The Ultimate Guide to Website Design
I don’t think I need to explain the value of having a website to you in this day and age, but there may be some elements of the web design process that could be clarified from a designer’s perspective, setting you up for success throughout the process! This is your guide to website design before you jump in to designing your business’ site!
The Ultimate Guide to Website Design
When you’re ready to create a website for your business, there’s a few extremely important things to consider before moving forward. If you feel lost and unsure of where to start, I can’t blame you! Nobody lays out these steps on a silver platter, and therefore oftentimes businesses end up making a lackluster website in the beginning because they don’t know who to trust and the process doesn’t come naturally to them. Let me fill you in on the most important steps and how to prepare yourself for success!
Decide to DIY it or hire the pro
You’ll first want to decide whether you’re going to try to DIY your own website design or hire a professional website designer. DIYing can take countless, frustrating hours trying to teach yourself a new build-it-yourself platform and hiring a pro may reduce a lot of your worries about getting it right the first time.
Pick a platform
There’s a wide variety of incredible web building platforms out there. I may be biased, but I am a big believer in Squarespace! I’m also a fan of Shopify and WordPress for different reasons - these latter two platforms are fabulous for web developers who need a lot of flexibility for their coding and are fabulous for businesses that need a more advanced web presence with a membership login (Squarespace can offer that too, to a certain extent!), forums, intensive marketing funnels / tracking capabilities, and similar hefty functionalities. Most small businesses are fulfilled and satisfied by a builder such as Squarespace that arguably offers the most contemporary, beautiful, and functional experience around.
Get your domain
If you’d like, something you can do early on is to register your domain name (www.yourdomainname.com) with a trusted registrar such as GoDaddy. This ensures that nobody else gets the name you desire and protects it while you’re finishing the web design process. I suggest obtaining the .com, .org, and .net versions of your name just to make sure that you have all of the main domain types and don’t run the risk of folks stealing the others as your notoriety grows.
Outline the scope of navigation
Decide what types of pages your site will have. Of course you’ll have a Homepage, and an About page, but what else does your unique business need? Do you need a Shop/Product page? A single Services page or multiple different service pages? A blog? A scheduling/booking page or a simple contact form? It’s key to firm this up early on.
Come up with content
First and foremost, you need to have content to start your site with - both text (copy) and imagery. I always suggest the following basic page navigation: Home, About, Services (or Shop/Products), and Contact. You can add on from here, but these are truly the non-negotiables you’re going to want to incorporate in your web design. Consider the information that you want to include on each page and which images might compliment and represent the information. You may consider investing in a branding photoshoot and/or a professional copywriter who can dive into the depths of your brand and perfect the wording for you.
Ultimately, your business needs a website regardless of how you choose to make this a reality. This site is the foundation for every other small business marketing effort that you will embark on and should come second to brand identity development. Your business will be up and running in no time, attracting your dream people!
While you’re here, discover our guides on branding, branding photography, graphic design, and content marketing.
