This could be: it’s too hard to maintain by yourself, you need more features or the site keeps failing to visitors’ attention or in usability.

One of the most important steps is to describe your ideal audience. For this step, we provide Personas to our clients which guide them through the process. This research helps a lot to identify with your target audience. Think of a real person, give them a name, describe their character, style, and interests. If you want, take it even further and create Pinterest Boards for them, including their very own world.

Check out your competitors’ online presence, such as their websites or social media accounts, and see what they do and what you could do differently to stand out and clarifying your personality.

Think of what needs to happen with the new website to attract your ideal clients and match your brand strategy. Define what you want users to do on your website, such as buy a product or service, fill out a form, share content on social media, view content, or register for events. Working with SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely goals will help you to clarify your visions. 

Come up with a list of content that needs to be shown on your website, especially on your Home page. This is the page your visitors will check out in the first place. Make them understand your message and happy to explore more.

Always keep in mind: a new website is for your customers, not for yourself. So ask yourself again, why do you need a website for your brand, and what’s the purpose? If possible, try to get down to the details of every feature and think of what the visitors will accomplish on your website.

After defining the purpose of your website and who you want to reach, identify the kind of website you will need. Every website has it’s own requirements and features, so this is one of the most important questions – do you want to sell products online? Or do you offer digital services or write a blog magazine? Those differences need to be defined from the very beginning.

Of course, there truly are endless options, some of the keywords could be Contact Forms, Login Shop System and Payments, Contact Forms, Site Search, Social Integration, Languages, Newsletter Signup and Subscriptions, Blog and Comments, Content Management, SEO, Traffic, Sales, Google Analytics, Usability or Performance. Also, think of features that are necessary and which are only nice to have. We try to get a website going as best as we can and will add any other content or features later on. This will avoid delays or unnecessary rounds.

This relies on your brand requirements and the purpose of your website. Keep in mind the user’s journey and don’t make things to complicated. For the shop system, you might need several levels of access and a login function, which requires backend development. Be prepared and add this to your list. Anyway, you’ll receive a fully designed site, you’ll receive a solid wireframe or prototype to enhance clarity.

Your amount of pages will probably change real quick when it comes to defining your structure but keep in mind search engines like websites with plenty of pages with high-quality copy text such as About, Contact a Blog, or FAQs.

After defining the purpose of your website and who you want to reach, identify the kind of website you will need. Every website has it’s own requirements and features, so this is one of the most important questions – do you want to sell products online? Or do you offer digital services or write a blog magazine? Those differences need to be defined from the very beginning.

 A website with a lot of traffic does need different hosting plans than sites with less traffic.

What do you need in the first place? Know where you may have to prioritize some features over others. Some businesses want a very unique functionality, which a website designed from scratch provides. For other businesses, there are several brilliant pre-made Wordpress or Shopify themes out there, which can be custom edited for you. Think of your budget and ask for your possibilities.

Maintenance is often underestimated. Pushing a website outside and not worrying about it anymore isn’t the best idea. Our digital world is constantly evolving, and so should your website. Keep your visitors up to date and interested, integrate a news feed, publish new products, projects, and images or communicate via newsletter.

Get inspired by other websites and see what you would like to have on your site as well. Based on this, see which functionalities, effects, and designs you prefer.

A mistake a lot of businesses do is to start with their website without even defining who they are, strategically as well as visually. If you haven’t got anything yet, a Designer will either need to develop a visual identity for you to maintain brand consistency on your new website. For this, we wrote an article „Why a Brand is more than a Logo“ – feel free to check it out.

A good website lives through photos. Good photos, that match each other. See your website as your brand’s virtual home. Decorate it nicely and make your visitors feel comfortable. If you haven’t defined an imagery look or even researched for high quality this will probably be something you should hire a Designer or even Photographer for. Having actual and unique photos would be the best option, but there are some great stock images out there that you can use in the first place. As Designers, we have access to a large selection of those images.

As mentioned before, search engines love websites with high-quality copytext. This is important for SEO, Search Engine Optimization. This is why we highly recommend working with a copywriter, to get a well-structured website concept when it comes to text.

Plan and define a specific date for your launch. This helps to define the scope, prepare as much as you can. Typically, the time for website design is based on the scope of the work required and how quickly you provide them with needed information, such as text.

Based on all these, you’ll be able to receive a quote specially tailored to your needs. Of course, this is only an extract of the questions, there are so many more you should think of, but this should give you an idea of how much input you’ll need to provide when it comes to a professional website for your business. A website, that creates emotional experiences.