Recently DBG was lucky enough to present to a small group of business owners as part of the Brand Task Force.

The presentation was aimed at giving businesses a quick digital health check.  DBG chose to present on ‘5 Tips For Getting a Great Website’, and in this 5 part blog series we’ll cover the information we presented.

Part three outlines the value of pausing after your website has been designed, and checking off on some critical evaluation factors.

Once the planning stages are out of the way (How To Plan For Your New Website and Who Are Your Website Target Audiences) and your website design has begun, there are some critical evaluation factors that we’d suggest everyone should consider before proceeding to the next phase in their website project:

Does it address your target market?

It is important to cater your website layout and design elements to the wants and needs of our target market – not ourselves!  There’s no point in designing a website that you like if you’re nothing like your target market.   The most elementary example we can think of would be the designer of the Justin Bieber website being middle-aged man designing a website that he’d like!  It just wouldn’t work.

Are there clear calls to action?

You need to make it easy for people to engage with you online – don’t make them work for it. You have 2 clicks and 7 seconds to get people where they need to go.   For example, if the purpose of the site is to inform people about your services and then make contact for more information, you should be adding a call to action at the end of every page across the whole site. Once someone has read all about “Service A”, give them a coloured button to click to show them how they can engage with you.

Is it mobile friendly?

With internet searches on mobile devices having increased 400% since 2010, websites can no longer be created without the mobile user in mind.   What will your website look like on a mobile device?  Has the designer used responsive website design techniques to ensure that the website will be flexible for use on all devices?  These are important questions to ask.

Is it consistent with your other channels?

You must ensure that your new website design is consistent with all of your other marketing channels.   Does it look like your business cards, brochures, car signage, TV advertising? A good designer will take into account all of these other elements when designing your new site.You want customers to come to your site and feel continuity of your brand.

Minimise the bells and whistles!

And finally – minimise the bells and whistles! Your homepage doesn’t need to feature absolutely everything. Review everything within the template of the site and make sure that it’s important for the target audience. If it’s something else, then it’s likely creating unnecessary ‘noise’ on the site and will distract users from the important stuff.

Stay tuned for part four in this series which will cover the ongoing work required once a website is online.