Originally I was going to write this post as ‘questions you should ask your web designer.’ Then I realised it was probably far more useful to write about what your designer should be asking you. If you’re out there now looking for a new website, these are the key questions that any designer should be asking. A web designer’s job isn’t simply to transfer your content online – they need to know the ins and outs of your business in order to build you an effective site.
What is the site for?
You might have any number of answers for this but typically people need websites to promote their business, find new clients, market their products and services, raise awareness, and so on.
Who is the site for?
Your designer should be thinking about the kinds of sites your typical visitors might be familiar with and what their expectations are when they come to your site.
Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen points out that “users spend most of their time on other websites”. There are certain conventions that people expect from sites and your designer should be aware of what your visitors are familiar with. If you need a corporate site then your designer shouldn’t be building something that looks like a dating site.
Who are your competitors?
Your designer should be looking to find out as much as possible about your business. This includes finding out who your competitors are and what their websites look like. Because you need a better one.
How will people find the site?
Are you expecting new visitors to find your site via search engines or will you direct existing contacts to your site? Often it’s a mixture of both and your web designer should be thinking about this.
For example, if you’re starting a new business and you’re expecting most of your business to come from online searches, your designer should be establishing key phrases that people will be searching on and understanding how competitive they are.
What’s your site’s key message?
Your site needs to communicate what it’s about to visitors within the first few seconds. Users tend to make up their minds very quickly about websites so your message needs to come through loud and clear straightaway. Effective ways of doing this include using a slogan on the home page with a mission statement, making the correct choices about colour and font, and avoiding opening phrases like ‘Welcome to our website’.
The GrossPay site has a clear mission statement
What would be the ideal outcome of a visit to your site?
This might seem really obvious but once people have found your site what do you want them to do next?
As an example, if your site is an online shop then the outcome should be that visitors will buy products. It’s not always so obvious what the outcome should be if your site isn’t a shop. Often it’s simply that you would like people to contact you, in which case your contact form needs to be clear and simple to use. Other possible outcomes to sites might include user contribution – e.g. on forums or in comments; you might want people to forward the site link to other people – viral marketing works this way; or you might want people to contribute money – for a charity, for instance.
What will make visitors want to return?
Getting visitors to your site is hard; getting them to return is even harder. Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on allow you to connect with your visitors in ways that you couldn’t previously. Your designer should be able to suggest the best ways for you to hook your visitors in and keep them coming back.
Of course, one of the best ways to encourage visitors to return is to keep giving them interesting and relevant content. We build sites that allow you to add and update content easily – because keeping your site up to date is one of the greatest competitive advantages you can have. Get in touch with us if you’d like to find out more.
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