Designing an Audience Focused Website

Designing an Audience Focused Website, Website platforms are available by the dozen.  Free sites to fully subscribed platforms, limited functionality to multi-functioning customer tools.  The range is endless andwthe ability to innovate is achievable.

But how exactly do you create an audience focused website and which key elements should you identify before you create it?

All websites serve as a digital portfolio. As an online representation of your business and at the heart of that website focus is, and should always be your audience.  Therefore, your aim, when creating any website, it to satisfy and fulfil the demands and expectations of your targeted audience.

At Rak Design, we wholly understand how the right website can generate more business. How the right platform can expand your audience and how a fully functioning site can increase profits and transform business strategies instantaneously.

By creating a site which is audience focused, innovative or simplistic, provides an opportunity to cement your industry business. Here is a collection of our top tips when creating a website; an online window viewed by all:

Ascertain the purpose of the website:

Although all websites are created to gain a bigger audience. Each website platform is shaped around specific areas i.e. a public display for key messages and content, to increase sales, expand readership or served as a shop window for products/services.  Defining exactly what your website will be used for will help with the template, layout and content population.

Trendsetting:

Evaluate and research common website themes/styles currently used.  By researching the current trends, you can then establish audience preferences. The type of sites which gain the most hits.  The likeability factor of any site can determine how long your customer spends on your site and the reasons for reoccurring visits.

Content layout:

The layout of your website can also contribute to audience retention times.  A bulk text can put audiences off. Staggered content with bold headings can draw customers to targeted content. Which can have an overall impact on the success of the site.

Content:

Words function as a powerful tool.  Create text that is succinct, understandable (shying away from jargon), easy to read and has SEO value.  Ascertaining the ‘right’ words not only affects your audience reach once on the site but can affect your internet search rankings. Therefore, be sure not to include any spelling or grammatical mistakes!

Colour palette:

Creating a site which has a colour theme can strengthen your employer brand and cement a recognisable. Online visual association for your customers.  Selecting fewer colours can also affect where the eye is drawn too and can determine the hot spots of the site, which you may want further focus on.

Font selection and style:

Utilise fonts which are easy to read.  Definitive, emphasised words i.e. bold, italicised, enlarged, can provide essential emphasis on products or services you are particularly keen to sell/offer – be creative yet simplistic!

Finally, after researching your perfect platform, ascertaining your audience and cementing your employer brand, brainstorm potential ideas for your website and have fun with its creation!

One last bit of advice for all you budding website creators – apply security and maintenance checks every step of the way.  After all, your shop may not have a physical frontier but it still serves as an online window; vulnerable to devastating criminal activity! 

Locally based in Sywell, Northamptonshire – covering surrounding towns; Northampton, Wellingborough, Kettering, Corby, Milton Keynes, Daventry, Rugby, Leicester and Rushden.