Nowadays, the first interaction with a new business is often through their website or social media profiles. Therefore, a well developed, optimised website holds immense potential.

Think about it: when was the last time that you were convinced to buy something from a website that looked unprofessional or, even, a tad sketchy? 

You are probably thinking that there should be more than just first impressions to determine a business’ reputation, but there’s really so much more to a well-developed website than just the look of it.

The functionality, for starters. Or the user experience. 

Truthfully, your website is a virtual hub where all of the customers you attracted through your marketing strategy meet and, possibly, will bring you conversions. Think of it as your online headquarter! 

It doesn’t just have to look good; it also must have a powerful structure that can make the visit pleasant. So, as complicated as it might sound, we’ve saved some of our most helpful tips on web development to help you with it.

Here’s everything you should know before developing a website for your business…

Not Just A Pretty Face: Some Raw Data On The Importance Of Having The RIGHT Website…

Our lives revolve around one crucial tool. This innocent-looking and straightforward tool is Google. With billions of research being conducted every minute, you must work toward a direction that can bring more users to your website. 

But before we start diving in on the importance of having the best SEO strategy in place, let’s focus on the raw reality that if someone googles for you and comes across a poorly developed website, they are most likely to leave instantly.

As a matter of fact, data show that 88% of users who had a bad experience on a virtual hub report that they are never coming back. 

Our schedules are tighter than ever, and the vast majority of products we can buy online are available from multiple retailers, some of which offer better customer service and experiences: nobody wants to be slowed down!

Another critical piece of data to keep in mind is that 38% of users report that they are most likely to stop engaging with poorly designed websites.

After all, how will you compete if you’re not willing to invest in design and content, with billions of other websites available?

Want to know how valid this assumption is? 75% of internet users say that they use a company’s website as a significant indicator of their credibility.

This information leads you to a direction only: improving your website for good before succumbing to your competitors.

The 13 Points To The Perfect Website:

Developing a website is a complicated process that requires the effort of different professionals. 

To make a good and lasting impression on your audience, you have to develop an online experience that covers all the customers’ needs in terms of design and functionality. 

But what are the things you should be able to check to recognise the dream website? 

#1 The Right Domain And Host

What’s the first thing your users are going to interact with? Your name and domain. Far from being just a formality, it has the power of encasing your brands’ voice and name along with SEO and strategic keywords.

The second thing you want to consider is the right place to host your website. Research several hosting providers and choose which one is the best for your business.

#2 A Functioning Back-end Program

There’s more than just an excellent design that helps you make your website memorable: you need a back-end program that keeps your platform efficient and fast.

Think of the back-end as the structure and engine upon which your website is relying: without it, you would just have a nice looking poster -and not a virtual platform!

#3 A Nice Design

Design is also crucial for many reasons. The first one is that customers care a lot about first impressions. So offering them something appealing to look at while conveying important information on your brand’s tone of voice is fundamental. 

Through the right design, you will be able to attract new users thanks to the beauty of some masterfully crafted images and keep your habitual users engaged and happy.

#3 The Right Colours

Colours are an essential feature of your design project. But they are also part of your branding process: work with a graphic designer to identify the right colour palette for your business and then work them into your website design to be recognisable. 

#4 It Has To Be Functional

There is nothing users loathe more than having a bad experience with websites. Is it too slow? Too complicated? Is it hard to understand? That would discourage anyone from going any further. 

But there’s more to functionality than just speed and navigation. If you’ve decided to include any intelligent features, like an eCommerce or an online booking service, you have to make sure that they work effectively without slowing your customers down.

This takes a lot of work on the back-end side but is one of the critical points that could help you gain and retain more customers.

#5 Easy To Navigate

Have you ever lost your way inside an Ikea shop? I have, multiple times, and it was as unpleasant as one could imagine. 

While it’s understandable to get lost inside a huge shopping mall, losing your way to a business’ website is not. 

Customers want to have a friendly experience while navigating through your virtual hub so that they can find what they are looking for quickly and not waste time digging through your older posts. 

Ensure that everything is easily accessible and that the whole navigation process is friendly for all users.

#6 Multiple Call To Action Opportunities

Call to Actions psychologically help your customers feel engaged and help you obtain conversions. Add multiple calls to action throughout the website, so customers never miss a chance to click and engage with your brand. 

On a more personal level, a call to action shows your users that you can develop a relationship with them and provide your service. 

#7 User Friendly

Your website should be optimised to meet your audience’s needs. One of the critical points in a perfect website is to develop a website that is user friendly: meaning that it shouldn’t be hard to use and that it should be intuitive, accessible and easy to read. 

