After your business, your website is your second most important investment. Most customers research a business website before using that business. A poor web design is likely to lose a potential customer’s confidence, turning them to another business that has a more efficient website.
Why Web Design Matters in the Current Era
Web Designers
No worries, you do not have to turn into a technical wizard to design your website yourself. Go to https://aiad.com.au for professionals who can do that for you, web designers who will work with you and your budget. They will help you achieve the most polished, professional, and inviting website. This will highlight your business and increase sales.
Not only that, they will update and maintain your website with the latest technology. Having someone else take care of your website leaves you with more time to focus on the important job of running your business.
What to Know Before Hiring a Web Designer
Web design costs money. Remember, this is an important investment in your business. If a customer logs on to your site and finds it hard to navigate and not pleasing to the eye, they will turn away and look elsewhere. You want to hold their attention and invite them to step inside.
A good web designer will work with you and your budget. Make sure they know your budget up-front before you begin.
Here are some questions to ask them:
- What information do they require to start your web page design?
- Will I have one dedicated contact or will a team be working on my website?
- How long will this take to design?
- Do they use project management software, or do they code themselves?
- Do they require written content or do they have a writer on staff?
- Do they need images? If not, look through the images they have.
- If they require some images, what are the specs for the images to look good?
- Is there a portfolio of websites they created that you can look through?
These questions will determine the web designer’s professionalism and experience in creating the optimal web page for your business.
If You Have An Existing Website
If you already have a website but are not happy with its performance, web designers can help you with that as well. Depending on your budget, they will suggest improvements that will draw- in customer traffic. If they feel that it is a complete train wreck, they may offer to rebuild it from scratch.
What a Website Should Have
Your business is your brand and you want to display your brand in a good way. Here are a few things a website should have to help make your business successful.
- The website should be fast
- Easy to use
- Work on every browser
- Work on mobile devices
- Contact information including Google Map
- Quality content
- Search engine optimization (SEO) words that create hits on your site
- Quality graphics
Creating Your Website
Designing your website is possible, but you will need to possess good technical skills and an understanding of the language. There are classes you can take both online and in-person or you can search the web for advice. This will still take money out of your budget, but it can be less than hiring a professional web designer. The steps involved are:
- Pay for your domain name and register it with a registrar such as Google Domains, GoDaddy, or Namecheap. You can shop around for the best prices. Make the name short and sweet; a name that is easy to remember and describes your business.
- Decide on a Top-Level Domain (TLD), for instance, .com, .net, or .org. There are many different TLDs. Choose one to suit your type of business.
- You will also need to pay for the hosting site, such as A2, GoDaddy, NameCheap. The hosting site owns the server where data is accessed. There are two options:
- Shared host, which means you will share a server with other sites
- Dedicated host, which costs more, but you get your own server resulting in faster speed
- Create your pages. The host site you choose can determine which content management system (CMS) you use. Some CMS platforms are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. There are many different CMS platforms and your hosting site will already be using one or more of them. You can only choose one to use.
- If you decide to have a payment system on your website, you will need to use an e-commerce software system or a third-party payment processor.
- Test your website. Make sure it works on all browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc. Ensure the links work correctly. Test it out on mobile devices.
Professional Web Designer Versus Create Your Own
As you can see, creating your website takes a lot of work, research, and ingenuity. The money you save in creating your website can cost you in time. Once you create your website, you need to maintain it and update it periodically to not get boring or outdated. If you hire a web designer, they can do that for you. A good web designer will also be up-to-date on all the latest technology.
If there is a problem, the web designer is just a phone call away. Your goal is to have an eye-pleasing, streamlined, professional website. A site that invites new customers inside, impresses them and engages them.
Your Website Is a Reflection of Your Business
Whether you choose a professional web designer or create your website, remember that your website mirrors your business. Having no website is actually better than having a poor, sloppy one. If designing your website feels daunting, there is no harm in consulting with a professional web designer. Choosing to employ a good professional web designer may cost more money, but once set up, you will have one less thing to worry about. The money you spend is an investment in the success of your business.
