What makes good Web Design?

Web design. Everyone’s doing it these days, right?

Web design isn’t just about the technical aspects of building a website, it’s an art. Web design is crafting an online marketplace, a dynamic promotional tool and an essential part of your brand. It’s your 24-hour store and your sales round-the-clock cashier. Sure, maybe many people can put together a website these days but are they hitting all the right buttons, literally and metaphorically, to ensure that website is going to be effective?

We’re web development and online branding experts at Rak Design. And, because we like to share, here are Rak Design’s five simple steps to web design success.

Have a clear and consistent corporate identity already established

Your website is just one part of your corporate identity. Do you have an effective logo in place and visual identity guidelines in place which establish how your company can be easily and immediately recognised? If so, you’re ready to roll! If not, let’s talk.

Know your website objectives

Is your website your core sales outlet where your customers will purchase your products? Or is it a publicity tool, designed to promote your brand? Will it need to provide customer support or deliver on multiple aims? Understanding how your website fits into your business model is vital so that you and your web designer can pick the right platform to base your website on. In the design and prototyping stages, refer constantly back to your objective to check that you’re on the right track.

Launch the website and drive traffic

Your website is online! But you can’t sit back and wait for the customers to come to you, not with a billion other sites out there. Use social media, pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimisation (SEO) to drive traffic to your website.

Monitor traffic to your website

Google Analytics offers an easy way to measure your website success and inform where you invest more time, money and energy for the best return on investment. It’s a free service which provides detailed statistics about website traffic, traffic sources, traffic behaviour and sales. Google Analytics tracks hits from all referrers, including search engines, PPC, email marketing, other websites and social media and so on, as well as providing information on user locations and length of stay on your site.

Tweak your website or marketing strategy to optimise your website results

Use the feedback from Google Analytics to step up your social media, decide whether to invest in more PPC or continue with your e-bulletins. If traffic isn’t coming to your site from where you’re investing the most time and money, you know that your marketing strategy isn’t working and you will need to alter your approach. If traffic is coming in where you’d expect, you can give yourself a pat on the back and plan to keep up the good work.

See our web design and graphic design portfolio