#8 It’s Mobile Friendly

Most users rely heavily on their smartphones and mobile devices to run their everyday research. This is why you need to develop a website that can ensure the best mobile experience for your customers, as switching to their laptops could be problematic or even annoying for many of them – and it would definitely slow down your conversion rates…

#9 It Has A Healthy Speed

Nobody really has time or patience for lengthy and tedious waiting times in frantic schedules and short videos. 

You want your website to have a healthy navigation speed to encourage your users to continue relying on you for your service. 

#10 Interactive Content

We all enjoy it when a business makes us feel special. Even though it’s not specifically meant for us, we love answering questions and taking quizzes: make sure to post interactive elements on your website so that your users can feel engaged.

#11 Captcha Tests

Nobody enjoys being bombarded by spam and bots. There’s nothing worse than seeing your carefully written blog posts overtaken by spam comments. It’s terrible for you, and it gives the wrong impression of your business to your users. 

Make sure to introduce captcha tests to avoid bots spamming on your platform. 

#12 SEO

Search Engines Optimisation is fundamental for many reasons. The first and most obvious one is that you need it to drive traffic to your website in an organic way. Without them, your website is virtually lost in the ocean of the other billions of websites. So how is your audience going to find it?

There are many steps to ensure that your platform follows the highest SEO standards, so be ready to invest some time in it. 

#13 Quality Content

Having a quality engine running your website is just as important as posting the right content to keep your users interested, attracted and engaged. 

Keeping a consistent and regularly updated blog is a fantastic way to gain credibility and authority. It also works wonders in building a relationship with your customers. 

Choose stock pictures to make your written posts stand out and write about relevant topics that affect your niche.

Where Do I Start?

Now, developing a website is not a job for the faint of heart. So before nailing the exact right formula of development, design, and content. 

Sure, you could open a simplified version of the website of your dreams on WordPress, but would you be able to find the time to add all of the features your customers are looking for? 

Are you willing to work the job of at least three people to keep your platform up and running?

As a business owner, you probably have other areas where your efforts are more needed…

So we wholeheartedly suggest you skip the DIY part and find someone that can help you with it.  

Why Developing Your Own Website Is Not A Good Idea…

If what’s holding you back is the thought of how much you are going to have to spend on your brand new website, you might be tempted to develop your own platform. We are sure that you would be able to do an excellent job, but will it be worth it? Here’s why developing a website on your own can be problematic…

#1 It Takes Time 

Developing a website is a full-time job that requires a lot of time planning, realising and delivering. 

Unless this is your actual business and you know how to do it, it will also take you more time than usual to do something that a professional can do in less time. 

Apart from that, you will also need to give yourself the right time to learn how to do it properly. 

And it will probably be more than you think!

#2 It Takes A Lot Of Experience

Learning a new set of skills takes a lot of time, but doing it right and at a professional level requires experience. 

To obtain the right experience to give your website a professional look and structure, you need to build at least a couple of other platforms. 

That would allow you to learn from your mistakes and perfect your craft.

#3 It’s Not A One Person’s Game

The perfect website is often a job for a team of professionals. You need someone that can develop a high functioning website, someone else that is capable of translating your brand’s identity in design and someone who knows their way around words so that they can write the best copy for your virtual hub. 

And that’s a lot of people, with different sets of skills and a lot of experience. Doing it all on your own comes with specific risks, such as…

#4 You Risk Your Company’s Reputation

Customers don’t trust poorly looking websites and dread unpleasant experiences more than ever. So investing time and money in realising your own website only to make it look cheap wouldn’t be ideal, would it?

Your whole image and first impressions rely on your website development and design quality. And that’s why you need all the help you can get for it!

#5 It Won’t Be Cheaper Than Hiring A Team Of Professionals

Even if you are running a lean business and are not in favour of investing money for your company’s marketing, hiring a team of professionals to realise your website will still be cheaper -and more profitable- than learning how to do it yourself. 

If you try and set your own website in motion and then realise that you must have it redone by professionals, you would lose money.

If you set up your own website, but it looks cheap, you won’t attract customers and will inevitably lose investments.

The list goes on and plus…

#6 You Won’t Have Enough Time To Do Your Job

The reason why you are in business is probably that you are incredibly talented and passionate about something that’s not website development. But, unfortunately, all the time you invest in doing something from scratch gets subtracted from the time you could use to implement your own business. And in the long run, this could stress you to a great extent while also negatively impacting your company.

The Harsh Truth About Developing A Website…

The harsh truth is that to have the perfect website up and running, you need the help of a team of professionals that can contribute to the best of their abilities to it.

The perfect virtual hub for your business comes from a combination of development, copywriting, design and SEO. So why stress yourself out while trying to juggle all of these skills when you could be hiring someone to make your dreams come true?

Find The Right Professionals…

Big projects require a team of dreamers and creatives with a remarkable record of success. But we are proud to say that we are also entertaining to work with!

Book your free call today to start building the website of your dreams!

Book Your FREE Consultation Now…