you aren’t losing out on sales because it takes too long.
Good User Experience
Your website should be easy to use, intuitive to navigate, visually appealing, up to date, and accurate. These are just some of the things that lead to a good user experience for site visitors. If you aren’t sure what your customers’ experience with your website is like, ask them.
Web Design FAQs:
What Is the Importance of Having a Good Website?
It’s hard to overstate the importance of having a good website. A good website serves your business in so many ways. It helps boost your conversion rate, promotes your brand, sells your products, builds your reputation, and increases your online visibility. All of these serve to make your business more profitable.
What Are the Advantages of Web Design Agencies for Startups or Small Businesses?
Unless you’re already good at web design and have the time to do it yourself, outsourcing it to an agency can be the best move for a startup or small business. You have a lot to do already, so offloading this to experts can get you a better quality product in a shorter amount of time. Your website should have better web development, help your brand identity, improve user experience and SEO, and better content as a result. This enables you to build consumer trust, improve consistency within your site, boost your conversion rate, and make a good impression with your customers.
Is WordPress the Right Platform for My Website?
While there are other options when it comes to platforms for creating your website, WordPress is the preferred choice for site developers. When it comes to building websites and online stores, it’s the most widely used content management system out there. There’s no guarantee that it will be the perfect fit for your website, but given its popularity and widespread use, there’s a good chance that it’s a good option for you.
How Long Does It Take to Develop a WordPress Website?
There isn’t really a set amount of time that it takes to develop a website using WordPress. If your website has more features or specific requirements, or if things are less clearly defined, it’s going to take longer. On the other hand, the more specific and limited your needs, the quicker the turnaround time will be.
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