Television adverts and blogs are always convincing people that building a website is easy. Therefore, when it comes to assigning the task to someone, anyone who says they can build a website should be able to do it. Right?
This often means when looking for a website developer, many opt for the cheapest option, not the one with the most skill or experience. We advise that you don’t make this mistake. Here are a few things you should consider when looking at quotes for your website.
1. Usability
While some designers have great skills and a creative edge, they don’t have a good grasp of usability. You need to make sure that your designer understands how your target market will use your site and then build the website around those principles.
Planning navigation across your site is vital. Sites with good navigation don’t just keep users on your website, they also perform well on Google.
One thing you have to consider is how many pages you have on the main navigation bar. If you have 15 pages on there, then you’re likely to experience a high abandonment rate.
Some of the key aspects you’ve got to ask your prospective website developers include:
- How are you building the sitemap?
- What navigational labels are you using?
- What is the path to contact information?
- What font size and spacing are you using?
- Is the text contrast sufficient for all users to view?
Many customers will actually leave your site if they can’t find your contact information or other details they want. This can mean a lot of lost opportunities for your business.
You also need to think about speed. Pretty websites don’t always run fast, especially if images without optimisation have been used. Amateur website developers tend not to focus on this, but it can be a significant issue.
For every second it takes for your website to load, you’re losing 7% of your revenue. Just four seconds and you’ve lost a quarter of your potential revenue!
2. Building an action flow
The number one problem with websites is that sometimes they don’t ask the customer to take the next step in the journey. Sales teams will always tell you it often takes more than one interaction to sell to a customer. In fact, research has shown that in 80% of cases, it can take between 5 and 12 interactions.
If your website doesn’t have enough push to tell people to take the next step, then you’re going to lose potential revenue.
The trouble is, DIY websites and amateur designers don’t create websites that funnel people down the sales path. They can create beautiful websites, sometimes, but this doesn’t guarantee leads. You need to encourage action on your website, and to do this, you need a good call-to-action.
A call-to-action should tell the user what you want them to do. Whether that is to subscribe to a mailing list, buy a product or follow you on social media. Don’t think that you’re being bossy, people like to know what to do next.
A good call-to-action should have:
• Ownership – using words like you and your. • Urgency – telling them that they need to do it before the offer runs out. • Value proposition – inform the user what they’re going to get.
If you don’t have a call-to-action, your website won’t deliver the results you’re hoping for.
3. Security
More than half of all businesses are targeted by hackers. There are several ways that they can do this, but one of them is by trying to gain access to your website through administration credentials. Why these? Because often the login name is just ‘admin’.
All the hacker then needs is the password, and with so many website owners using the same password, such as ‘123456’ or ‘password’, it is easy for them to gain access. Once in, they can steal, corrupt and destroy data, as well as damage your website.
A professional website designer would never allow for ‘admin’ to be the default user name. Instead, it should be something that is hard to guess.
Another key component is the spam protection. You need a spam blocker that has been professionally installed and configured. Spam might be harmless most of the time, but it is also annoying to remove and is just wasted productivity.
In addition, those with knowledge of WordPress will know that old plugins and badly maintained themes are a security risk. Will your developer keep everything up to date once your site is up and running? Make sure you check this, as a website which isn’t updated regularly is at risk of security threats.
Conclusion
Who you get to build your website is up to you. However, think twice before you go with the cheap option. It might keep costs down now, but in the long-term, it could mean you need to bring in someone to fix issues or to rebuild your website entirely.
Get a professional website development team in early to ensure the best website is being built for you.