The top three things to consider when building your website

Getting your business set up online is a vital step on your way to success. Here are the top three things to consider when building it.

If you offer a service or product, it is essential that you get your website just right to attract your ideal target audience. You have to dedicate a good amount of time (and, unfortunately, money) to ensure your site looks right and runs well.

Want some guidance on how best to get your site set up and ready for the public? Keep reading to find out more. 

1) In-house or outsource?

First things first — you need to work out who you trust to create your site. Do you have a team in-house who can work on it, or do you need to hire a design agency?  

If you have an in-house team, who have been working with you for a long time, they may know your branding, product, or service fairly well. You can use this to your advantage and pool your resources. They can give you fresh ideas, suggest certain design aspects, and you can work with them day to day. That way, you can ensure you’re making the best use of their knowledge.

If you have to outsource, make sure you vet the companies closely. Check their reviews, and don’t be afraid to ask questions before committing to one company. Let them know some of your ideas, the brands’ image, and your target audience. The benefit of having an external company work on your site is you get an entirely different knowledge base to use. 

Whatever you choose, make sure you know what you want but stay flexible and receptive to ideas. You never know what might work for your site. 

2) Consistency in design

This is an obvious point but is well worth repeating. You do now want your site to look like a mess of fonts, layouts, and color schemes. 

When it comes to the layout, make sure to put the important information in places that will draw the eye. Extra information can be stored in drop-down menus or lower down. Your homepage, for example, needs to highlight who you are and what you do first and foremost. You don’t want people arriving at your site and immediately clicking away when they can’t figure out what you do. 

On top of this page by page consistency is essential. There is no quicker way to lose people than having a website that looks like it was made by a child or comes straight out of 2004. 

3) Images

No copy-pasting from Google images! You need to get yourself some professional images that relate to your business and highlight the products you sell. People make a lot of their purchases based on visuals so if you are trying to sell something, show it off. 

This is another thing you can outsource to a professional company if needs be. If that is something you are interested in, much like a design agency, vet the individuals. Check their credentials and portfolios before jumping in feet first. 

Get your website design right

Website design is extremely important. Aside from the coding and ensuring that it all runs smoothly for both the mobile and desktop website, the aesthetic needs to match your branding, and a good user experience is of the utmost priority. 

If you have the ability to do it all in-house, make sure you pool everyone’s ideas to make sure you have the best chance of creating something you are proud of. If you outsource it to an agency, work closely with them, so they keep your brand and image in mind every step of the way. 

Building your site takes much more than people think, so dedicate time and care to this endeavor.