Your business’s reputation is heavily reliant on your website, so you must optimize performance, functionality, design, and usability to impress your visitors.

If even one of these elements is overlooked, potential customers may turn to your competitors instead, affecting your bottom line. So, building a website that keeps visitors on your page rather than quickly clicking off is your goal.

As a website design and development agency, we are going to give you our top tips for building your website. 

7 Tips for Building Your Website

• Build your brand
• Ensure your homepage is appealing and informative
• Use a secure website host
• Create reliable and engaging content
• Make sure it is mobile-friendly 
• Choose your target keywords
• Ensure Your Theme is Responsive

Build your brand

Before you do anything it is important to know your brand, before building your website. This means knowing exactly who you are, who your audience is, what you are selling, what your goals are, and how you identify.

Build your strategy first and then you will be able to decide on your website’s design and what content you want to put on it with a breeze. 

Check out our top tips for building your brand. 

Ensure your homepage is appealing and informative

When building your website, your homepage should convey your business’s main message or selling point right away.

In a world of short attention spans and massive amounts of online content, getting to the point quickly is critical. Users will naturally scan your site for the most relevant information to them, and an overcrowded site can easily scare people off – you don’t want that!

To help you avoid this, reducing text and more white space will keep content from overwhelming users, while large headings will help them find the information that is most relevant to them.

And, if you use calls to action– requests for the user to do something, such as a “buy now” or “contact me” button– make them clear.

It is also essential not to overcrowd your website with menus– a good rule of thumb is to limit the number of drop-down tabs to no more than five– the fewer the better.

Use a secure website host

When it comes to building your website, you need to find the best web host for you.

A web host is a service that stores your website on the internet. When a user accesses your domain, for example, by clicking on it on Google, they are directed to the site that it is linked to on your hosting account.

We use Hostinger as our main website host because of its reliability, security, and prompt customer support! It’s also one of the most cost-effective host we’ve found in the market without compromising the service quality.

Sign up with our Hostinger link to get up to 70% discount.

Create reliable and engaging content

The length of time users spend on your site and their likelihood of returning are related to the quality of your content. Producing interesting and thoroughly fact-checked content is critical to staying ahead of the competition.

The more reliable and well-optimized your content is the more Google will trust you and push you to your target audience and rank you on Google. 

Google’s search ranking is influenced by whether a site’s information is authoritative and trustworthy, as well as how long most users spend looking at it.

Try to create content that is specific to your niche.

Make sure it is mobile-friendly 

Mobile users account for half of all web traffic, and Google prefers mobile-optimized sites.

It is critical for your website to appear well on a mobile device in order to boost your rankings and attract a larger audience.

Fortunately, most web design services include a mobile-friendly version of your site as standard, as well as a responsive web design that can accommodate all devices– including TVs and tablets.

Choose your target keywords

One of the most important aspects of SEO is the use of keywords, which are common terms and phrases that people enter into search engines. Including them in your website’s content increases your chances of attracting internet traffic.

Ensure you’re using keywords that target your ideal audience– do your keyword research!

Check out our blog on how to rank on Google.

Ensure Your Theme is Responsive

With over 4.28 billion mobile internet users, your site must be responsive– this means it has a grid-like design that adjusts dynamically to fit any screen size.

A responsive design allows users to navigate your site easily whether they are on a desktop or a smartphone.

The good news is that there are numerous responsive WordPress themes available for you to use. These themes are already mobile-friendly, but you should test your website on various devices and browsers to ensure you’re providing the best browsing experience possible.

This is a really important tip for building your website because if your website is not responsive then people will quickly click off and go somewhere else. 

Conclusion

As a website developer, I love helping businesses create their dream website that truly reflects their brand and vision. 

So, now you know ARA Digital Services’ top tips for building your website, take these away and start creating a platform that will attract your dream audience!

If you need some help with building your website then get in touch, we’d love to chat. We provide 30 minutes website audit and strategy call!

In today’s market, selecting a web development company is one of the most important decisions a company can make, as how a company uses technology determines whether it will succeed or fail in the long run.

As a result, the decision of who to hire is critical, so here’s a list of what to look for in a website developer.

 6 Things to Look for in a Website Developer

• Focused on Value for Clients
• Clearly Understands Your Vision
• Credentials
• Social Proof 
• Technically Skilled
• Has an Eye for Design

Focused on Value for Clients

Your web developer should not be out to just build what you ask for– a huge part of a web developer’s value is that they should know the solutions to your underlying problems that you never would have considered.

So knowing what to look for in a website developer is important, as they will need to know what underlying goals you’re trying to achieve, and should orient every technical decision they make around solving those goals.

As a website design agency, we will help you with your strategy as you decide what shape your online presence should take, constantly suggesting better ways to move toward solving your goals.

Understand Your Vision

It is so important that a website developer knows your vision, so have a chat with them before investing and ensure you are both on the same level. At the end of the day, it is your business, so it is ultimately your choice on how you want to present it. 

ARA Digital Services are here to advise and give you our knowledge and technical skills. Book a 30 min call with us to get a quick website audit and strategy for your business.

We take time in getting to know your business, who your target audience is, and what your brand identity is to ensure we can build a website that showcases your business in the best way possible, that reflects your vision.

Credentials

Knowing that a website developer has relevant credentials behind them gives you that extra confidence in knowing they know their stuff.

Although this isn’t essential, it helps– you know that we know all of the technical aspects of building a website, which gives you peace of mind knowing we won’t miss anything important or do something detrimentally wrong.

With this, you’re bound to get the best results!

Social Proof

Social proof, by definition, comes from customers – and, with declining trust in traditional advertising, those voices tend to carry more weight than branded messages from companies themselves – the mere presence of social proof makes a business more trustworthy.

So, look at their testimonials and social media where they should be showcasing what their clients have to say and their journey– if they do not showcase this then it could be a red flag.

Technically Skilled

What to look for in a website developer is someone who is well-versed in the technologies involved in your project. Depending on the project, this could mean a variety of things:

• If your project necessitates technical knowledge and your developer lacks it, you are likely to have a negative experience.

• Writing HTML markup and CSS styles that are sensible, adhere to current best practices, and are cross-browser compatible.

• Converting complex project requirements into clean, secure, dependable, and extensible PHP code

• Writing efficient JavaScript that works as intended and does not stifle performance.

• Knowing WordPress well enough to code within the environment it creates as opposed to hacking around it

• Troubleshooting issues with hosting configuration

If your project calls for one of these types of technical knowledge and your developer doesn’t have it, you’re likely to have a poor experience. 

Has an Eye for Design

An eye for design is the ability to spot mistakes and distinguish between good and bad design decisions at a glance. As well as this, it is important for me as a website developer, to understand your vision and be able to assist you in a design that suits you.

This is a skill in itself– someone with the creative ability to produce a beautiful website that targets your audiences and showcases your business at its best!

Book Your Website Developer 

Now you know what to look for in a website developer you will be able to go away and choose someone who is trustworthy, knowledgeable and right for you. 

It is always a great idea to hop on a call with them to see if you are compatible and to understand that they can give you a good service from start to finish.

With that in mind, if you would like to chat, get in touch!