Why you need discovery when creating a website

The discovery phase is essential when creating a professional website that will help you grow your business.

Discovery not only leads to better solutions but it almost always ensures you get the results you are looking for.

Without a thorough discovery process websites often fail to deliver what they promised.

Keep reading to learn the role it plays in creating a website and why you should never skip this stage.

Discovery leads to better solutions

Websites can make or break your business’ success. If developed correctly, they can help you achieve your goals and keep your customers happy at the same time.

 

Get all the facts

Discovery is where all the initial thinking takes place. This is where you will indentify the core business problems and figure out the needs and requirements for your website.

 

Know your audience

One of the main objectives of the discovery phase is to get to know the target users of a website. Because, at the end of the day, your website needs to attract and be built for the right audience.

 

Explore Competitors

Review the sites of competitors within your industry. Provide an overview of how competitors structure their sites and display information. What works for them? What doesn’t?

 

Set goals

Setting goals and success metrics helps everyone get aligned and clear on what is expected and what success looks like. When goals are not set, websites often fail to deliver what they promised.

 

Create a gameplan

Having a strong gameplan will make any project go smoothly and as planned. With a detailed project strategy, everyone knows what is expected in the project. Setting timelines and creating milestones will ensure your website success.

 

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Web Design Do’s & Don’ts

A well-designed website is one of the most valuable assets you can have for your business. If done correctly your website can help you gain more customers and increase revenue. If your website is outdated and not designed well, you could be turning people away before you even give them a chance to let them know what you do and how you can help them.

Check out these Web Design Do’s and Don’ts to help guide you in the right direction.

 

DO MAKE IT ABOUT THE CUSTOMER

Always keep your target audience in mind. When people arrive on your website they don’t want to waste any time when it comes to guring out if you can help them. Your audience wants to know what you do, how you can make their lives better and how your product or service can solve the problems they are facing.

 

DON’T MAKE IT HARD FOR USERS TO FIND WHAT THEY NEED

Keep your navigation options to as few as possible, provide a search option and only use 1 or 2 different call to actions on a given page. This will make it easier for people to gure out what to do next and nd what they are looking for. Having too many options on a page can confuse the user, making them frustrated enough to leave your website.

 

DO MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO CONNECT WITH YOU

Once on a company’s homepage, 64% of visitors want to see the company’s contact information. Be strategic about where you place information. Include a contact page, and make your phone number or email address easily accessible in the header or footer of your website. Include links to your social media channels. Use quick contact forms to help encourage users to reach out and get in touch with you.

 

DON’T FORGET ABOUT SEO

Websites that are not optimized well will have a harder time being found online. Do a keyword search and gure out what people are searching for to nd businesses like yours. Once you know these keywords and phrases, you will want to pick the ones that will generate the most trafc. Optimize all your page titles, meta descriptions, and page content.

 

DO KEEP LAYOUTS CLEAN AND SIMPLE

Having a busy, cluttered layout will only make it hard for the user to navigate through your web page. Cluttered layouts also make it visually harder to know where to direct their attention. By having a nice, clean, spaced out layout, you can direct people where you want them to go and make it easy for people to ow through each page of your website.

 

DON’T FORGET TO OPTIMIZE YOUR WEB SITE FOR ALL DEVICES

More and more people are browsing and shopping on mobile devices, and they expect websites to provide a great mobile experience. In some cases that means a custom experience, hiding certain elements, providing additional search options, adjusting text size and layouts. Make sure to use a mobile rst approach and give people the best user experience, no matter what device they are on.

 

DO PRESENT COPY IN BITESIZED DIGESTABLE COPY BLOCKS

Keep your copy short and sweet! Don’t use long paragraphs that overwhelm the user. The way the text on your website looks plays into the overall design of your site and will allow for better page ow. Craft your copy for web reading: short, easy to scan, and broken up into readable chunks.

 

DON’T USE FONTS, COLOURS AND IMAGES THAT ARE NOT ON BRAND

People think visually, which is why staying on brand is so effective. Don’t use page elements that don’t represent your brand. It will make for a more confusing design, which will make it harder for peole to remember you. When deciding on how many elements to use, use a minimal approach, try to to stick to the 2 or 3 colors and fonts and a max of a handful of images per page.

Why your website’s about page is so important

If you are currently building a website or already have one.
Don’t forget about your about page.

It’s typically one of the most visited pages on your website.

This is not the page to just throw up some copy, be vague and not tell anything about you and your business.

The about page is where people can learn more about you and what you do.

It gives you a chance to tell your story. Letting your audience know where you are in your journey, how you got here and why they should choose you over someone else.

Talk to your audience about why you are the right choice for them.
Expand on the problems you solve and explain how you can help.

Being transparent and open with your customers forms a connection and builds trust, which will help make the decision to want to work with you a lot easier.

Now, don’t be shy, make sure to use a photo of you and your team.
When we have a face to put with your name, you become much easier for someone to remember.

Now remember the about page is one of the most visited pages in your website, if you can teach people more about you and your business, while being open and transparent, the more it can help you grow your business.

Setting the right goals for your website

Having a website is great, but only if you use it to its full potential..

We see so many websites that are basically just a information and contact tool, with no real thought into how the website can actually benefit your business.

Setting the right goals will help you create the right content, design, and user experience. Creating a website that can be a big part of your overall business success.

It’s like this: you can have a website with your logo and company information and services, information about your team, a cute little photo of someone’s dog, a blog and a contact form, which is all great to have, but what’s going to make your website really thrive is designing it around specific goals, that will help convert users into customers, and in some cases, simply move them to the next step in their customer journey.

Example: One of our clients was putting on a retreat and their goal was to show the essence and feeling of the event through the website, with the intention of increasing ticket sales from the previous year and selling out the retreat.

With this goal in mind, we designed the website with a specific flow that used storytelling to really describe the appeal of the retreat. By using specific positive testimonials, bright, bold, energetic colors, messaging that explained all the benefits a person would get out of the retreat and visuals that showed the vibe and what it would look like if you attended, we were really able to connect with the audience and in return ticket sales more than doubled from the previous year and the retreat was sold out!

The best approach: Do a goals exercise where you list your top 3 website goals and 2 ways you are going to accomplish each of these goals through your website. This will help you create the right user experience for your website, and take you in the right direction when it comes to creating your web content. If you need help, download our Formula on how your business can Thrive Online. It contains a section on goals. Click on the link below.

If you have any questions, please reach out us, because we want to see you Thrive!