A well-designed website, which you can find here, does more than look appealing; it communicates professionalism, builds trust, and guides visitors towards taking action, whether that’s making an inquiry, making a purchase, or learning more about your services.
What Must the Website Accomplish?
Before a customer picks up the phone, requests a quote, or walks through your door, your website may well be their first introduction to your business. It’s where they’ll look to learn about the services or products you offer, get a feel for who you are and what you stand for, and decide whether or not you’re the right fit.
Website design is so much more than simply choosing colours and throwing a logo onto a cookie-cutter website template.
Start With the Job the Website Must Do
It’s important to think carefully about what it is you want to achieve with your website. What’s the one thing you want people to do once they land on your website? Make an enquiry? Book an appointment? Make a purchase? Subscribe to your email list? Understand what (potentially complex!) service you offer?
Your answers will dictate how your website needs to be laid out, what calls to action should be prominent, how it should be organized and navigated, and the type of content it should feature.
Often for service-based businesses like ours, customers are looking to:
- Understand what you do
- Work out if it’s for them
- See examples of your work/expertise/results you can offer them
- Get their top questions answered
- Be able to get in touch with you with ease
If a website visitor can’t easily work out what it is you do, who you do it for, and how to get started working with you, no amount of great design is going to save unclear messaging and strategy!
Strategy Shapes the Structure
Template Design Still Needs a Strategy
Website builders and website templates can be a great place to start, but it’s still important to approach your website with some thought and strategy, particularly around website copywriting. If the template still needs a tailored structure, working with a Squarespace Website Design service keeps the build coordinated. What might work brilliantly for one business could fall flat with another, even if you’re using the exact same website template!
Considerations might include:
- Which services/products do you want to feature and give their own individual pages?
- How best to organize/narrow down your menu/navigation options?
- Where’s best to place calls to action to get in touch with you?
- How much (or little!) information do customers need to see/know before they’re ready to get in touch?
Good website design and layout help segment and organize content in a logical, easy-to-follow manner by using a clear hierarchy. strategically sized headings, supporting copy and buttons/calls to action).
Avoid cramming too much onto your homepage! Too many messages/directions can dilute your offer and can come across as unfocused. Consider what your main service/product offering is, or what best encapsulates what it is you currently want to focus on.
Content and Design Need to Support Each Other
When it comes to website copywriting, think about the information your customers are coming to your website to find. Chances are it’s probably not superfluous or fluffy!
On individual service pages, consider:
What Is Included?
Outline what customers can expect, from the process to the key components/deliverables that are involved.
Who Is It For?
Outline what situations/circumstances this service is best suited for. This will attract the right customers (and hopefully repel those that aren’t as well suited!).
What Happens Next?
Mobile Usability and Trust
Mobile Usability Is Not an Optional Detail
More likely than not, your website visitors will be checking out your website from a device much smaller than a desktop/laptop. Ensure text, images, buttons and menus are appropriately sized for mobile, particularly making sure buttons/menus have at least 44 x 44 pixels of touch space to avoid frustration (and misclicks).
- Headings breaking/spacing weirdly
- Lengthy forms (requiring lots of scrolling)
- Important information being cropped out of images
- Legibility of menu items
- Calls to action being obvious/easy to find
Keeping the Site Current
Plan for Changes After Launch
Things change! Your services/products, the team, the questions customers are asking, and the information that’s relevant/useful – it all changes!
Try and build/organise your website in a way that’s easy to update, sensible page names/titles, and organized image/file names, and avoid important information being embedded in graphics (which can be tricky to update later on, etc.).
And set yourself a reminder to check in every so often to make sure promotions/offers are still relevant, team members listed are still with you, forms still work, content still aligns with your business goals, etc.
The Next Page to Fix
Consider what page on your website is currently falling short, be it your homepage isn’t communicating your offer/messaging clearly enough, a particular service page needs fleshing out, your contact form/process needs simplifying, or your website needs untangling on mobile…
Pick one key page, have a scroll through (on both desktop and mobile), and see if you can work out three questions a brand-new website visitor would have after a minute of browsing.
