A website can be a powerful marketing tool for your company in Hawaii. The bigger challenge is to design a website that is not only informative but also provides seamless navigation and looks aesthetically appealing to the visitors. Before you sit down to start designing a website, it is important to have a clear understanding of the purpose of the site. Some companies approach web design by hiring professionals or outsourcing work. However, if you want your business to stand out from the rest, it would be advisable to do it yourself. In this article, we will help you simplify some key elements in designing a successful website that leads to increased revenue. You can also learn more about the process, and get help from a professional web designer in Honolulu at https://golomarketing.com
First thing first – What’s Your Business Model?
When designing a website, it’s important to understand your business model. Different businesses models require different approaches in web design. For example, if your business is based on lead generation like an Insurance Company, you would want visitors coming to your site looking for information about various insurance plans or policies. You will need traffic that stays longer on the site and browses through various pages before they contact for any services. If you are selling goods directly off of your website (E-commerce), creating online catalogs with specifications, pricing and product images along with purchasing options will be very helpful in generating sales.
Once you know what type of companies you are targeting; create a basic layout of the home page which includes elements like company logo, navigation bar with links to important pages, search engine friendly tags, drop-down menus on the navigation bar, social media profiles like Facebook and Twitter, etc.
Second Step – Choose the right technology
It is advisable to use CMS (Content Management System) based web design for business sites. A CMS enables you to easily add content on the website for different users without involving code writing skills or hiring an expensive developer. WordPress is one of the world’s most popular open-source platforms which offers various themes and plugins for free while Joomla is another alternative worth considering with lots of features available in the free version. For highly customized websites featuring extensive catalogs, it is better to hire a professional developer to code the website using HTML5 coding language.
CSS3 makes your designs look sleek by enabling you to add special effects like shadows, gradients, and rounded corners without the use of images.
In case you are considering using Flash for your web design, keep in mind that search engine crawlers don’t recognize flash elements which makes it difficult for them to index a webpage. This can significantly affect how content is ranked on search engines.
Third Step – Create Navigation Menu
The navigation menu gives visitors an idea of what’s on offer on your website. It should be simple, short, and easy to get around from anywhere on the website. For simpler home page designs with fewer categories or pages, a horizontal navigation bar would do just fine while if you have multiple categories under different headings then vertical menus are more appropriate. Remember to include drop-down menus on the same bar for categories with multiple subcategories. A website with a high level of content will require a multi menu navigation bar on top.
Use easy-to-remember links for your social media profiles so that visitors can click on them directly from the website. Make sure you have links on every page of the site back to the home page so that visitors always know where they are. When you provide multiple ways for visitors to contact you, use clearly visible buttons instead of links in order to increase conversions.
Fourth Step – Design Home Page
The most important part of any online business is its homepage which makes it very critical while designing web pages. A professional looking design coupled with informative content will convince new viewers to bookmark your website resulting in increased traffic and better brand recognition over time. Try using minimal graphics and images and make sure all the above mentioned features like drop down menus, social media profiles, contact buttons, etc. are visible on all web pages to increase conversions.
Fifth Step- Testing
After you are done with designing the website, it is very important to test all web pages so that there are no broken tags or links on the home page. Test if your websites load properly and look good in various screen resolutions before launching it on the internet so that you can fix issues related to color settings, text size etc. If your website is not accessible on mobile phones or tablets then you may lose customer base who prefer surfing content through their handheld devices. A user friendly layout will ensure more visitors stay longer on your site resulting in higher conversions.
Conclusion:
A professional looking website with the right features will get you higher ROI in the long run so it is advisable to outsource website designing if your budget is low. You can also hire a freelancer or an agency based on hourly rates or a fixed price basis depending upon your requirements and budget limitations.
It all boils down to how well you present your business information through your website which makes it vital for every online business owner to have a good designed website regardless of their size, location or market presence.
Please share this article on Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you have any questions then comment below.