Like any other spoken language, a website design also communicates with your website visitors. It creates an impression on your website visitors like how a brick-and-mortar store does to its customers. In short, your strong visuals tell a story that can elicit a desirable response from your audience.
Take note that website design doesn’t consist of the layout only. It is the harmonious relationship between the shapes, colors, typefaces, fonts, space, lines and how they create a unified front for your brand.
If you want to make a compelling website design, then this step-by-step guide is for you.
Step 1: Establish a Website Goal
Think about the end goal of your website. Do you want to make an e-commerce website, a business website, or a portfolio website? Orbit your website design according to this so you can craft an appropriate style or design.
Step 2: Design the Website Using a Website Builder
With the purpose established in the previous step, it’s time to design your website. Here are the steps that you should follow:
- Decide the website builder you want to use: A website builder allows you to design, customise, and publish a website easily with no coding experience needed .
- Define the layout: Start by mapping out the design of the website on paper. This will serve as your guide as you create your website. Once you’re ready to proceed, you can make use of the website builder’s ready-made customisable templates, so you won’t have to start from scratch. This entire process will be even more effortless if the website builder has a drag-and-drop feature.
Pro tip: Experiment with different fonts, colours, and layouts until you arrive at a design that reflects your brand’s personality.
Also, choose between a single-page or a multi-page template (if your website is content-heavy) based on your needs. You can also look up design ideas from your favorite websites if you’re quite lost on the design still.
Step 3: Choose and Register a Reliable Domain Name
Once your website design is good and final, it’s time to choose and register a domain name for your business. A domain name is the name you see after a www in the browser or after the @ in a business email. It should be simple, concise, memorable, and relevant to your business.
Your domain name must clearly communicate what the website is all about. So, select one wisely to feature higher on Google’s search pages.
Pro tip: Choose a domain extension based on your location and geography. For example, you can use a .NZ domain for your local business.
Step 4: Collate Your Content
With the design and domain details underway, it’s time to collate all the content you want to integrate within your website. This includes the logo, imagery, videos, text (can include blogs, articles, guides, etc.), and animations.
When writing blogs or articles, take note of these important guidelines
- It must be original and unique.
- It must talk about topics that resonate with your target audience.
- It must include a variety of formats such as infographics, vector illustrations, videos, images, and concise paragraphs to make it engaging.
- It must be correctly formatted with headers, sub-headers, and bullet points to ensure smooth flow and readability.
- It must reflect your brand’s tone, style, and persona throughout the copy.
Pro tip: You can get royalty-free images from websites such as unsplash.com and pexels.com.
Step 5: Integrate a Few Must-Have Pages
If you do opt for a multi-page website, make sure to have the following pages:
- Homepage: The homepage is the first touchpoint of your website and the visitor. It should be well-organised because it helps create a positive first impression. Your homepage should also clearly communicate what the brand is all about and must include your logo, business name, a navigation menu, and CTAs.
- About Us: This page talks about your brand’s story, how it began, culture, values, etc. Try making the content personalised and anecdotal. You can also introduce your team members here and what they do for your brand.
- Contact: A contact page helps customers connect with the brand easily. Include a phone number, email ID, social media handles, a live chat feature (if possible), and a contact form on this page.
In addition to the pages mentioned above, you can add a product/service page, blog page, testimonials, and more.
Step 6: Ensure Cohesiveness in Your Website Design
When designing a website, there are multiple elements to consider, such as:
- Website architecture: This ensures that the pages on your website are properly connected by adding a simple navigation. Your users should not have to click more than once to get to any page on the website.
- Menu: The website menu helps people move from one page to the next. You can choose a more traditional option like the horizontal header menu or a hamburger menu.
- Colours and fonts: Generally speaking, pick a colour scheme that doesn’t go beyond three colours (a primary, a secondary, and an accent colour). Ideally, the font you choose should be readable on a desktop, a smartphone, and other devices.
Pro tip: Make sure the website has enough whitespaces to give the design a breathing space.
