- Put the user first – think like a customer, what do they want from the website.
- Consider your calls to action – don’t confuse the user, but also, give them more than one option.
- Make it search-engine friendly – preparing your website for indexing is vital; what good is an amazing website if nobody can find it.
Put the user first
Whether you are creating a new website, or redesigning an existing one, it is important to work through the questions below to make sure it meets the needs of the end user.
- Who is this website for?
- What do we want them to do?
- What are they looking for when they visit the site?
- What experience are they expecting?
- How can we make their journey easier?
Having a good-looking website, full of content that you like and showcases things you have done, is all very well, but if it doesn’t convert visitors into customers, or provide them with something useful, then ultimately it has failed at its job.
Consider your calls to action
Decide how you want to be contacted or what action you want the user to take, and make it very clear for them – call, email, fill in a form, book an appointment, sign up for a demo, buy a product, subscribe etc.
Contact options should be displayed in the header and footer if appropriate, with strategic calls to action (CTAs) placed throughout the website to drive conversions.
Give the user different options – if someone is not ready to call or buy, make sure there is another option for them to take. It could be a link to another page containing more detailed information, a cost-comparison chart, some identifiable ROIs (returns on investment) or a section to handle responses to typical objections.
Consider CTAs within your navigation – one of the most common mistakes in menu design is not considering click-through-actions and contact information. Well-designed menus can move users quickly in the least amount of clicks possible, giving more control to the user and removing frustration points.
Make it search-engine friendly
What good is an amazing website if no one can find it? Not considering SEO while building your new website can be a costly mistake. Whether you have an established site or you are starting fresh, SEO should be at the top of your priority list when building a new site.
When building your new site, you should be thinking about these SEO factors:
- URL structure
- Page structure (H1, H2, page titles, etc.)
- Site content (quality and quantity)
- Robots.txt
- Web Server Redirects
- Core Web Vitals
- Optimized Images/Media
You should also consider your website’s health and ensure that you are not creating issues ahead of launch. Websites with errors can cause issues with search engines indexing your website; something you don’t need with a new website launch.
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The rise of DIY self-builder tools and AI has made it much easier for anyone to build their own website. Following these three simple rules above will definitely help as part of that process.
The key to building a great website, one that actually works properly for the end user (the customer), delivers a consistent visual message and complies with search requirements, will always involve consulting with an experienced website developer at some stage of the process.