80% of the websites we design are “redesigns”. In other words, we have to redesign a website for a client, which a previous website design company messed up. So, before you spend money on website design, read this article and make sure that your website has these features.
5 things every business website design needs:
- Responsive website design
- Content management system
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Google Analytics & Search Console
- A blog
1. Responsive Website Design
Responsive web design means building a website that looks just as good on a phone, tablet or laptop than it does on desktop.
It is estimated that there are 22 million smartphone users in South Africa, and this number is growing every day. So the chances are that a large portion of your website visitors will be on their phone.
This is why it is so important to have a mobile responsive web design.
What To Ask Your Website Designer:
“Will my website be responsive for all screen sizes?”
2. A Content Management System
As a business, you want the ability to make quick changes to your website on the fly without having to pay a developer every time. A content management system like WordPress will allow you to do just that.
WordPress the most popular website design platform in the world for a reason. It is an easy-to-use, flexible and powerful platform which will allow you to make advanced changes to your website easily. Here are a few advantages of WordPress websites:
- Easy to Use
- Completely Customisable
- Search Engine Friendly
- Easy to Manage
- Safe and Secure
Whether you choose a template or build your website from scratch, WordPress’s versatility and community support is unmatched. Also, responsive design generally comes standard with WordPress which is yet another reason why your website in 2015 should be built on this platform.
What To Ask Your Website Designer:
“What platform will you build my website with, and will I be able to make changes?”
3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
To put it into simple English: Search Engine Optimisation is the process of improving the organic ranking of a website, by improving the structure & optimising the content, images and links with relevant keywords.
Put even more simply, without SEO your website will not appear in Google searches, and prospective customers will not find you.
81% of consumers conduct online research before purchasing. This means that 8 out of 10 of your prospective customers are searching for your services on Google. Is your website appearing on the search results page for relevant keywords? If not, you are losing out on business.
SEO is a vast & complicated subject which we can’t cover in detail in this article. So if you want more info on SEO then read How to Get Onto The First Page of Google.
What To Ask Your Website Designer:
“Will you do keyword research for my company, and optimise my website with on-page SEO?”
4. Google Analytics & Search Console
Google Analytics is a web analytics software that allows you to any track activity on your website. Without this, you cannot see how many people are visiting your website, what pages they are browsing or how long they are staying.
Search Console is another web analytics software, but this one tracks your performance on search engines. You can see what keywords your website ranks for, and where it is ranking. It will also tell you if there are any technical errors (such as broken links) on your website.
All of this information is extremely important in telling you how visitors are interacting with your website, and how your website is performing overall. Having an active Google Analytics tracking code on your website is also important for SEO.
What To Ask Your Website Designer:
“Will my website be integrated with Google Analytics? Will you add my website to Google Search Console & submit my sitemap?”
5. A Blog
A blog will allow you to write articles, like this one, for your audience. Why is this important?
The mistake many businesses make is to build their entire marketing strategy around the 3% of their target audience who are in “buying mode”. What they don’t realise is that roughly 27% of their audience is online gathering information, and educating themselves on a product or service.
A blog allows you to reach these researching customers, and answer all their questions and concerns. You become the trusted authority in your industry, making people want to buy from you.
More importantly, however, a blog is an excellent SEO tool. By writing blog articles you are essentially creating extra ‘pages’ of content on your website and search engines love this. If you write your content to include related keywords then it increases the chances of your website being found by your prospective customers.
What To Ask Your Website Designer:
“Will you add a blog to my website which will allow me to post my own articles?”
Why your website design needs these 5 things
The perfect website needs a lot of things, but these 5 elements are a great start. They will set a good foundation for your website design and online presence.
- Without a responsive design, visitors on mobile phones will get frustrated with your website and leave.
- Without a content management system, you will need to pay developer every time you want to make a change
- Without SEO, your website will not appear in search engines and you will lose business
- Without Google Analytics & Search Console you won’t get valuable data on how your website is performing
- Without a Blog, you are missing out on reaching roughly 27% of your target market who are doing online research
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