- Website header and footer: Include elements that demand immediate visibility, such as the brand logo and name in the header. Add social media links, email sign-up forms, and contact details in the footer.
- Video and animation: To make your website look livelier, you can add a background video or other interactive elements to prevent the website from looking too static. But don’t go overboard with animation, as this can slow down your website’s loading speed.
Step 7: Automate, Automate, Automate
Regardless of the type of website you have, chances are that you’ll need some kind of automation to streamline processes.
Some common examples include:
- A scheduling software which enables users to make appointments online easily.
- A social media tool that allows you to share content and links easily across different platforms.
- A video maker that allows you to customise and improve the website’s videos.
Before you hit the Publish button, here are a few additional tips to remember while designing a website:
- Mobile-responsive: You must ensure that the website is optimised for mobile use and offers a seamless mobile viewing experience. The content should be minimal but sufficient. Place all the important information above the fold to drive engagement.
- Accessible to everyone: Your website must be easily accessible to everyone, which includes people with disabilities (e.g., hearing loss, vision impairment, etc.). This reinforces the fact that your brand is inclusive and values diversity.
- SEO: To boost visibility and traffic, ensure that the website’s content is SEO-friendly. This includes integrating the right kind of keywords in the homepage, driving on-page SEO, adding alt-text to images, boosting internal links, and more.
- Email marketing: Engage users and create a loyal user base with consistent and personalised emails. You can offer incentives, inform users about upcoming product launches, promote new content, etc.
- Feedback: Encourage customers to provide honest feedback and thank them for their time. You can roll out surveys to gather the pulse of customer opinions.
- Update: One final piece of advice: Always keep updating the website as the trends change.
Top 4 Digital Essentials for Your Online Presence
Is your website up and running? Kudos, you’ve successfully established your online presence. But the process doesn’t end there. Here are other solutions your website must have to increase conversions, reach more users, and earn profits online.
Online marketing tools
Among the 200 million active websites on the World Wide Web, your website is merely a pin. If you don’t have a strategy to market your website, no one will know about your website.
You can make use of digital marketing solutions to:
- Submit your website to search engines
- Boost your SEO score
- Appear on online directories and marketplaces
- Ramp up your social media game
Security
No website is too big or too small against cyber threats. A single data breach can cost your business tons of money and compromise your data privacy. More than the damages, it also jeopardises your online reputation. No customer will risk transacting with a website with a history of cyber-attack.
Safeguard your connection online with an SSL certificate installation. It marks your website “Secure” and encrypts any confidential information shared on your website. This includes your customers’ personal information, contact, bank details, and others.
You can also use other security protection tools such as malware detectors, DDoS protection, backup and recovery plans, and app firewalls.
Professional email
Communication is a key component in business. When communicating with customers, earning their trust is crucial if you aim to hook their interest and make a sale.
A professional email address establishes your credibility. Compared to the generic [email protected] or [email protected], investing in a custom email elevates your brand image. This makes it easier to collaborate with partners and stakeholders.
Ecommerce features
If you want to be profitable online, it’s essential to think about how you can conveniently sell online from the get-go. An ecommerce functionality expands your market reach and streamlines transactions, boosting overall customer satisfaction.
Make it a top priority to make your website user-friendly for browsing. Simplify the buying process with secure payment gateways, detailed product descriptions, shopping carts, and easy-to-navigate product displays.
Create an Impact on Your Website Visitors
Like a brick-and-mortar store, your website is initially judged by how it looks. It doesn’t matter if your products are cheaper than your competitors’ or how durable they are. If your website looks unappealing, then your website visitors won’t bother doing business with you. Hence, you should make an effort in investing in your website’s aesthetics while making sure it represents your brand well.
To create your website, consider Freeparking’s website design solutions. Our dedicated team will design your website and take the guesswork off you. That way, you’ll have plenty of time for your business while we build and design a powerful, high-performing website for you within hours! Contact our representatives today.
