Top Three Ways to Ensure You Get Value Out of Your Website Project
April 25, 2017
As a company looking to get a new website developed, you may be wondering how to ensure you squeeze as much value out of the project as possible. Even if you already have a site and are just rebuilding it to make it better, there are things to consider with your new site. And if you are a new company just building a site, you want to make sure your investment is well-made.
We work with companies both big and small, and there are certain ways we ensure clients are getting the most value out of working with us.
1. You design for the user
User experience is probably the single most important aspect of your site. If you have a beautiful site, but it isn’t usable, then no one will buy your product or service. There are a few pieces to this to keep in mind:
User-Centric Design – Design it with the target audience in mind as well as your purpose. If your site is for new moms and you are trying to sell them a product, then everything you design should be with those two things in mind. Make sure you do your research and understand your target as well or better than they understand themselves.
Navigation – keep your navigation clean and simple. You don’t want your users to guess at where to go, because they won’t. They will just leave.
Create Clear Calls to Action – Make it clear what action you want the user to take. It helps to use contrasting colors with CTA buttons so they stand out, and consider how the user’s eye tracks to get to that CTA button.
Functionality – Does the site work and load quickly? If not, make sure to optimize it so that it does. No one want to wait for load time.
Aesthetics – is it pretty? Again, this can’t replace user experience, but it is sort of the cherry on top.
Content – is your site well-written and help the user take the action you want them to? If you are selling products, you need to have descriptive images and copy. Let people really understand what they are buying.
Functionality – Does the site work and load quickly? If not, make sure to optimize it so that it does. No one want to wait for load time.
Aesthetics – is it pretty? Again, this can’t replace user experience, but it is sort of the cherry on top.
Content – is your site well-written and help the user take the action you want them to? If you are selling products, you need to have descriptive images and copy. Let people really understand what they are buying.
2. You ensure it is friendly –mobile and SEO
With mobile devices now driving 56% of the traffic to top sites, you are either mobile-friendly or you are soon going to be out of business. In general, most websites are responsive anyway, so it is almost a no-brainer to be mobile friendly. However, you want to make sure you think about load time here, especially for mobile, and think about the way a mobile user browses a site because it is different.
Also important is to ensure an SEO (search engine optimized) site. You don’t have to go crazy here, either. A simple few best practices will help your site gets noticed. Clean code, keyword-rich title-tags and metadata, and again, optimizes images to ensure a quick site load.
3. You are flexible with a realistic timeline
This is less about the design of the site and more about working with the design and development firm. It isn’t just a two-hour project to get a good website up and running. It should have more thought put into it, or you aren’t going to get the value form the site you are hoping for anyway.
Also, be flexible. A good site is consistently changing and growing. You can’t just finish your site and never think about it again. You should be checking your web statistics every month, and thinking about ways you can make it better for your users. Pay attention to their patterns and if they aren’t taking the action you want them to, then perhaps it is time to make a few design or copy changes.
It is important to work with a design and development company that understands how all of these things work together to provide value. A good firm knows to design for the user, will make it mobile and SEO friendly without even a second thought, and work within your timeline (as long as it is realistic).
Contact us to learn more about our web development services.
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