The Nuts and Bolts - The design of a successful website
Making the pieces fit. Content, usability, credibility & responsive good design, when put together with help in creating a successful website. Consumers when asked in a recent survey to determine the most important factors in a website design. The results where as follows:
1. 76%. The website makes it easy to find what they want.
2. 10%. The website as a pleasing appearance.
3. 9%. The website offers a cutting edge interactive experience.
4. 5%. Other.
Taking these points into consideration in determining the design layout and visual content of a website is very important. At Rock Solid Web Designs takes these findings very seriously.
A great website must have :
- Purpose – it’s objective.
- Content – original informative and interesting.
- Clarity & Consistency – show visitors what they can obtain from the website.
- Usability – self-explanatory, the website must be easy to use.
- User-Focused – must contain relevant, interesting and informative content.
- Navigation – allowing users to easily & quickly find their way around the website.
- Appearance – should reflect the purpose of the website and endorse its content.
- Speed – the included images and graphics must be optimised to allow a quick download time.
- Compatibility – easily viewed on varying screen sizes e.g.; monitors, tablets and smartphones.
- SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, allowing the website to be found by search engines. Good basic SEO helps towards higher page rankings. This is aided by, site content, page formatting, URL structure, page and image descriptions.
Creating a successful website - The Basic Steps explained.
- Domain Name – Your Business Address on the World Wide Web (www.).
- Website Design – Your actual Business Shop Window and Entrance on the world wide web.
- Website Hosting – Your actual Business Premises on the world wide web.
- Website Maintenance – Website Maintenance basically is about doing all the things needed to make sure your site runs smoothly and operates as it should.👍
A brief guide to: Domain Names
Your Domain Name is your worldwide business address and what appears in the web browser. It is your business address on the world wide web; www.mybusinessaddress.co.uk. In the UK .co.uk domain names, are generally intended to be used for companies trading in the UK. Companies with a worldwide market generally prefer to use .com domain names, short for Company. Other popular domain extensions include .org and .org.uk short for an organisation, such as non-profit making organisation or charities, churches etc. There are now TLD’s (Top Level Domains) available eg; www.johnsmith.graphics or www.johnsmith.consulting.
With creating a successful website It is important to check if the domain name you require is available. Try to keep your business name whenever possible.
Eg; Toms Garden Services. www.tomsgardenservices.com. If already registered; using www.toms-gardenservices.com could be a choice.
Acquiring your Domain Name. You do not buy your domain name, you register it. There are many domain name registration companies to choose from. The contract period is generally 1 – 5 years and renewable near the end of the term. A crucial point to remember is the name of the person who the domain name is registered to; owns your business on the internet. So please be careful with your choice! Here at Rock Solid Web Designs, we are happy to help you with this task and we will gladly register it in the name of your choosing.
A brief guide to: Websites
Your Website is your Business Shop Window and Entrance on the world wide web. Web design as evolved dramatically since the beginning of the 21st century, the web has become more and more part of peoples everyday lives. As this has progressed the technology of the web has also moved on. There have also been remarkable changes in the way people access and interact on the web.
Viewing a website on a smartphone should be a different experience to that of viewing the same website on a desktop pc, a laptop or tablet. This in turn as changed how sites are designed Rock Solid Web Designs understand this and incorporate it into the website design.
Possibly even more so than any other type of design, web design is about information and delivering the means to access it easily and most importantly; quickly. We fully understand for example, that a business-to-business website design (B2B) considerations may differ significantly from a consumer targeted website such as a retail or service provider website.
CMS – Content Management System is a software that allows the creation, editing, organising and publishing of digital content on the web. At Rock Solid Web Designs we use WordPress, an extremely popular, versatile and trusted open source Content Management System in our design work. 32% of all websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress these include big names such as Sony Music, Mercedes Benz, Disney Company and Microsoft News just to name a few to verify your website will be good company.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation: Ranking on page one of search engine results is the desired aim for every business. The website must be designed in a way that it is not only search-engine friendly but also user-friendly. Good relevant, consistent content is paramount along with optimised images that apply to the web page can help towards this goal.
Website security Google and major search engines are now giving preferential ranking to businesses with SSL licenses (https.). This security is now built-in into all Rock Solid Web Designs websites for extra security and is included in the design cost. We believe this to be crucial for the client and giving the customer the added security when using the website and is a necessity with an e-commerce website (online store). More information on https: can be found HERE
The goal of Rock Solid Web Designs is for our clients’ website to be at the forefront of their specific field. Recent facts established that 40% of consumers will leave a page that takes longer than 5.5 seconds to load. That is why we put our time and expertise into every website we design so that is optimised using a range of checking tools for speed and performance before we are satisfied to allow it to go live.
A brief guide to: Website Hosting
Website Hosting is to think that if the domain name was the address of your business, then web hosting is the actual business premises that your address points to. Every website on the internet requires a web hosting. Once complete and your website is signed off it will go live. Your website can be hosted through with Rock Solid Web Designs or you are free to choose your desired hosting company. Always there for you, Rock Solid Web Designs will gladly give a brief overview of what hosting features would best suit your type of website regarding the four general types of hosting servers available. Also, the factors to consider that would be of benefit to you when deciding on a hosting provider.
A competitively priced annual web hosting service is offered by Rock Solid Web Designs
A brief guide to : Website Maintenance
Website maintenance is about doing all the things needed to make sure your website runs smoothly and operates as it should. These tasks are either done on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual timescale. If you do not have a robust maintenance plan in place, and the first time you hear about a problem with your website is when a customer or a third party informs you, in terms of organisational reputation that is far too late.
Websites with web pages that are not maintained will result in poor user experience. Having content on your web pages that is incorrect or out of date does not reflect well on your business. Particularly if they act on information they assume is true and subsequently find out to be incorrect. A customer relationship and trust takes time to build but very little to break. Research as shown that it can take up to five times as much effort, time and money to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer.
Below is a very brief overview of some of the work entailed:
- To keep website content up-to-date.
- Quality; to spot errors on website this includes broken page links.
- Security; update core website software, plugins & add-on’s.
- Monitor website performance and review website statistics.
- Regularly back up Website.
- Check all forms and contact details to ensure they are correct and working properly.
- Monitor hosting.
- Data compliant.
Help is at hand should you not wish to maintain your website yourself, Rock Solid Web Designs offer a range of comprehensive maintenance packages to suit individual website requirements on an annual subscription basis.