Important considerations when building a website

Ultimately, the most important decision you need to make during the early stages of your web design process is whether you’re going to build your website yourself or work with a professional website builder. 

The decision should be based on your budget, timescale and, importantly, what you need your website to do. 

Platforms like Wix, HostGator and GoDaddy allow you to build high quality websites from scratch, with a range of templates and easy to use tools.  

Take some time to look at the different platforms and make sure you understand the implications and functionalities of the tech on offer. Ideally, you want something that is user friendly and supports your current and future website plans. 

Check out this website builder comparison to get you started. 

If you decide to work with a third-party professional to build your website, you’ll need to put together a design brief outlining the details of your desired website. 

You can search for, read reviews and compare prices of web designers in your area on Bark.   

Before you start the process of building your website, it’s important that you do your homework. Clearly define the goals you want your website to achieve.  

You also need to think about how you want your website to look and feel. Have a look around at other websites for inspiration and see what they are doing well. Think about the fonts, colours and layouts you want to use on your website – but remember to keep everything aligned with your brand.  

Once you’ve done your research, the next step is choosing and buying a domain name. A domain name is the online address of your website. 

Most people use their business name, but domain names must be unique, so if you find yours is already taken, you’ll have to be a little more inventive. 

You can purchase domain names from sites like Hostinger, GoDaddy, 123-reg.co.uk and Wix. 

How long is a piece of string? The cost of your website will depend on several aspects, from how you want it to look and feel to its intended function and how you plan to build it. 

If you decide you want a developer to build your site for you, costs can differ. Hourly rates are usually around £25-£50 per hour, and daily rates are about £200-£300 – but these can vary. 

If you want to create your website yourself, prices can range from £1.99 to £19.99 per month and usually provide you with things like domain, registration, maintenance features and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tools.    

All websites are hosted on servers. Hosting provides a secure place for your business’s online information and content. It covers and secures all the code, images, videos and text that make up your website. Regardless of the scale or size of your website, hosting is one of the most crucial elements of building your website. 

Web hosting allows users to store content offsite. This reduces local storage costs. It also helps you to build a genuinely durable web presence, with built-in advantages like back-ups for security and customer support.  

Some web hosting is local via personal computers or servers, but cloud-based third-party providers are more common. Once you start searching for a hosting service, you should be able to find a wide range of both free and paid options to consider.  

A sitemap will help ensure your website is organised and easy to navigate. You should list the pages your website will include and map out how each will be accessed. For example, think about how your user will go from your homepage, to your ‘About Us’, to your product gallery, and back again.  

The aim is for your user to be able to navigate easily with as few clicks as possible. The best way to do this is by having a website menu visible on every page. It’s also a good idea to make your logo an ‘anchor menu’ which is visible on every page and will take users back to your homepage in just a click.   

User experience (UX) relates to how a customer uses and interacts with your website. You want your website to be as easy as possible to use and navigate, allowing your prospective customer to find what they are looking for without distraction. 

Some key things to consider are: 

Page speed  

Recent research has shown if a webpage takes more than 6 seconds to load, 1 in 2 people abandon the website. Speed is key when it comes to UX. 

Things like bulky JavaScript, flash content, large images and unclean code are all things that can slow your website down. It’s important to keep these in mind when building your website.  

You can check the speed of your website for free at any time with Google’s PageSpeed Insights. 

White space  

When it comes to website UX, less is often more. That’s why the white (or blank) space between text, graphics and images on your website can make your content more digestible. 

A call to action (CTA) is a signpost that lets users know what they should do next. CTAs are the most important part of any webpage so it’s crucial that you get them right. 

A great call to action should: 

• Offer the user a clear and relevant value proposition.  
• Encourage users to act urgently.
• Be short and to the point.
•  Include actionable language like ‘sign up’, ‘buy now’, ‘try out’ or ‘learn more’.
• Stand out on the page 
  not compete with other calls to action. 

Check out  HubSpot’s 48 examples of great calls to action for some inspiration to get you started.  

A hyperlink is a clickable section of text or an image which takes the user somewhere else. Hyperlinks can navigate users to somewhere on the webpage, another page on your website, a page on somebody else’s website or a file or document. 

Hyperlinks are a great way to give your website users additional information and value. They are also one of the most important ranking factors when it comes to SEO as they give your webpages trust and authority. 

There are a ton of reasons why you should have images on your webpage. Images attract users’ attention, make content easier to read and digest, and they are great for your website SEO. Pages with images have been found to receive more views than those without. Images massively impact user experience on your website and help enhance brand perception.  

But you shouldn’t just fill your webpages with images for the sake of it. Images need to be given the same planning and consideration as the rest of the content on your website. 

Use high quality images that are relevant to your website content and align with your brand. Where possible, try to use your own original photography. If you can’t, you can use free stock images from sites like Pexels, Pixabay and unsplash.  

Consistency is key when it comes to UX, both in terms of visual elements and functionality. Consistency allows users to carry out tasks quickly and effectively, cutting out any pain points or difficult navigation. 

Visitors to your website should be able to easily move from page to page and understand where they are. 

To ensure consistency across your website, try to: 

• Have any menus positioned in the same place on each page. 
• Keep the fonts and colours you use consistent across your site.
• Have your logo appear on each page. 
• Consider the positioning and appearance of any calls to action. 

Remember to test your web pages on different browsers and devices to make sure they render properly. 

A 404 is displayed when there is a web page error. Such errors can occur for a number of different reasons, sometimes reasons that are out of your control. But for the errors you can control, it’s worth having a process in place to identify and solve them. 

404’s can damage user experience and negatively impact your search engine ranking, so you don’t want any on your webpage if you can help it. 

You could have the best website in the world, but if it isn’t mobile responsive, you’ve got a big problem.  

Mobile now accounts for  over 55% of all global web traffic and 85% of users expect a business’s website to be as good, if not better when viewed on mobile compared to desktop.  

It has never been more important for your website to be functional on a mobile. Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test will tell you how easily users can view your page on a mobile device.  

If you have a great website, you want to make sure as many people as possible are seeing it. This is where SEO comes in. 

Put simply, SEO is the optimisation of your website to help it appear higher in search engine results. There can be a lot to think about with SEO, but some easy ways to boost your website visibility are: 

• Creating relevant titles for each of your website’s pages 
• Making sure all your pages have meta descriptions 
• Writing alt text for any images on your website 

You can learn more about SEO here. 

Before you hit the publish button, it’s a good idea to get some feedback on the website you’ve built. This doesn’t necessarily need to be from a prospective customer, it could just be a friend or family member. Having a second pair of eyes look over your work can be hugely beneficial, as they could spot errors or typos you’ve missed. It also gives you a change to understand how somebody experiences your website.  

Ask for their honest opinion on how your website looks, feels and navigates. Ironing out the creases before you go live will help make sure your website has a lasting impact on anyone who interacts with it.    

So, these are the key things to consider when building a website for your business. The amount of time and money you put into creating your website should be determined by how integral it is to your business.