There are many ways to design a website today. Are you looking for a clean layout or content heavy look? Many pictures or just a few pictures? Many pages or just a few simple pages? E-commerce or just corporate information? There are simply too many to choose from. The 4 things below are what is important when choosing the ideal web design for yourself or your company.
1. Identify the purpose of your website
This may sound obvious, but know what your website is for. Are you a business owner? Or are you a blogger? If you are a business owner, do you want your website to be e-commerce site where you are going to sell things online or is your website going to be used purely to display corporate information?
Once you have identified what you are going to use it for, know your target audience. If you are selling to youngsters, your website has to look more vibrant and less corporate. If you want to portray a serious image, consider something formal.
It all goes back to who is going to see your website.
2. Design and User Experience
This is a jargon in design, “User Experience” or UX for short. It basically means how does the user feel when he interacts with the website. UX consists of things such as the loading time of the website and images, whether or not you get a headache looking at it, does it excites you. Your gut feeling plays an important role here.
3. Responsiveness
About 30% of all website visits now come from mobile and tablet devices. Hence it is really important for your website to look good on these devices. Introducing another jargon “mobile-responsiveness” basically means whether your website looks good on mobile. If you are designing your website or hiring someone to do so, remember to check this!
4. SEO
Does the most appealing website have the greatest impact on your target audience? There is another ingredient that is needed called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it basically means how high your website ranks on search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Most website service providers will help to ensure that the website is prepared for SEO optimization, but just in case, remember to check with your web developer!