Creating your website will require you make many decisions. Not only do you have to think about how you want it made, you also need to consider your overall budget. There are many options when it comes to creating the perfect website for your business. But before you actually build your site, there are several important factors you need to consider:
1) Who is your target audience? Who are you trying to connect with? Know who and where to find your target audience will be a major determining factor in how you choose to design your website. This will help you to make a decision about the colors you want to use, layout and content you want, including your website.
2) Consider the purposes you want your website to fulfill. You certainly don’t want a website that serves no business purpose. What will your website help your business do? Do you need blogging functionality? Or would simple pages suffice?
3) How much money do you have to invest in having a website built? Web design ranges from inexpensive to very expensive. How much you spend depends on your budget and whether you need any special kind of integration or additional functionality. Generally, I recommend that you keep your web design costs reasonable until the time that your business idea is proven and you can afford to invest more if you need to. Some businesses don’t need super fancy websites to be profitable.
4) Chart out your desired website design. You can do this on a piece of paper. Jot down everything you want to include, and give this information to your web designer, or, if you are building your website yourself, use this as a guiding template. Remember to add a place for contact information.
5) Make the navigation simple and easy. This may take some planning to do. Try to strike the right balance between giving enough information but without overloading the visitor. Try to balance appearance and appeal with usability and helpfulness. Also remember to spell-check and grammar-check!
6) When complete, have at least three people review your chosen website design. If possible, ask people who fit your target market profile to see if they like the design and find it easy to use.
7) And if you sell, or plan to sell products from your website, make sure that your payment and purchase process is easy and is completely safe.
These basic tips will help you design your website in a way that will help you reach your business goals.
