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Things to Consider When Designing a Website

At this point, it’s almost impossible to have a business, write content, and connect with audiences without the use of an online website. Whether you have previous knowledge of website construction or are a total newbie to the game, there is a massive list of things that you’ll need to consider going forward. From the inclusion of photos and visuals to writing top-quality content and adding links to social media accounts to bolster your online presence, there is so much that goes into designing and building a website.

Related: How to Create The Ultimate Portfolio Website

The Importance of a Solid Website

Whether you’re a small business ready to move into the online world or a perspective blogger looking for a way to make it big online, you will need a reliable and effective website to succeed. Your website is the face of your unique brand and business, and when you build it correctly, it can become a well-oiled machine that will lead readers, buyers, and others right into the palm of your hand.

Critical Aspects When Designing a Website

There are numerous components to consider when constructing your website, and not all of them are listed here. We’re only presenting the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you need to know. But here are some of the top five factors to consider when designing your website.

Identifying Market Users and Patterns

You really need to know who your audience is and who you’re designing your website for. Understanding your target audience and finding the best ways to attract and keep their attention are critical components of developing a successful website. Knowing your target demographic intimately is essential, so consider conducting some user profile analysis to determine who will be coming to your website, why, and how you can best expose them to your content.

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Visual Appeal

Like all primates, humans are highly keyed into visual images, so making sure that your website has plenty of visual appeal is incredibly important to gain and keep people’s limited attention, especially in the fast-paced world of the internet. You can use visual appeal in many ways, like using pictures of yourself, photos you took, or free stock images. These images are more likely to be of lower quality or be relatively generic compared to other images, but they are still viable options if you’re just starting out. Though it’s much more expensive, you can also choose to hire a professional photographer. Doing this will help you develop a distinctive, high-quality brand image.

Related: Website Requirements Document: A Complete Guide

Metadata Optimization

Successful websites that are optimized for specific keywords require the use of descriptive and unique metadata that discusses what a website page is about. If a page doesn’t contain the appropriately optimized metadata, then it will launch containing only default content that doesn’t connect to the actual purpose of the page. This will not meet the standards of Google’s crawlers and it will easily destroy any chance of your site gaining any of Google’s keyword traffic. It will also severely impact your chances to appear in Google’s rankings for search inquiries. This is an incredibly important component to keep in mind as you work to design an effective website. If this is an area of optimization that you are struggling with, you can reach out to experts at Mindspun for assistance.

Decide Whether to Utilize AMP

Another important component to consider when designing your website is whether or not you want to utilize AMP, which is an open-source framework that can provide a user-first format for your unique web content. Depending on the content of your site, AMP can be a very useful tool for increasing page speed through radical optimization. But if your website is already fast enough for your liking, then there’s probably no need to go through the process of converting to AMP. The experts over at Mindspun can help you figure out if using AMP would be more of a benefit than a hindrance as you design and begin creating your website.

Accessibility (Including Mobile Use)

Accessibility is a key component for success online, especially in relation to mobile devices. Most people use their phones and tablets to browse the web throughout the day rather than a standard PC or laptop. More than half (51%) of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices. Due to this, it’s becoming increasingly critical for websites to be mobile-compatible. Mobile-first design has become a top priority for website creators and developers alike. So be sure to keep it at the front of your mind as you design your online presence.

Communicating & Calling to Action

When developing a website, one of your top concerns should be how you will actively connect with your target audience. You are, after all, creating your website for them. Consider your communication needs and how you can best facilitate contact with your customers. You can ask yourself these questions to start as you begin to design your website:

  • How should your customers be able to reach you?
  • What kind of security should you put in place when communicating with customers?
  • What hours do you want to be available for customers?
  • Can you use chatbots or other types of artificial intelligence (AI)?

Also, be sure to use one or more calls to action (CTAs) within your website’s content. CTAs encourage people to do something that you want them to do, often by clicking a link included in the CTA. The action can be to contact you, register to your site, subscribe to your social media channels, etc.

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Integrating Social Media as Proof

The use of social media has become pivotal for many types of successful online marketing. As you design your website, consider the ways that you can integrate elements of social proof to help establish your brand and allow you to connect with your audience more easily. You can do this in several ways, such as including logos or photos of whatever relevant qualifications you have, adding links to your social media pages, and using photos and links from influencers’ social media profiles within your particular industry.

Related: What Can You Do To Speed Up Your Website

Conclusion

Now that you know about some of the critical components of designing and building your website, you can start effectively planning and preparing yourself for online success. Stay focused on keeping things accessible- especially to mobile devices, provide social proof by connecting your site to your social media accounts, and create large amounts of visual appeal to attract and keep the attention of your target audience. Also, be sure to know your audience and develop ways to facilitate effective and easy communication with them. By doing these things and keeping the ideas above in mind going forward, you’ll be far more likely to construct a successful website and build a substantial online presence.

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Everything an ambitious digital creator needs to know.