10 questions to ask yourself before you get a new website
These 10 questions will help you focus on key points of your new website.
1. What do I want my website to do?
Having a good website will clearly communicate who you are and what your business does. It can help increase brand awareness, build trust and increase sales. There are 2 main categories of websites; brochure websites and e-commerce websites.
Brochure websites
Brochure or static websites are informative websites, indicating what you do and how you do it. They will include a contact form and have a call to action for example “Contact us today” or “Sign up to our E-Newsletter”. Under new GDPR General Data Protection Regulation regulations the data protection laws have changed. If you need guidance on this please let us know.
E-commerce websites
The purpose of an E-commerce website is to sell your product or service online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Websites that sell online need a payment gateway like STRIPE that has a beautiful user interface for your customers but also an easy to manage platform for you to transfer your funds and review payment reports.
Before you start working on a new website you need to outline what it is you want to achieve for your website so you can then track your website and monitor it’s efforts. What return on investment to you want to see from your website?, what percentage increase on sales are you aiming for? By identifying this you will give a clearer idea of how much investment the website needs.
2. Should my website be responsive?
With over 60% of online content being viewed on a mobile or hand held device it is a given that a website should be mobile responsive. For this reason all our websites are mobile responsive which means they resize depending on the device they are being viewed on.
3. What is my SEO strategy?
Good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is key to being found on a search engine like Google. Make sure that the right search terms are added to the writen content of the website, images are tagged correctly and H tags are used to support the relevant search terms. We work with copywriters that can weave the search terms seamlessly into the website copy and cleverly translate your story and values.
4. How will my website work with my brand?
Building a great brand takes time and it’s important that all your marketing material adheres to that brand, including your website.
The website should be functional, easy to navigate, clear and concise but it should also look great and be consistent with the existing brand that your company has. If you don’t know what your brand is then we can work with you to develop one.
5. How will I measure the success of my website?
It’s important to track your website so you can monitor it’s success and ensure it’s meeting your goals. Use Google Analytics to monitor the volume of traffic, where it came from and what pages it goes to and for how long. Webmaster tools is used to publish your sitemap so crawlers see the latest website pages and posts.
6. Should I have a blog on my website?
Having a blog on your website allows you to talk about your latest successes, new offers and give your expert advice on topics. Overall it gives you the opportunity to create more valuable content on your website for people to read and for Google to crawl through which can help with your ranking for certain search terms. Time is an important resource when it comes to deciding whether you want to contribute to a regular blog. A good web design team can train you on managing your own website, adding blog posts and/or manage it on your behalf.
7. What social media platforms are right for my business?
Integrating your social media presence on the website is an important step. You can integrate feed into the website or include icon links that direct the user to your individual social media pages. It’s important that you choose a social media platform that is right for your business. We suggest you use Facebook and Instagram if your business is very visual. Twitter is a great platform for Business to Business. LinkedIn is a great space for building your professional connections and for posting blogs.
8. What will be the website architecture?
There should be a logical flow throughout the website. The user should be able to easily find the information they need as quickly as possible. If you don’t know what pages should be in the main navigation versus your sub navigation then ask your web team for help. Use the website header for the most important pages and the footer for secondary pages such as your website Terms of Use and Privacy Page. If you have an e-commerce website then you need to include a page that covers your returns policy and answers general customer queries.
9. What kind of security does my website need?
All websites should have an SSL certificate especially if they are an e-commerce website. Secure Socket Layers (SSL) encrypt data passed on a website between the web server and a browser. Having a SSL cert builds trust with a user. It is something that Google have become very vocal about and are insisting that websites have if they want to avoid having a “Not Secure” warning on your website. Having a proper website maintenance contract is vital to reduce site vunerability. Using website securing plugins is a given step to blocking certain IP addresses and reducing attempts to hack the website.
10. How much does a new website cost?
Your web design team will be able to give you a quote based on your needs and budget. Like any purchase, you need to look for value for your money rather than the cheapest option. Take a look at the websites of the top three web design companies you want to work with – doing a little research at the start will save you time and money in the long term.
