Designing a business website from scratch is pretty daunting, and you may not know what exactly to do, or where to start. In this article, I’ve put together some useful tips to help you maximise your chances of success:

Designing a website for your business is different to creating one for a hobby. Of course, you hope that both will draw in visitors, be informative or fun and make people want to come back. But when you design a site for your company, its purpose is to help you make a profit. There are some golden rules you need to follow if you want to fulfill this goal and attract more customers through your website. From a show-stopping homepage to making the site mobile-friendly, there are some essential features that your site can’t do without. Don’t forget to include these things in your design.

Designing a Business Website

Here are some quick tips you need to bear in mind when you build your business website:

Grab Attention Right Away

Your homepage will often be the first page that anyone lands on when they first come across your website. Of course, if you’re using content correctly, they will also discover you from many of your other pages too. But it’s your homepage that acts as the face of your website, and it needs to convince people they should explore the rest of the site. It needs to get people’s attention but it needs to hold it too. There are lots of ways you can do this, so you need to choose a method that suits your brand. You might use a large, eye-catching image, a video or an infographic demonstrating your product.

Image via Flickr

All About Trust

Trust is crucial for the relationship between you and your customers. However, it’s even more essential in particular industries. For example, it’s one of the medical website design success factors. It’s also a top concern for e-commerce businesses. You need to show your visitors that not only are you trustworthy, but your website is too. A site for a medical company needs to follow HIPAA regulations and provide informed content. An e-commerce site would need to demonstrate that their payment process is secure.

Mobile-friendly Design

Something that has become increasingly important is mobile-friendly website design. Many people now prefer to access the internet via their mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets. This means that your website now needs to be optimized for use on these devices. They need to deliver a design that is easily navigable on a smaller screen controlled using touchscreen technology, rather than a more accurate mouse. Responsive web design will ensure that mobile users receive the right information.

Usability

Your website needs to be easy and intuitive for your visitors to use. You don’t want them to leave because they find the navigation confusing, or the design muddled. They need to be able to find the information they’re looking for, make a purchase or even just contact you without struggling to get around your site. As well as clear navigation and a clean design, your site needs to load quickly too. No one wants to wait around for a website to load when they could go somewhere else.

There are many more things you need to take into consideration when you build your business website, from hosting to images. But these few should be enough to get you thinking.