How To: Get Your Website Right

Written by Riley | Web Design | How To's

​One of the first things a small business thinks about when they start out is a website. This is good. Websites are the new high street storefront. But if you think of your website as nothing more than an advert then the chances are, you'll get it wrong.

1) Decide...

...what you want your website to be and do. As an exercise, make two lists. The first list is a “To be” list and the second is a “To do” list. The points on the second list should correspond to the points on the first list. For example:

List 1 - I want my website to be:

1. A business card
   
2. An information resource
   
3. A product catalogue

List 2 - I want my website to:

1. Encourage people to contact me
2. Educate people
3. Sell my products

2) Plan

​Plan your content. Structure your content to fit the goals in step 1.
 
For example, if you want your website to act as a business card, encouraging visitors to get in touch with you, then you should have appropriate calls to action in your content, like your contact details. A single link for a visitor to click, to call or email you would work best.
 
If you want your website to act as a portfolio, showcasing your work, then your site should have plenty of examples of your best work.
 
Your home page should make it immediately clear to the visitor what the site is about. There's extensive research to show that when people arrive at a website, they will leave very quickly if they can't tell straight away what the site is about and why it should interest them.

3) Design

​The design of the actual website should be the last thing you do. At first, this may sound like a backward approach but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you were recruiting for a new position in your company, what would you write first? The job description or the dress code?
 
The design of your site should be structured around your content. It should also take the visitor through a process, or on a journey. What that process or journey is depends on the goals of your site.
 
In terms of aesthetics, it's a bit cliché, but there's no accounting for taste. Your choice of colours, fonts, etc, are important but not everyone will like them. As long as you and your designer have reasonably good taste, your aesthetics won't e a problem. However, try to follow these general tips:

• Ignore mobile devices at your peril! Your design must be responsive
• Choose sensible fonts that are easy to read
• Have a consistent colour scheme with no more than two or three colours
• Web pages that play sound automatically after loading are annoying!
• Make navigation clear and simple. Your visitors shouldn't get lost on your site

In Conclusion

1. Decide - Set out the goals you want your website to achieve
   
2. Plan - Structure your content around your goals
   
3. Design - Structure your design around your content

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