Web Podcast - Episode 2: The process of building a website

Read the transcription of this podcast:

Yes, welcome back, this is episode two. Today we are going into detail about the process of creating your website.

Whether you use someone like a web design company to o it or you do it yourself. People often have the misconception that making a website is as easy as slapping a logo on there, chuck in some text and a photo. It’s definitely not that easy.

But, if you know the process you can get it right first time round.

Let’s get into the details:

Step one: Planning.

Everything needs to be planned. I don’t mean you need to sit there for five hours and write everything out. But you need to think about what you want your website to achieve. What’s the purpose of it? Why are you spending this time or money getting it built? What end goal do you want for your business? Is it that you want more sales? Better credibility?

These are all very important considerations before you even start on it. The most common ones are that obviously people want more leads from their website.

You want the website built so you can get people off Google who are looking for the product or service your website offers, and then ideally buy.

That’s usually the most common outcome.

Even if you’re a company that’s built on word of mouth and you have people talking about you and your business is generated that way that’s fantastic as that’s basically free advertising.
But, a lot of people like to look up referrals on the internet.

If somebody recommends a painter, it’s easy to go and look up the painter through Google to see his website. So he will have to have one, and it needs to be a good one, or else he won’t be giving a very good impression.

You need to plan it, when you plan it consider what the end goal is, then you need to think about what pages do you want on the website.

Most sites have a homepage, about us, the services you offer, testimonials, photo gallery, contact page.

If you’re a shop then it’s the same sort of layout, but you’ll also have product catalogues and terms and conditions.

Once you’ve planned it then you’re at step two.

Step two: Design and get a concept created.

Go ahead and get the logo, get a graphic designer to make you a template although the web developer can do that for you. Make sure everything matches your brand, make sure the vehicle signage, business cards, email signature, letterheads, make sure they all match and blend with the new website nicely so that people can easily see the difference between you.

You’ll look more professional obviously as everything will be clean cut and uniform.

Just another thing on design. Be careful how you design the website. Yes, it’s cool to have a real flash looking site but it can also be a pain in the arse for some people. If your business is catered to an older audience then it’s good to have your website made so it’s easy to use. If your website is targeted at younger people then you can include the quirky design elements that you find on specialist websites.

A good old header, menu, content, footer is a good structure to focus on. Avoid having a little menu icon button that shows the menu when you’re catering for people that are 50 plus. It’s not going to work. Ensure your site works for your audience.

Step three: Content.

Get your content right. Go through every oae, write notes about what you want on them pages then elaborate further and start building your content. If you’re using a web developer they should help you with content.
If you have a copywriter, even better. Get them to help build the content for you.

When you write content keep it simple. Structure it like a pyramid.

At the top have headings and buttons all nice and cleanly laid out.

As you start going down to the bottom of the pyramid, towards the bottom you can start going into greater detail.
This is because 80% of people just want short and sweet. 20% of people want more detail. The pyramid ensures you still cater to both parties but we are not giving the 80% of people all the text they don't want to look through.
Give them bullet points.

If they want more information people will generally keep scrolling down.

Once the content is ordered you then obviously load it into the website, add photos to it, put call to action buttons in to compliment the site.

Make a flow, give the user something to follow. If they’re on the homepage give them the option to learn more about your services. When they’re on the learn more about your services page, then you can have another button so they can contact you for a quote.

Take the user through a story. Once you have done the content and layered it out then check it for mobile friendliness and that it works on all common devices and check through once again to ensure that everything is there.

Step four: Just check you’ve got all the meta tags inserted correctly. Ensure the content has relevant keywords and that you have a good meta description for your website. If you Google it it’s basically the text that comes up in search engines.
Keep it down to 155 characters and make it keyword rich too. Don’t go over the top. Google is focused on good content rather than keyword cramming.

That’s the process between making a website. If you’re doing it yourself or you’re using a professional, then great. That’s the best process to follow when you’re setting up a website.

As I said, everything needs a plan, don’t go overboard on it but put in the time and figure out what you want to achieve from it.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Like and subscribe.

We have more posts coming up soon.

I’m Matt from RAZOR Web and that is the RAZOR Web Design Wire Podcast.