Over 1.3 billion websites exist on the internet today, and a considerable percentage of them were most likely created with the intent to make the site owner money. Internet marketing is an industry in its own right as well as the collection of methods to get attention to those websites and make them earn. The reason so many businesses fail is not solely a matter of marketing. Even with awesome, eye-catching ads, and social media pages with tens of thousands of followers, everything breaks down without an up-to-date, fast-loading, highly sticky, completely optimised website.
Whether you are a tech startup, a small ecommerce shop, a niche affiliate site, a freelance individual or simply any other form of business in need of an online platform, a website is the first and most important thing to consider. It is the real estate your company stands on and is the difference between visitors turning into leads and leads turning into buyers, or abject online oblivion.
Website design and development starts with an end goal
In order to go forward, you have to know where you are headed. Have a firm goal in mind when creating your business and having a website built for it. While your ultimate destination may be working two hours a day on a beach somewhere, more concrete goals will allow for more effective website design and development. The website design and development experts you choose to help should focus on finding out your goals and working toward them as diligently as you do.
The more effective your website is at attracting and keeping your audience’s interest, the more effective your marketing will be. Each page on the site may have a different goal:
- Click through to another page
- Opt-in to a newsletter email list
- Subscribe to blog feeds
- Follow on social media
- Make a purchase
Each page’s design must blend faultlessly with the others for a cohesive style and feeling but also focus on its specific ideal end result.
Design, whether building the layout template for a site or working with logos and other graphics, is not just about making things look nice. It’s about telling a story and communicating to future site visitors what you want them to know about your company. This is why hiring professionals makes sense.
Fundamentals of web design affect business growth and timelessness
Website design focuses on three fundamentals:
Layout and Structure
Not only does a website need to be visually appealing, it needs to be organised, easily scannable, and follow the common habits of site visitors. These things determine alignment, spacing, element placement, and navigation. Much research has gone into figuring out how the average visitor looks at and uses a site.
Colour Scheme Choice
Different colours convey different meanings. Consider how red could be powerful or passionate while dark blue and grey is more professional and proper. This is why it is rare to put pale pink and baby blue on an solicitor’s website or burgundy or navy on one selling baby toys. The science of colour theory helps professional designers make their choices.
Emotive or Informative Graphics and Typeface
Every element on a webpage should serve a purpose. These include conveying information, entertaining to increase stickiness, or even just creating a mood. Every icon, photo, video, infographic, and title font choice must work together to drive visitors toward your goal.
While the average person who wants to launch a website with the ultimate goal of making money does not need to know the specifics about how to choose these things, knowing their importance helps. There are always trends to follow in any type of design. We keep current on the latest trends and how to use them effectively, but also understand when to ignore them to focus on more evergreen stylistic options. It is the difference between a site simply looking nice and driving clicks, return visits, and conversions.
You might think that marketing can make up for any design short-comings. If you get an effective ad in front of the right people, they will come to the site anyway, right? Quality marketing does drive traffic, but they will not stay on site and they will not trust you to deliver whatever products or services you offer successfully. Marketing fails if the link they click does not lead to a professional page that directly caters to their needs or wants.
Website development is business development
While website design focuses on appearance, layouts, and comfortable usability, website development deals with the underlying stuff that makes the website function effectively. Some of these include:
- Up-to-date HTML5, CSS, and other code
- Optimised photos and graphics for quick loading
- Programming to facilitate log-ins, check-outs, and other interactions
- Smooth communication with databases
To use a popular real estate metaphor, design is the paint on the walls, the fixtures and hardware, and the furniture that invites visitors to sit and stay a while. Development is the 2x4s that hold up the roof, the strong foundation, and the electrical wiring, plumbing, and ventilation systems. In internet terms, it consists of functional, optimised code that makes everything show up and work as intended.
Most small business owners have little knowledge and experience working with site code. Even those that do have little time to mess around with it while trying to source products, fulfil client orders, and chase down late invoices.
Website development determines as large a part of success as design does… or maybe even more. Even the prettiest page fails to convert if the menu does not work, visitors cannot manage their accounts or log in, and every button push results in a failure. While static webpages can give information, interactivity is the wave of the future.
That is what proper development does. Combine functionality with style and you have an online powerhouse that will not fall into oblivion like so many of the other millions of websites in existence. No matter what type of industry or niche you focus on and what type of product or service you sell, success starts with a firm foundation.
Website success leads to marketing success
Internet marketing combines advertising with both on-site and off-site search engine optimisation. It focuses on building long-term professional relationships between your company and the people or other companies in a targeted audience group. In order to brand effectively and instil trust and appreciation for your company, send people to an attractive, high-interest, user-friendly, and optimised website.
Both website design and development are essential parts of the whole success process. Without both done to a professional standard, the ability to reach your desired level of professional success suffers. You need to concentrate on building a business you are proud to stand behind. Let us help you achieve these goals by using our experience and knowledge to develop and design a website that attracts and keeps more traffic than ever before.
