In today’s digital world, website is a must have asset for every organization. An organization’s website plays a critical role in the customer’s journey. It is often the first touch point where the customer interacts with the brand.
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As a website development company, we are often asked about what are the fundamentals to keep in mind while designing and developing a successful website. Before we answer this question, it is important to define the parameters that define success for a website.
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Based on our experience in providing web design and development services over the years, we have identified that a successful website must
Your website must clearly communicate the brand positioning, brand values and brand message to the audience. Customers explore only those websites where they find a connect with the brand, its messaging in addition to the look & feel.
Your website should urge your customer to interact with you. This can be done by providing assets and information that provides answers to the customer’s problem. Having a website that just provides information about your products and services is no longer good enough to hold the customer’s attention.
Finally, your website should help your customer to make a decision in favor of your products or services. Depending on the business area you are engaged in, your website should employ conversion tools like success stories, chat bot etc.
So what goes into making a successful website? Each website development company would probably have their own framework for defining success for their web design and development services. However, we have come to realize that designing and developing a great website really boils down to answering the following six fundamental questions
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It is imperative that you define the part that your website will play in your marketing and business plans. For example, McCormick is using its website to create a community of customers and potential customers with whom the brand has a direct connect and based on their behavior, choices and tastes, McCormick is able to customize its products, launch new products, innovate in marketing and create referrals.
Developing a new website is also an excellent time to reevaluate or build the core brand message. Research shows that customers engage with brands that resonate with their own personal values. Additionally, the attention span of the online audience is low and it is vital that your messaging grabs the attention of your audience and encourages them to explore further.
The website user journey is the experience your website is delivering to the visitors and it must be mapped from the visitor’s point of view. In order to map the user journey, you need to define the various buyer personas and their role in the sales process. Various buyer personas are likely to visit the website at different stages of the sales process and their journeys will differ depending on their information requirements and experience expectations.
As with everything online, the critical success factor is the ability to capture data. Your website is no different. Marketers can apply various tools and methods to record visitor details. First, as a marketer, you need to understand what kind of information you want to capture and what conversion opportunities to use. For example, B2B companies provide downloadable assets such as White Papers, Fact Sheets etc. to capture email ids and other details of their website visitors.
Websites need to be Search Engine compatible from the word go. At the design stage, a website development company can ensure that the architecture of the website and content structure follows SEO best practices, content of the website is keyword rich and at development stage, measures for technical optimization like website speed, clean Urls, image optimization, responsiveness etc. can be taken.
A website is not a one-time activity. It needs to be constantly optimized and content reenergized and updated. In addition, you should also take advantage of some of the new tech developments and trends based on your industry to upgrade the website experience. The online audience is fast paced and easily put off by poor experience. You should choose a website development platform which allows for agility and also makes it easy to update information.
To conclude, building a great website is a journey. Building a website is not just the prerogative of marketing but is a wider business exercise. A great website can impact an organization’s perception among stakeholders, generate business and even build loyal customer communities. Today investment in a website is not an afterthought but a critical business investment. In this journey, your website development agency plays a critical role and hence it is important to choose the right partner for web design and web redesign services. Kalzoom Advisors has been selected among the Top Website Design Companies in India by Designrush.
