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Web Design Basics - Html Course By Esthetig Web Design. Icon Shows A Whiteboard With Mountains And A Circle For The Sun, A Pen, A Light Bulb And A Cloud Around The Whiteboard.

Web design basics

Web Design Basics

In the past, I have looked at marketing your website, a very basic HTML course, choosing images and fonts for your website. Web Design Basics is going to guide you through the whole process of designing a website. First things first, let’s get the planning started.

Before you Begin

When looking at web design basics we need to start right at the beginning and ensure we plan correctly and have everything in place.

Strategy > Plan > build > Promote

Strategy

Plan

  • What information does the site need to give? Here you need to look at databases; what information/data does your website need to gather and where will it be stored.
  • Create a sitemap for the website – this will help you determine the navigation structure
  • Put a drawing together of how the overall website will look and any sub-page special features (be consistent though, don’t want your visitors thinking they are on a different website).
  • What calls to action will your website include? Good marketing practice dictates every page that sells something (a service or a product) must have a call to action – don’t forget even pages such as your contact page may need a call to action, especially if you are hoping to encourage people to sign up to a newsletter.
  • What is the brand identity for the website? This should match your company in the real world.
  • Are there any special requirements for the code language? (Will your site be HTML, PHP, ASP etc)
  • If you are using content-management or e-commerce systems do you require a bespoke system or are you happy to use a robust “off-the-shelf” system such as WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Zen Cart and so on.

Build

  • Valid code is vital – make sure that your developer adheres to standards established by the W3 Consortium.
  • Content Management System needs to be put into place
  • E-Commerce platform needs to be built
  • Elements such as movies, buttons, banners etc need to be built a this stage
  • The database/source needs to be built
  • Test and implement the site.

Promote

  • Search Engine Indexing – add your website to the major Search Engines (but don’t forget the smaller niche ones too!).
  • Search Engine Optimisation – On page optimisation should have been completed in the build stage; but further enhancement of your site needs to be carried out here.
  • Email and Mailshots are great tools to get the message about your new website across quickly – getting to the top of a search engine for your chosen keyword/phrase will be much more successful if your campaign includes real-world advertising thrown into the mix.
  • Keyword research – recheck at this point to ensure your keywords/phrase are the most effective.
  • Social marketing – will you use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc? You should use a selection of these in every campaign for your website – which you will choose may be down to personal preference. But also, consider which your target market is using – if the demographic group you are targeting tend to favour a particular platform you MUST also use that platform.
Great Websites Start With Great Web Design. Icon Of A Brain (to Show The Creative Process) With A Tick And A Person Icon Around

Great websites

Great websites start with great planning!

However, before you start planning the design and functionality (these are important – but later) it is important to start at the beginning.
The beginning of any design to achieve a great website is to consider who your market is. Who are you aiming your website to? Who will use it the most?

Just deciding to target your great websites for everyone is ok if your product or service is something that everyone will want and you can provide your product or service to everyone. For example, here we must consider who everyone is. This is all age groups including children – would children need your product or service? It also means in every country regardless of trade restrictions (your country may not allow you to sell to certain countries – if in doubt check first!).

By now I am sure that you are realising that targeting your website at everyone isn’t the best use of your time and resources. As an extra bonus, you will be rewarded by the search engines for not targeting everyone with higher rankings – you will always achieve higher rankings and great websites by narrowing your target audience.

Narrowing your target audience

Realistically, your great websites will be used by a certain demographic – i.e. a certain age group and geographic region. You may only supply to your own country – if this is the case, you can narrow your keywords to your country. If your product or service is most likely only to be used by a certain age group then target that group.

Before you even think of the design of your site getting your target audience right is vital, this will determine the look and feel of your website; differing age groups or even genders respond differently to websites depending on the look and feel – the design is determined by who you are targeting – get it right and you will be onto a successful website.

It is important to design your website for your audience, not for your business. 

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