Sometimes business owners and managers face uncertainty and hesitancy when investing in website development or design project. The return on investment(ROI) may be difficult to measure in some cases. The issue isn’t that websites don’t work or produce results themselves. Digital is here to stay. I believe website development should be approached strategically with the understanding that your website is a marketing and sales tool that should be actively contributing your business and marketing goals and increasing revenues. Your website when done right should be doing the heavy lifting for your business and in the driving seat as a digital extension /manifestation of your business
I have put together five factors that I believe are important to consider as you build your website or redesign your current website with your web designer or agency to ensure success and increase the value of your website. These are listed below
1. Your Business Goals
2. Your Target Audience
3. On Brand
4. User-Friendly Design and Experience
5. Core Messaging
The following is a discussion of these essential in no specific hierachial orger as they are all important factors for the success of a website.
1. Target Audience
Your website is built primarily for the target audience that is your potential clients or customers. The website isn’t necessarily built for you, but it is about how you serve your clients or customers. As a result, your website should attract, engage and delight your clients. A thorough understanding of the target of your audience is paramount. Their needs and problems, pain-points demographics such as age, income, language, location, and behaviours. These insights should inform how you build a website making your website a solution provider to your target audience
2. Business Goals
Your website should be built with your business goals (your 2-3 years) in mind. This is because your website should be a digital extension of your business and thus, it is should work in alignment with your overall business direction. Your website should be a tool that tremendously enhances your business and thus bring you closer to your business and marketing goals.
3.On Brand
A good website should align with your brand. It must feel familiar with your clients or target audience. Your website design, look and feel, messaging have to be consistent with your brand values, tone & voice, and brand personality. Your website is one of the major touchpoints with your clients it thus has to reflect and align with everything your brand stands for.
4. User-Friendly Design & Experience
Your website has to be built with the end-user in mind. This entails having a thorough and intimate knowledge of the user journey of your target buyer such that your website can resonate and engage them at every stage of their journey. Distractions should be eliminated and unessential elements removed. With mobile internet access on the rise, it is almost mandatory that a website is responsive and optimised for mobile users.
5. Messaging
No matter how beautifully designed your website is, it is eventually the words that sell. Meaning to say that the words we chose as the copy of the website have been carefully chosen and they have to emotionally connect with the target audience. Use your website content to attract, engage and delight your clients. Choosing and developing the right messaging framework is thus paramount as you develop your brand story.
For sticking all the way, I will also give a bonus factor which is equally or if not most important to consider for the success of your website online. This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes into play, nowadays it is not enough to have a website, it has to be visible and found be on Google and other Search Engines. This is where good SEO comes in. With more than 90% of search traffic not going beyond the first page of Google, your website has to rank very high on Google and other Search Engines. Various strategies and techniques can be implemented to help your website rank higher on Google and thus ensure you capture leads and prospects who are actively searching for your products or services.
These are among the important factors that affect the success of your website as a business or organisation and thus should be nailed to maximise the productivity of the website and return on investment.
In addition, other factors come into play such as social media integration and promotion, digital advertising among other factors.
It’s thus important to work with a web designer that uses a strategic and creative design approach and processes that ensure success is attained and is measurable with your website design and development project.
Blessing Mation is a Brand Strategist/Digital Marketer and Web Designer at Regal Digital Solutions
Call/WhatsApp on +263 714 566 727