Keys to Designing Your Own Website

One way to save money on graphic design expenses is to design your website. Thanks to templates and intuitive tools, these days, you don’t necessarily need complicated graphic design software or specific graphic design skills to make a great website. But, there are still some things to consider when designing your website to ensure it meets your expectations and, more importantly, your visitors’ expectations.

Establish Your Goals

Before you can actually design your website, you need to understand what you’re trying to achieve with it. Are you trying to sell a product? Give people information? Collect leads? Whatever your goals are for your website, they will impact its design. There is a reason you need a website, so define that purpose and set your goals prior to worrying about how your site will look.

For example, if you’re operating an e-commerce site, your landing page will be vital to your website’s success. Products must be easy to find, images must be large and clear, and the checkout process must be simple and straightforward. Without these elements, your design will fail.

Research Competitors’ Websites

You may be ready to do your own thing, but that might not be the best idea for a website design. Trends in web design are important because visitors come to expect a certain type of experience depending on the type of website they are visiting. There is something to be said for attempting to disrupt the industry you’re in, but you should only do this if you’re sure your design will disrupt it for the better. If it turns out that your customers hate the design, you’ll have to start all over from scratch, which isn’t easy.

Choose Your Website Design Platform

There are plenty of website design platforms available that offer intuitive tools to help non-designers create stunning websites. They vary in cost and may have tiered pricing plans based on how fancy you want your website to be. Be aware that you’ll still need to pay for hosting services and a domain name (usually) to get your website live, so include those fees into the total cost of designing your website as you’re considering design platforms.

Create Your Brand

Now you’re ready to actually get to the design aspects of your website. Color is the number one factor in a brand, and each color communicates a different message, so choose your colors with care. You’ll also need to decide on the font and imagery you’ll use to keep visitors engaged with your site. Remember that visual content is the most powerful type of content for recall. If you want your visitors to call your brand to mind when they need you, the images and videos you choose for your website are critical.

Add Content

Once you have the bones of your website designed, it’s time to add content. You want your website to place high in search rankings, so paying attention to search engine optimization (SEO) practices is necessary when writing copy and content for your website. Choose high-value keywords that your customers will likely be using when they search for companies like yours and strategically place them throughout your website.

Conclusion

The only thing left to do after you’ve added content is to publish your website! Once you see it on the web, you’ll have something to be really proud of, and hopefully, its design will lead to all the visitors you can handle.