If you need or want a website in order to accomplish something, then you need to know what the fundamentals and basics are. Should you be looking to create your own website, you not only have to know them, but you have to master them. Even if you’re paying someone else to design your website for you, it’s still best to know these principles so that you can convey your ideal website and your goals to your designer, so they can create what you’re looking for.
Establish the Goal of the Site
The first and foremost element of website design is considering what the goal of the website is. Are you looking to make money? If so, how so? Are you directly selling a product or service through the site? Or do you just want to generate a list of prospective contacts or list and newsletter subscriptions? Even if you aren’t looking to generate some kind of revenue or make money somehow, are you promoting a cause or belief you believe in, or are you looking to entertain your visitors? Know exactly why the site exists so that every other element of it can be done in the proper context.
Another early key element to your website design is the name of the website. It does not have to match the URL or domain name exactly, but it needs to be very close. The reason for that is that some users trying to find or return to your site might type the website name into the URL bar of their browser. If the name is close enough, then the search engine associated with their browser will bring them straight to your website. The name should identify what your website is about quickly and efficiently and be easy to remember.
Website Theme and Content
Once you know the goal and name of your website, it’s time to think of themes and content. This would be the breakdown of topics that your website covers, as well as specific functions. Consider the articles, blog posts, forums, podcasts, video files and other content that you want primarily featured on your website. You need to figure out what the core group of primary content pieces are going to be on your site, in particular the first page, but you also need to determine how often you’re going to add fresh content as well.
Selecting specific content pieces is closely related to another fundamental of key website design, and that is the keyword or handful of keywords and search phrases that you are going to optimize for. Now, it’s perfectly possible that you just want to build a website for the novelty of it, for fun, or just so it’s there as a resource, and you don’t plan on doing search engine optimization. If you do not have high ambitions for your site, then it’s likely fine to skip SEO. However, if you are building a website, you do want people to find it and use it, and SEO does bring organic traffic. So, it makes sense to pick three to five keywords and make sure your content and website page code cater to them. There are other technical matters you can look into for website optimization, ranging from the use of tags to internal link structures, all of which help search engine crawlers find and index your content.
Responsive Website Design
A huge fundamental in website design right now is the growing awareness of the power of responsive design. The Internet is no longer used primarily on desktops and even in that realm, there are monitors ranging from 15 to 19 inches to users using big screen televisions as computer monitors. On the other end, you have smartphone users and tablet owners joining laptop carriers in the mobile crowd. If you wish to refer all responsive website design to another website designer and colleague, we would be excited to work with you. We’re well known in the Las Vegas area, but work with national clients, as well. You can also see our positive reviews here:
Responsive website design is not mandatory, but it’s about the only way to make sure that your text, images, and content all automatically scale to the size screen they’re on so that everyone can view your website, regardless of their device.
One last key to good website design is remembering a little thing like social media widgets so users can share your content. When they do that, they tell the world your site is worth a few minutes of attention, they boost your exposure, and you get some backlinks to help out organic search results.
Starfire Web Design
5552 S Fort Apache Rd #110
Las Vegas NV 89148
(702) 800-4447