In this day and age, you can do everything online. From buying groceries to paying bills, all you need is an internet-ready device and a good connection. That is why websites are no longer just additional platforms for business — they’re necessities.
Building a website is a major decision because the process doesn’t stop after launch. Websites need to be maintained to ensure they’re performing well and meeting user expectations. Still, it’s nice to hit things out of the park the moment your site goes live.
Before creating a wireframe or looking for a web development agency, there are a handful of things to consider like:
1. Target Audience
The first step to building a website is identifying your target audience. The demographic of your end-users dictates many design choices.
While choosing colors, fonts, and the tone of voice for your content, everything goes back to buyer personas.
Narrow down the group of people you want to engage with your message and conduct user profile analysis. Your website will perform best if you know who you’re talking to and why they’re visiting your site.
2. Domain Name
A domain name is what a user types into their URL bar to enter your website. In contrast to URLs, domain names are more concise thus easier to input and remember.
Think of domain names as user-friendly IP addresses. Instead of typing a long string of information, consumers need only a few words to land on your homepage.
You can name it directly after your business if the name is available, especially it’s catchy and easy to spell. Incorporate keywords if you can but more importantly, keep it short, unique, and on-brand.
If you’re having trouble coming up with one, use a domain name generator for ideas or adopt whatever it gives as is. Once you’re settled, register your domain name as soon as possible.
3. Typography
Typography is the art of arranging text to make words appear more legible and visually appealing. It involves deciding the appropriate font style, structure, spacing, and font size.
Typography is a major component in UX design because it serves to promote coherence across web pages. Good use of typography balances graphic design, catches user attention, and establishes visual hierarchy for better readability.
In terms of branding, typography sets the tone of your messages and helps convey emotions in text.
Serif fonts, or fonts composed of small, regular strokes, are often associated with respect, modernity, and minimalism. Meanwhile, script, or cursive styles, appear more personal, affectionate, and friendly.
4. Color Palette
Color is a primary tool to promote brand recognition. Like typography, it is used to direct attention and add emotional impact to content. Your color palette should reflect the nature of your business and enhance how users consume your brand story.
For example, warm colors like red, yellow, and orange, are linked to happiness, excitement, and movement. On the other hand, cool colors like blue and white are used by banks and corporations because they emanate professionalism and trustworthiness.
Many tools are available to help you generate color palettes. Keep in mind that you need contrasting colors to highlight pertinent parts of your website. It’s also nice to maintain a good amount of white space to delineate blocks properly and reduce visual fatigue.
5. Navigation and Usability
While stunning visuals attract visitors, it’s not enough to convert them into paying customers. Website usability is a crucial component in web development and design because it helps users accomplish the tasks that led them to your website.
Nobody wants to spend more than a few seconds trying to figure out how to view your inventory or read your past blog posts. The navigation design should be straightforward and easily understood from the get-go.
The key is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes during design and development. What information do they need to see first? What options must be front and center?
It’s best to stick to familiar layouts and icons. Place menus and buttons where users expect them to be and use descriptive headings to lead consumers to the correct pages.
6. Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design is concerned with customizing the web layout based on screen size, device orientation, and resolution. You’ll notice that most websites move around their elements depending on what gadget you use to present pages in the best way on any device.
Using HTML and CSS, you can code your website to automatically resize texts and images and reposition media queries on small screens. So instead of the normal horizontal blocks on a desktop, users will see these vertically stacked on their mobile phones.
The result of responsive web design is an enhanced user experience that is especially important following Google’s search engine algorithm update. The thing to be careful about, though, is visual stability.
You want your website to be responsive, but you don’t want elements to move around too much on the viewport. To prevent this, you must optimize for core web vitals.
7. Site Speed
Site speed weighs in heavily on bounce rates, SEO, and conversions. Slow loading times take away from the experience of consuming high-quality web content. No matter how good your products are, visitors won’t wait more than three seconds for your website to load.
Many factors contribute to slow loading times like unclean code, unoptimized JavaScript and CSS, large media files, and more. Likewise, there are numerous approaches to troubleshooting sluggish site speed.
Cleaning your database, compressing file sizes, and enabling lazy loading usually do the trick. Still, the best fix is to hire a team that knows what they’re doing. Professional web developers and designers can customize plugins so there won’t be idle add-ons bogging you down.
8. Website Security
If there’s one thing you should never skimp on, it’s website security. In 2019, 88% of organizations reported having experienced phishing attempts on their websites. This number is on the rise, putting at risk business owners and consumers alike.
Basic protocols to secure your website include installing frequent software updates, using an SSL certificate, enabling anti-malware software. It’s also a good practice to backup data to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
9. Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is a program that lets you organize, edit, and publish content efficiently. CMS like WordPress provides a user-friendly interface to input and manage text, images, and other media. Without one, you’d have to do things old-school and write an HTML file then upload it to your server.
What’s brilliant about using a CMS is it updates web pages in real-time and gives you a preview of how content will appear before publishing. Even people who have no experience in coding can help manage website content with a CMS.
Most CMS platforms also have built-in features for SEO. Furthermore, they promote collaboration, are cost-efficient, and highly scalable.
10. Web Hosting
Although it’s not part of the development process per se, web hosting is something to consider because it affects website performance. A web hosting platform is where your website and its contents are published and made accessible through the internet.
There are three basic types of hosting services: shared, dedicated, and cloud hosting. Cloud hosting is gaining traction because it offers to host on multiple servers, reducing the likelihood of downtime.
When choosing a web hosting service provider, look into the speed of their servers, security measures, and if they offer 24/7 monitoring and support.
Other Considerations
What’s written above are only some of the considerations you need to keep in mind while building a website. In reality, you should also be aware of how to digital marketing practices, website maintenance, your budget, and much more.
Again, the work doesn’t end after your website goes live. You need to constantly test, debug, and optimize your pages to get the highest ROI.
Work with a Professional Team of Web Developers and Designers
Ready to take the next step? Let us handle your web development project and watch your ideas come to life. Contact DevWerkz today.