Web design projects are often undermined when they cross established budget limits, encounter unnecessary delays, and go way past the website’s launch date. However, it’s essential to note that there are several valid reasons coming into play for these hinders, including overly complicated or indeterminate project planning.
The key to launching a highly functional website without coming up against deterring setbacks is to plan your web design project with the right process and steps in mind. Here is how you can plan effectively in twelve simple ways!
- Establish Your Goals
Establishing goals is vital for creating a functioning website. They can either be general, like selling more products or services and generating high interest. Or, they can be specific, such as elevating your revenue generation by 25% or ranking among the top five results on a particular query search. No matter what goals you set for your website, it’s best to keep them in mind throughout the entire process, as they operate as a guideline behind all your decision-making matters.
- Plan Your Timeline
While planning your project timeline may seem obvious, creating an appropriate one doesn’t necessarily mean assigning a number of days for each task and then calling it a day. By contrast, you need to ensure that your timeline is flexible enough to endure any mishaps along the way and still meet the deadline. Moreover, it would help if you considered when to launch your website, as there might be some strategic window opening along the year that would serve as a good starting point.
- Determine Your Audience
Next, it’s necessary to identify your target audience before planning a web design project, as it raises relevant concerns regarding website accessibility and user experience. When you can determine beforehand what pulls organic traffic your way, based on their location, age group, and other such factors, it makes the web design job easier for you when implementing the following steps.
- Consider Search Engine Optimisation
Integrating Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) into your web design project maximises your efforts drastically, which is why it is highly recommended to look into these services to give yourself a competitive edge. Your SEO objectives may comprise keyword research, content strategy, architecture plan, domain name, and other promoting factors.
- Take Your Time Choosing a Compelling Domain Name
Your website’s domain name is a crucial attribute for elevating brand recognition. You may want to choose something catchy, easy-to-read and type, and memorable while also keeping in mind that the name should be relatable to what your website offers. It’s even better to opt for a domain name that contains relevant keywords speaking about your particular area of expertise.
- Set Criteria for Architecture and Functionality
It depends upon the type of website you have to establish your architecture and functionality criteria. For instance, suppose you own an eCommerce business. In that case, you may want to lean toward an interactive design with integrated functionalities, like forms, smart search engines, checkouts, surveys, and product customisation previews, which let users scour through the different web pages conveniently. These types of websites are usually referred to as ‘dynamic pages.’ On the other hand, if you are only delivering information on your site, it’s better to go with ‘static pages’ instead, with basic text and media content.
- Make Plans for Enhancing Your Web Content
A brilliantly designed web page wouldn’t do you any favours with lacking content. That’s why it’s best to create an ongoing content strategy, including your landing page deliverable, news articles, blogs, and other informational resources. Moreover, planning a compelling CTA (call-to-action) will also do you wonders for bringing clients on to the website, in addition to integrating any content that would be acutely useful for the traffic making its way to you.
- Hire Professionals for Design and Development
Once you’ve established all your website priorities discussed so far, your ideal option would be to hire professionals to get the job done. The information you have outlined until now would give the designers an adequate understanding of what you want while realising your expectations. Most experienced hires prefer to work with Photoshop or similar platforms for creating a mock-up, so they can change and make alterations for anything that’s not to your liking. Moreover, it saves time when they don’t have to code relentlessly while making the required transitions.
- Test Your Website Thoroughly
While professional designers always test your website thoroughly before launching, it still shouldn’t stop you from scrutinising the web pages as well. You should also expect some back and forth between you and the web designer at this stage until the required results, the ones you think would work best for bringing clients to your site, are achieved.
- Ready to Launch
Once the final design is tested and approved, your website is ready to be launched. As you generate a customer base, it would be a good idea to contact the members visiting your site via email and ask their opinion about the website design. This creates an exciting buzz among clients while offering you the opportunity to better your user experience diligently.
- Promote Your Website
Nearly all websites need to be promoted in some way to catch potential clients’ attention. To make that happen, you can create an effective marketing plan, including various promotional factors. These may include email marketing, offline marketing, social media marketing, search engine and online marketing, and search engine optimisation.
- Remain Open to Updates and Revisions
Each website needs to be updated or improved at some point to remain up to the latest standards. That’s why it’s best to keep yourself open for making alterations when required and keep in contact with the designer that worked on your web design project initially.
Considering these twelve steps when planning a web design project will diminish your chances of encountering any issues throughout the process and after the website launch. Moreover, you can use these points as a foundation for creating a reliable online presence that automatically brings clients to your site without making any extra efforts!
