Website Design

How to plan the design and build of your website from start to finish.

A properly thought-through, well planned and cleverly structured website is vital if you want to get the most from your online presence. Follow these basic steps from the start and you’ll be sure to stay in control of the whole process and finish up with a website that delivers exactly what you need.

• Write a list of the main goals: What is the main purpose of your website? Is it simply to gain publicity for your business? Or sell products via an ecommerce shop? Or use for lead generation to acquire visitor contact details?
• Set a budget for your website: For a bespoke website which is designed and built specifically to meet your individual requirements you should have a minimum budget of £3000. You will need to account for the initial creative design of the main pages, html development programming, web hosting, plus any on-going site maintenance you may need.
• Assign the key people that will be involved: These may include key company stakeholders such as the MD or marketing manager in your business, website designers, experienced html/css web developers, and content writers.
• Decide the strategy for your content: Think about what your target audience will be most interested to read, look at including engaging images, informative video content, blog posts, case studies or informative guides. If you’re not confident in writing content yourself then hire a professional website copy writer.
• Site structure: Generally most websites will have a home page, about page, services/products page(s), a series of blog pages and a contact page. Knowing the objectives or goals you want to achieve will help you decide if more pages are needed and how they will be structured.
• Website navigation: Ensure your menu items and how links to other pages of your website are displayed cleanly and clearly. Do your research and look at the functionality of other websites and note which you like and dislike – show these to your website designer to explain what you want to achieve.
• Create wireframe mock-ups: These are simple sketches which outline where components or content blocks will be positioned. Remember to think about how pages will be displayed on different devices and how the layout may be effected. An experienced website designer will be able to assist and give you advice with this.
• Designing the page layouts: With all the elements prepared in advance you are now ready to brief your website designer. Choose your designer carefully and ask to see evidence of their work, ask what steps they take to help you through the process. Most importantly, make sure they offer to show you precise design visuals which demonstrate exactly how your website will look (layout, fonts, colours, etc) before any html development work begins.
• HTML development: Most websites these days are built using a content management system (CMS) which allow the website owner to edit and add pages after the website designer and developer has finished. The most common is WordPress which is used for tens of millions of websites worldwide. Your website developer will provide the necessary instructions or training to help you edit and add content yourself to your website.
• Check your website thoroughly before it goes live: Go through and preview all the pages and test them on different devices (smart phones, tablets, desktop computers) and web browsers. Your website developer should be experienced enough to build your site properly, but sometimes things can get missed. Your website should also pass the Google Mobile Friendly Test.
• Maintaining your website: Have a plan for who will be responsible for maintaining your website, undertaking software updates, etc. You can monitor its performance by using clever analytics software (offered free by Google) allowing you to see very detailed user behaviour. Keep an eye on bounce rates, unique visitor numbers, your most popular and also least popular pages, helping you decide how to make any ongoing improvements.