First things first: You’ll have to figure out what you want your website to do for you. Do you simply want to inform readers about your services? Do you want to set up an online store and sell your products? Do you want people to book an appointment? You’ll need to figure all of that out for your first point of contact with potential customers: your homepage
Homepage
Your homepage is an important piece of real estate. You have roughly 0.05 seconds to make a great impression, or your visitors are gone. With that in mind, this page must:
- Have a compelling visual design
- Clearly explain what your business does and the problem it solves
- Explain HOW you solve that problem
- Show you understand your customers’ pain points
- Indicate how you do a better job than your competitors
When you (or the web design team you decide to work with) are designing your website, it’s imperative that you convey to visitors your unique value proposition, i.e. what it is that makes you different from all the others in your industry.
Call to action
A call to action (CTA) aims to encourage an immediate response from visitors and every page of your website should have one, including your landing page. Invite visitors to take action with the right CTA. Examples include: one image of examples of call to action buttons as in the text
- Book a Demo
- Donate
- Contact Us
- Sign Up
- Free Membership
One way to figure out your best CTA is to complete the sentence the user should ask themself: I want to “X.”
Design
Good web design is essential for having a successful online presence. What’s the point in having a website if it’s an eyesore, if it’s hard to use, or if it’s not responsive on mobile? In fact, 38% of people will leave your website if they think the layout or the content is unattractive and 88% won’t come back to your site if they’ve had a bad experience.
The most important areas to focus on when designing your website include:
- Credibility: Establish your authority and be transparent with your pricing
- Accessibility: Your site must work seamlessly on all devices
- Simplicity: Make it easy to understand and navigate your site
- Consistency: Your site should have the same colors and theme throughout
- Familiarity: Use the same design elements with which people are already familiar
- User-Centricity: Have the site revolve around the user and offer an excellent user experience
