Building a business website is not as cut-and-dry as some consumers think. There's more to it than slapping up imagery and filling in text boxes; professional website design yields a high-quality finish that is functional, attractive, and effective.
What is it that makes the difference between pro-quality web design processes and the average layman website build? Check out this short list of critical parts of the professional website design process.
Evaluation of Relative Existing Websites
Before the process of building a website begins, a website design agency will evaluate the existing websites that are in line with the industry your business is in. This must happen because:
- Your website should be in line with others in the industry for recognition purposes
- Your website should have similar features and functions as others in the industry
- Your website should be built to compete with the other websites in your industry
You will likely be on board for some of the evaluation processes of the website design so you can offer input on things you see in other business websites that you like and dislike. For example, you may like the way one website's product pages are laid out or specifically how a business owner explains their expertise in the “About Us” page.
Target Audience and Customer Persona Assessments
Do you know who your target audience is online? It may come as somewhat of a shock, but even 72 percent of marketers have a difficult time finding their target audience online, so this is bound to be a little more tricky than you think. When you work with a professional website development company, they will take a lot of time to assess who your target audience is and what customer personas the site should be directed toward.
Implementation of Imagery to Achieve Visual Goals
Within seconds of meeting someone new, humans will have all kinds of things decided about that person, including if you're smart, if you're trustworthy, and if you're high status. Psychologists refer to this tendency as thin slicing, and it doesn't only apply with face-to-face encounters.
The fact is, even those people viewing your website for the first time will make immediate decisions about your business. Therefore, the chosen imagery and graphics on the site will go a long way toward telling a visitor immediately who you are as a company and whether the site is worth their time.
Content Generation with a Purpose
The written content that fills the pages of your site has several purposes beyond just providing information about the specific page to the consumer that lands on the page. Primarily, the written content should work for the website once it is published to attract traffic, which only happens if proper SEO practices are followed through the website design process.
Integration of Business Values and Branding
When the website is considered a finished product, just before it is published, you will be brought in once more as a business owner to go over an important step in the professional website design process: ensuring your brand and business values are properly conveyed. You want the website that represents your business to be recognized as being affiliated with your business because this fosters a certain level of trust in the minds of consumers.
Even though the entire site build will revolve around the idea of matching the site to your brand and image, the final observance of this before the site is published is critical. It is during this final assessment that you will likely get the opportunity to send out the proposed website design to beta testers, your employees, and other important people for their feedback about branding and the site in general.
Professional Website Design Does Make a Difference
Instead of attempting to build your own business website with the knowledge you have, why not trust the task to the pros and ensure you achieve the results and ROI your business deserves. Look for more information on the professional website design process on the Brandgy blog and contact us for more information.
