A beginners guide to building a website [10 Things to Consider]

‘Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room’ said Jeff Bezos.
What people think about your business, expect from it and associate with it, is what defines your brand. Branding is what you do to make that reputation.

You want people to see your business as up-to-date, approachable and helpful – no matter which industry you’re working in.

Therefore all decisions to do with branding need to be intentional. Business name, logo, colors and tone – all these should be chosen carefully to convey the right impression of your business.

The size and scope of your business will determine how many and which pages your website will need. Standard sites are usually 5-6 pages, including Home, About, Services and Contact pages. You can read the basics about them here. 

A professional copywriter, such as the ones on the CWS team, can help you figure out which pages and website structure will convey your message most effectively to your visitors.

A call to action is an instruction to your reader telling them what to do next. These are the buttons you’ve clicked that say ‘Buy now’, ‘see services’ or ‘get in touch’. Even with great copy, don’t assume your reader knows what you want them to do next. When you spell out exactly what their next step is, your prospect is more likely to be persuaded to do that. Although any marketing material of yours should have a CTA, website CTAs are more effective than in print, as people can instantly click through to the next stage in your sales process- be it to buy a product, browse catalogs, or get in touch through a contact form.

Images are an important element of any website, as they add color and break up the text while visually portraying whatever you’re trying to say.

When it comes to choosing images for your site, you have a few options: (see images below)

• Custom photos: Hiring a photographer to do a custom photo shoot of your products/services is the ideal and works for many industries. Custom photos naturally give the site personality, vividly portraying the services or products you’re describing, as well as their outcomes, and bring out the human experience in the business.
• Stock images: There are millions of images that can be bought online, giving you nearly unlimited choice. Stock photos are much less expensive and still true to life, as they are real photographs, but can often be very generic or cliche, looking posed or fake.
• Vector images: These are trendy and modern and can also be bought online inexpensively. Using this style of images gives a site a contemporary vibe, and adds personality, but won’t be suitable for every industry, as they may not match the tone of the site.

Google Analytics is a free tool that gathers data about how people are using your website. It shows you statistics such as how many people have visited your website in the last 7 days, how long they spend on each page, what pages are visited most frequently, and how quickly people exit your site. You can also find out information about your users, such as where they are located, what devices they’re using to view your site, and their age and gender.

These data can give direction for your further marketing efforts; indicating where you should focus your advertising efforts, what kind of content people are attracted to most and, which of your products or services are highest in demand.

A Google Analytics basic plan is free. Learn more here about how our team can get you set up quickly and how you can use this tool to gain valuable insight into your website effectiveness.

Recaptcha is a free Google service you can add to your website to keep it safe from spam and malicious bots. The software uses advanced technology to differentiate between humans and bots. You’ve seen puzzles, dancing letters, and direct questions that deny you access to a website until you confirm you are human.Yeah, it’s those ‘please click on all images containing a boat’ pop-ups; somewhat annoying for impatient users, but necessary nevertheless for the safety of your site.

Live chat is an invaluable tool for your business, giving readers the opportunity to ask questions immediately without having to wait in queues on the phone or in person. You can install it onto your website in minutes with many free options available on the web.

Besides creating an impressive online presence to direct prospects to, your website should- and could- be generating organic traffic (i.e. new customers who never heard of you before finding you on the first couple of SERPs). Your website won’t get to the top of google’s search pages without some effort on your part though.

You need to utilize some basic SEO techniques in order to rank for your ideal customers to find you.

A sitemap is a list of all the pages in your site and how they are related to each other, written in URL format to make it readable for search engines.

You should submit your sitemap to Google so that you show up on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).