Designing Your Website
| To design a website that will help you meet your business goals – start with these questions, then find a designer who understands that “bells and whistles” are not the essential key. |
Designing a website can be a fun project, but it does take careful thought before beginning. As with most projects for your business, you’ll be:
- Identifying your target market
- Designing for your target audience and not for yourself
- Selecting a “look and feel” that is right for your business and niche
Many people want to start with colors and layout, but you’re better off starting with the content. These questions will help you in determining what should go on your website:
- What do you want the website to do for your practice?
- What do you want the website visitor to be able to do on your website?
- What do you want them to learn from your website?
- What do you want the website visitor to do as a result of visiting your website? What is the next step that you want them to take?
The answers to these four questions hold the key to the success of your website.
Don’t take a random approach. Start by analyzing how the website will fit into your plans for growing your practice and/or supporting your operations.
When you have done this, you are in a better position to determine your goals for the website (what you want your website to do for the practice).
Sample goals:
- establish credibility
- provide information
- qualify leads
- establish a following
- move visitors to a face-to-face meeting
- sell your service or product
Coordinate the content for your website with your website goals.
| If your website goal is to: | Include content such as: |
| establish credibility | credentials, testimonials, association memberships, training, etc. |
| provide information | lots of content and interactive tools such as calculators or self-scoring quizzes |
| qualify leads | forms, questionnaires, self-assessments, results can go to your email or a database, get email addresses for follow-up |
| establish a following | e-zines, regularly updated content, articles – give visitors a reason to keep coming back |
| move visitors to a face-to-face meeting | upcoming events, speeches, workshops, book signings, meetings, etc. |
| sell your service or product | service/product descriptions – for online payments or purchases include fees and a payment mechanism |
To get ideas about websites and what you might do with yours, do this exercise:
Look At Other Websites
- look at 8-12 website offering services or products similar to yours
- use a pad to take notes
- notice what you like and don’t like, what works and what doesn’t work
- get ideas for content categories, use of colors and graphics, layout, etc.
- visit 4-5 unrelated sites and ask the same questions
Getting Started
Your website will evolve over time, so don’t try to make it absolutely perfect with the first draft. You’ll have plenty of opportunitiy to tweak it over time. Select a web designer who understands how your business operates and your website goals. You will draw on this knowledge as you develop your website.
Dawson Resources, LLC provides website design services that include consultation on developing your website goals, linking website features to business objectives, and developing an attractive, effective website to help you grow your business. Contact us via email at dianne@dawsonresources.com.
To keep your project organized, begin by setting up a folder on your computer for your website. Gather information you want to include and store it in your folder. When you sit down to write, you’ll have everything in one place.
When you work with Dawson Resources, LLC, you don’t have to write your own content. Just gather your information and, after an extensive conversation with you to discuss your business and to develop your goals, we can take your information and develop the content for you.