Wordflirt What to Know for a Successful Website Design Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our 6-lesson crash course onΒ What to Know for a Successful Website Design!

In Part 1 you learned that the one big mistake almost everyone makes is…your website is NOT for you; it’s for your customers! Thus, your website must appeal to them so that they will do whatever action you want them to do.

If you happened to miss that lesson, click here to go back to it.

In this post,Β we’re going to dive into the main steps you need to know when designing or redesigning your website.

Oh, before we forget, if you haven’t gotten them yet, here are links to the checklist documents you’ll need to have:

Checklist of items to get a quote from a website designer or company

Checklist of questions you should ask your website designer or company

If we continue with the analogy of a house, now that you’re thinking about what the buyer (your customer/client) wants, and have an idea what that is, you’d build the house roughly in this order:

  • Understand the story your house is going to tell (large or small yard, multiple or single-story, Victorian, or modern, etc.).
    • You’ve really got to ensure the story is told well enough that the buyer envisions themselves in the house, fulfilling their hopes and dreams. In other words, that story really needs to make THEM the hero, not you.
    • For example, you can mention the termite-proof fencing, but you better talk more about how that benefits them. Something like “termite-proof fencing so that you can spend your time with your family, not maintaining your house!”
  • Be able to articulate that story enough so you can communicate it to the architect and the people marketing your house.
  • Hire an architect and develop the plans that will produce what you’re looking for.
  • Hire a contractor/builder to build it out with the proper materials to keep it secure, safe, stable, and looking good.

And for a website, you’d do something very similar:

  • Understand the story your website is going to tell (give up their email address, purchase your product, hire you as a consultant, fill out your contact form, etc.).
    • And similar to above, what is going to be the fantastic benefit to THEM by doing so.
  • Provide enough information to the company designing or redesigning your website so they can help you communicate that story via your site, with words and images, such that your client takes action, and does so with enthusiasm. In other words, you want the Call-To-Action (CTA) to be very clear to them
  • Hire a designer and copywriter as needed, or a website design company such as Wordflirt, to develop the plans.
  • Hire a website company to build it out and to maintain it, keeping it secure, safe, stable, and looking good.

And if you’re redesigning the house or updating the look and feel, you’d want to follow a similar process.

So assuming you have a good understanding of what your client wants, and what they will pay you for, here are the main areas you’re going to need to be very clear on for your site if you want it to be successful:

  1. Your budget
  2. Whom you hire
  3. The visual look and feel (images, colors, layout)
  4. The copywriting (what words are said – we’ve already alluded to some of that above)
  5. The implementation (what Content Management System to use)
  6. The maintenance and security

In part 3, we’ll learn about your budget and why it’s so important, and some ways to get a quick estimate of what you’ll need to put aside.

 

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