So you have finally decided to redesign your old website or maybe create a new one. If you are new to these you may be confused between all the options that are out there. Don’t sweat it, relax, sit back, and read on.
What are you trying to accomplish?
The above question is definitely a loaded one. The most common answer would be ‘to get more business or users’, which technically is correct but needs further probing.
Have you analyzed your existing user base? Who is your audience? Do you know what is not working that you need to change or redesign?
It may not be easy to answer these questions all at once. But it is necessary to begin only when you have some clarity.
Now, this is where a lot of creativity may come into play. Things like what fonts to use, colors, maybe keep it monochrome or make it colorful, etc. This will not just visually enhance your website but also present your brand to a wider audience, so you need to make sure that you choose only what defines your brand.
For example, lawyers will not prefer to add colors to their website but on the other hand, a kids nursery will, and add some more smileys on top.
Research all the latest technologies.
It is necessary that you know at least the basics of what you want to achieve and choose the platform that fulfills your requirements. If you are looking for E-commerce you should look out for Shopify or WooCommerce. Similarly, WordPress works great for blogs and informative websites plus it gives ample flexibility to update your website. You can always choose from widely available plugins to further enhance your site (plugins are both paid and free).
Then there are plenty more platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, etc.
Optimization.
There are some basics that you should take care of while setting up your website for the purpose of search engine optimization aka SEO (you can do this at a later stage as well but the sooner, the better)
A. Make sure you research all the relevant keywords and add them to your content.
B. Metadata (aka Meta description) is basically the information you tell your users what your website is about when they come across your links in search results.
C. Image Alt Text, you need to make sure to mention what exactly the image that you add on the website is, it may very well land in google image search and if relevant with the user’s search will help him help navigate to your website.
D. Mobile Responsiveness, google actually notes the time it takes for your website to load and whether it is optimized for mobile screens so that it could suggest them to mobile users.
E. Sitemap, is what conveys to google to scroll through (index) all the pages on the website. It should be noted that you must update the sitemap every time you add a new page (link) to your website.
There are still many more things to look out for when redesigning a website, a lot of coding, and other technical nitty gritty’s that are often overlooked by newbies. If you need a helping hand or an expert to consult, please write to us.