What Websites Need
A “good website” will be the website that meets the unique needs of your business and customers and will depend on the particular demands of your business and industry.
1. Domain Name
A custom domain–or url–that’s applicable to your business. This is often “yourbusinessname.com” but not always. What’s important is that it’s a website domain that you own that people know is your business. It should not have any other service names in it like yourbusiness.wordpress.com.
Finding and registering a domain name can be simple and there are lots of options available for whenver you’re ready to start building your own website.
At Wild Iris Web Design, we recommend looking at domain registrars like namecheap or porkbun. If you’re using a website builder (Wix, Squarespace, etc), you’re usually able to purchase directly through them, but sometimes this can add complexity if you ever need to change your hosting provider.
Which brings us to…
2. Web Hosting
You’ll need a reliable and secure webhost to store and deliver your website and it’s infrastructure where other people can find it online.
A web host is literally the service or platform that will store and deliver your website. So when people type in the domain or url you’ve purchased, they’ll find your website.
There are lots of webhosting options out there and choosing the right one will ultimately come down to what your specific needs are. When you pay for plans like Wix and Squarespace they should include hosting in the cost of your monthly fee, but there are other options for hosting websites.
At Wild Iris we have used a variety of webhosting solutions to satisfy the unique needs of our clients, making sure to prioritize security, sustainability, and reliability! Hosting is included in our monthly plans and
for our one-time payment options we offer an ongoing hosting price or can help you determine which options are best for you.
3. Search Engine Optimization
This ones a doozy and can be really tricky!
Search-Engine Optimization or SEO is what helps your customers find you. There are multiple (and sometimes complex!) components
to good SEO. Some of these include:
Technical and On-Page SEO
- keywords
- meta tags
- page speed
- site manifests,
But there are other things to consider like delivering consistent, high-quality content through blogs or posts, creating appropriate backlinks and interlinking, and more.
SEO is a really broad topic can involve a lot of research and regular posting and updating to your site.
If you have a website already and aren’t seeing it driving good traffic results, you always need to look to improving SEO first. Sometimes it’s as simple as fixing broken links, incorrect redirects, or poorly structured web page content. In competitive industries though, SEO may require more in-depth work like good keyword research, building up credible, quality content, and making sure that search engines find your websites in lots of reputable places.
When it comes to your technical and on-page SEO need to be completely set up. You should make sure that you have the option to deliver quality content in posts and blogs!
4. Responsive Design
esponsive Design means designing from an all platforms perspective. It includes mobile-responsive design, meaning that users on their phones get the same satisfying experience as users on their desktop, but goes well beyond that.
Whether your users are on their phones, desktops, tablets, screen reader, or other device the content and navigation should remain comprehensible, functional, and attractive. Page and load speeds are a major factor in Responsive Design allowing users to access content regardless of different internet connections and speeds.
While all websites and web applications should be beautiful and functional regardless of how your user accesses them, but a beautiful website that doesn’t load correctly on a tablet screen or takes to long to load can cost you customers.
5. Calls to Actions and Conversion Rate Optimization
Effective Calls to Action (or CTAs) are about using the right language, having the right goals, and creating smart user-focused designs that make websites easy to understand and navigate. At Wild Iris Web Design it isn’t just about making a button that connects to an email list or lets your customer checkout, it’s about taking the big picture goals of your business and creating a website that turns visits into actions.
Your website should do more than look good, it should be converting visitors into clients. SO what is it you want to happen when they visit your website? Is it an invitation to come to your physical location? Do you want to keep in touch with email marketing? Are you selling products or services or getting them signed up for an account or deal? Make sure they can get from finding you online to being repeat customers in no time.
If you’re ready to build a website or application that works no matter your users needs, book us today for a free consultation!
