With today’s technology, is the layout of your website really that important?
Yes – it is. It’s just as important as keeping your store vacuumed, dusted, front door open, lights on, etc., if not more so. Many times your website IS the reason people choose you over your competition – so it’s vital that your website design reflect you and your business practices.
The top five things you need to ensure your website design reflects who you are:
1) Website Basics: first things first – you need to (if you haven’t already) register your domain name. It needs to be something related to your business that doesn’t belong to another company, and buy it for at least 3 years. For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, 3 years gives you better ranking space than year-to-year.
2) Decide your purpose: you’re getting a website because you need one – all businesses should have one – but what do you want it to do for you? Do you want it to sell merchandise? Do you want it to give teaser information so people come to your brick and mortar store? Do you want contact information? Social Media links? What do you want your site to convey about you?
3) Check out other sites: one of the things we recommend to our clients is to look at other websites in their line of business and determine website design you like AND website design you don’t – both are telling and will help your website designer get you what you want.
4) Website on the go: will your customers be looking for your site on mobile devices? Although it can be more expensive, we recommend applying mobile application cross-referencing so your clients can find you, no matter what device they are using to find your website.
5) Know your customers: besides understanding technology, know how your customers look for information. Think in terms of frequently asked questions – if you know what is typically asked, it can help make your website navigation easier to design and more intuitive for your customers.
