Planning a Website? Don’t forget these 3 things!

Just like balancing work and play, eating and exercise, nachos and cheese sauce, it’s important to have a balanced website. And it’s far easier if you get this right in the planning phase, so only minor adjustments are required as you go along.

Whether you are a website maker working on your clients website, or planning your own, what should you consider to keep your balance online? Here’s my thoughts. It’s kinda like a balancing act on a three-way see-saw.

1. Focus on the User

   A website that is user-focused makes it easy for the user to do what they came to the site to do. They might want to find information, contact the business for a quote, solve a problem that they had, etc.
   A user-focused website is likely to have simple navigation, well-placed images, and just enough text to meet its purpose.
   To get some great insights, set a target user a few tasks on your site, and watch as they try to complete them.

2. Cater to Search Engines

   Build it, ..and they won’t necessarily come. You may have a shiny new website that is easy for users to frolic around, but they might not be able to find you.
   Be findable. Play nice with Search Engines. Search engines like plenty of text, good use of keywords, websites that are fresh and updated regularly, that have clear title and meta tags, and that aren’t spammy. You will also rank higher if you have a good number of links pointing to your sites from other websites.

3. Stay true to your Website’s Purpose

   Say the website is for a business, and the primary purpose is to generate new leads/enquiries. Ranking high in the search engines, and getting plenty of visitors is great.. but doesn’t fulfill it’s purpose. Understand and provide the steps along the way (e.g. presenting testimonials to build trust, show examples of previous work completed), but ultimately make sure you provide an obvious way for visitors to do what you have built the website for them to do.

Here’s another way of looking at it.

Balance lies at the center of the three circles. Rather than just allowing for one or two, plan a balanced website by considering all three.

Happy website planning!