Whether you seek to market your brand or your services as a professional in any given field, a professional and user-friendly website is the very first step to embark on successful branding in the digital arena. A website is the hub of your digital presence; all other social media and digital profiles lead here.
Designing a smart and impressive website is not as difficult as many tend to think. Nor does it require hundreds of dollars. There are countless plugins and website development software and sites that allow you to design it yourself. However, there are undoubtedly necessary and vital ingredients that you need to put together for a dynamic and robust design.
Let’s take a look at these ingredients, shall we?
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CREATIVE INSPIRATION
First and foremost, you need to visualize the website design you want to create. It is a significant step as your website will shape the digital identity of your brand. Naturally, the website design must resonate with your brand, or your portfolio and personality if it’s a personal blog.
The design must reflect the values and vibe that seek to portray you through your brand. More importantly, it must appeal to the tastes of your target audience. It requires you to experiment with various ideas and explore designs that you usually appreciate online.
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YOUR DIGITAL ADDRESS
Your domain name serves as your digital address, which will allow your audience to find your website. It should be smooth, catchy, and unique. You will have to purchase the domain name and check for availability. It shouldn’t cost you more than $20. Many brands and professionals go with free domains, but it casts an unprofessional vibe on the website.
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THE RIGHT WEBSITE SOFTWARE
Choosing the right website software is extremely crucial as it determines the user-friendliness and attractiveness of your website. Brands and businesses typically turn towards popular software, such as WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. WordPress is hands down the most flexible website builder, and it allows an abundance of customization opportunities. You can explore the best WordPress themes and plugins marketplace and customize every single aspect as per your creative inspiration.
Wix is another flexible and immersive tool that allows you to get creative with its innovative features. If you’re planning to construct the website yourself, Wix is the right option. For immersive design templates, Squarespace has much to offer, while Weebly provides an easy to use design for technophobes.
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ESTABLISHING A BUSINESS IDENTITY
In the digital arena, establishing the identity of your business requires multiple factors and facets. But the two most essential ingredients are a business email address, and a business logo. You cannot use Gmail or other accounts, as it will look extremely unprofessional and unimpressive. You need to create a business email to exhibit a secure and dignified brand personality.
A business logo that resonates and reflects your brand artfully is also indispensable and immensely significant. It reflects your brand identity and differentiates you from your competitors. You can either create the logo yourself with online templates or logo generators or hire a graphic designer. It is highly advisable as uniqueness and exclusivity cannot be compromised if you want an impressive and impactful logo.
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WEBSITE HOSTING
Website hosting is a storage vault that allows the content on your website to live in the digital arena. Whenever someone opens your site, the website host will supply the content to the browser. There are four basic kinds of hosting, and they all come with their pros and cons.
The expenses tend to increase as your audience grows, and more people visit your website. You can choose between shared hosting, dedicated hosting, free hosting, or shared hosting. It requires you to examine each type, and understand which works for you and your audience. You will also need to upgrade your website hosting with time to keep up with the demands of digital popularity.
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TEMPLATES & DESIGN
Choosing between a template and a unique design is a crucial decision, and it depends on your creative inspiration and budget. Naturally, if you can hire a website designer, it is ideal for creating a website from scratch. However, if you want to keep it simple and economical, you can pick out a template from an abundance of options. Wix and WordPress offer an endless variety of professional and immersive website templates, and you can choose among them as per your desire.
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CONTENT IS KING
Even if your website features the most striking and immersive design, it offers no appeal without engaging content. In the digital arena, content is king, and you need a dynamic and immersive content strategy. This strategy must be multifaceted and inspired by the preferences, tastes, and interests of your target audience.
Content is not limited to articles, blogs, or beautiful penmanship. It requires appealing imagery, photography and editing skills, and videography. Word of caution: plagiarism is the easiest way to ensure that your website gets shunned by Google and your audience.
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Without a dynamic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, even the best of content goes unnoticed. SEO serves the purpose of breathing life into your website and creating a digital identity through search engines. You need to use SEO strategies and keywords to provide your audience what they seek. SEO is crucial and instrumental in ensuring your presence on the first few pages of Google and other search engines.
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GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Maintaining your website and digital presence is all about improvement, innovation, and evolution. Google Analytics and other data analytics tools allow you to understand your audience and their interactions with the website. It will enable you to understand the content they like and the content they dislike. You can follow the demographics of your audience and gain insight into their preferences. This understanding is crucial in making improvements and correcting your mistakes.
CONCLUSION
Designing and running a website are two different milestones. While the designing phase is more accessible, running a successful and engaging website is more challenging. However, if you manage to create a unique and impressive website design, you can make it easier and fun!
