What do I actually have a website for? What are they supposed to do?
Sometimes we hear that after all, it's just to be a business card of some sort. But the time when it was enough to have a presentation with a contact on the website is long gone. Nowadays, practically everyone is on the internet, searching, spending time and, incidentally, choosing suppliers, partners or shopping. So what are the reasons?
- So do you want to acquire new customers?
- Do you want to appear professional?
- Do you want to sell products?
- Is the web to be a kind of shop window for your business?
- Is the website to reassure the client that they are in good hands?
- Is the website to help introduce a new project or service?
- Is it an educational site?
These tend to be the most common reasons, but in reality there can be many more.
How is the user supposed to find out about the site? How do they get to the site?
Just as it is important to have a well thought out website, it is also important to think about the routes a user will take to get to your website. Will it be through online marketing? Will they get there through awareness of your brand? Will they learn about your site from company employees? Based on the answers to these questions, web designers will design the content.
What kind of experience will visitors to the new site have? What do I want to show them?
Think about how you want to impress the site visitor. Should it be a pleasant experience? Is it "just" to get to the information they need quickly? Is he or she supposed to remember a piece of information? If he clicks next to your competitor's site, what should he remember about yours? Is he or she supposed to buy your product or service? Is the site supposed to increase your company's credibility?
What should happen after a visitor leaves your site?
What information, feelings and experience is he or she supposed to take away? Should they return to the site? Do we want to communicate any additional information to the visitor after they leave the site through online advertising?
What materials and content will we use on the site?
The golden rule in the web design industry is - content is the king! A nice website today consists mainly of nice photos, videos and catchy content. Features such as mobile-friendliness, loading speed or search engine optimization are commonplace today. So the question is - what kind of content will be on the site? What do we want to show the visitor and why?
What will it run on?
We deliberately put this question at the end, because it tends to be the least important. The right web vendor should help you with the selection of platform, CMS, servers and technology. Ideally, so that you don't become dependent on a particular developer by choosing one technology or another.
And now, one last note. With the launch of the new website, all the work should actually begin. The online space today demands news, information, marketing. Don't forget to have an up-to-date blog and social media. There's nothing worse than a site that links to social networks that no one has posted to in six months.
The topic deserves to be discussed in much more depth, I'm sure we'll come back to it here on the blog soon. Or get in touch and we'll discuss it together straight away. :)
