How to Design a Website: 8 Steps to Creating an Effective Site Design

In this day and age, having a website for a business is crucial to succeed. Your customers can check your brand and shop online on a website.  

Developing a website requires both front and back-end development, acquiring a domain name and should reflect your brand well. 

The front end is the customer-facing side of the website. It consists of the visual elements the user will see and interact with on the website. For front-end development, tools like Photoshop and Illustrator are used. Front-end developers must also use programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

The back end is the server side of the website. It consists of the coding part focusing on the website functionality, user authentication, network and hosting configuration, database interaction, etc. Back-end developers should know programming languages like Ruby, .Net, and Python.

While website development refers to the website's functionality, website design refers to the look and feel of a website. Both are equally important to have successful websites. You can have a properly functioning website, but if it doesn't attract the attention of your website visitors, your online business will not succeed. 

Interested in checking out how to design a website that you would be interested in? Here is an 8-step guide on how to design a website!

An 8-Step Guide to Create An Effective Website Design

A well-designed website significantly impacts a business's success. A visually engaging website attracts visitors at first glance, encouraging them to explore your products and building customer trust in your brand.

Here is an 8-step guide to designing a website:

1. Draft a Website Plan

First, it is essential to have a well-structured plan of how you want your website, its user interaction and customers' buying journey facility. You should ensure the design decision will align with your site's end goals.

Keep a note of the following points for drafting the website plan:

• Showcase your brand identity
• Set the series of actions that website visitors should take upon opening the site
• Choose the tone you want to use to communicate with visitors
• Check your competitor's website for design
• Pick out the latest website design trends from the market

From all this information, you should create a sitemap. That is, list all your website's topics and sub-topics and decide how a user can jump from one page to another. A good sitemap makes navigation easy for the customers and attracts them to your business.

2. Pick a Website Platform

To get started, you should now pick a platform to build your site with. Website development framework offers software developers a set of tools to manage websites. Pick a platform that suits your skill set, budget, and purpose. 

One of the popular website development platforms is Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS). It works great for creating various websites, from digital resumes and online directories to large eCommerce stores. However, using a web development framework requires purchasing a web hosting service. You can also connect with Innoraft- web development company,  to leave all the hustle and bustle of website development to us. Our extensive collection of plugins allows our customers to incorporate custom functionality per their requirements.

Consider the following points while choosing a development framework:

• Check your website functionality requirements
• Consider community support and security features
• Find out its compatibility with your stack
• Check if it aligns well with your budget

After choosing a website development framework, pick the domain name for your website. Domain name helps to identify your website/ business location on the Internet.

      3. Choose the Website Design

Step 3 involves customizing the website per your visual identity goals. Here, you can think of ways to establish your brand identity. Take care of the following things:

• Choose a web design template or theme that suits your business identity
• Determine the website's color scheme as per the target audience 
• Create an eye-catchy logo
• Pick the suitable typography options

It would help if you aim for attention-grabbing yet pleasant website designing.

4. Set Website Essential Pages

A website should minimum consist of the following pages:

• Home page

The home page is the first page users land on that communicates with the visitor what the website is about. We suggest you design a home page with a unique selling proposition. You can feature a headline at the top of the page and an attractive call-to-action button. 

• About page

The page provides in-depth information about the business behind the site. You can communicate your values and convey your brand identity to your customers. It builds trust among your customers and boosts their loyalty towards your brand. 

• Product page

The product page of the website is necessary for all the business sites. Usually, there are two types of product pages: catalog page and single item page. The catalog page works for businesses that sell multiple products/ services. The catalog page displays a list of products that your business offers. In comparison, a single-item page shows every individual product/ service that your business offers in more detail.

• Contact page

This page shows site visitors/ customers how they should contact you or make a purchase. You can add a business phone number, email address, and an interactive map featuring the company's location. The page should be easy to understand. We suggest you add a form to the page that only includes the most necessary form fields like name, email address, and text area.

• Blog page

This page is necessary for content creators or businesses that want to use blogging as their marketing strategy. It consists of featured blog posts and snippets of the blog posts.

5. Optimize User Experience

The next should be optimizing the website for a good user experience. Here are some elements that you should consider: 

• Choose a simple navigation system. It encourages customers who visit your website to explore more about your business. You can utilize an appropriate menu design for the same.
• Take care of the site loading time. It is a crucial part of the overall user experience.
• Make a website more accessible by writing alt text for images and using readable and meaningful URLs.

6. Mobile Friendly Websites

Not only does Google consider mobile-friendliness an essential feature to rank on their SERPs, but also half of the customer traffic comes from mobile. Ensure your website displays accurately on a mobile device and functions efficiently for the mobile user.

7. Test Your Website

Before launching your website, test your website. You can check for any design-related problems and should also conduct website usability testing.

• You ask for friends and family members to review your website.
• You can conduct A/B testing 
• Using a heatmap tool will also work great to get you conversions.

8. Launch and Maintain Your Website

It is essential to keep a continuous track of your website. Keep a constant how it performs and tweak it whenever necessary. It ensures the proper functioning of the website and maximizes its capabilities. Use Google Analytics. It helps to keep track of your website. It offers you the following website performance metrics:

• Pageviews
• Average session duration
• Conversion rate
• Bounce rate
• Traffic sources
• Audience demographics

Summary

A good website is crucial for any business, and thankfully, at Innoraft, we are here to help you achieve that. Innoraft is an all-in-one web development company that can help you with everything from building a website to figuring out product development and marketing strategy. 

So, if you are ready to take your business to the next level with an SEO-driven website, check out Innoraft today.