the complete guide to building a website that works (white paper)
TRANSCRIPT
Deliver Exceptional Value. Receive Extraordinary Results.
THE COMPLETE GUIDE
TO BUILDING A WEBSITE
THAT WORKS
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THE COMPLETE GUIDE
TO BUILDING A WEBSITE
THAT WORKS
Agnew Consulting Ltd | The Willows | Catton | Thirsk | North Yorkshire | YO7 4SQ
Office: +44 (0)1845 578191 | Web: www.agnewsolutions.co.uk
© 2015 Agnew Consulting Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
broadcasting, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Agnew
Consulting Ltd.
Author: Bradley Agnew | Design: Agnew Consulting Ltd
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Contents
Introduction 1
Converting clicks into customers 1
A commercial approach to website design 2
The Main Steps of Building Your Website 3
Key stages of designing a website 3
Before You Start 4
Know why you’re building a website 4
Know who your website is for 4
Words make your website tick 5
Know your competition 5
You need a domain name 5
Hosting – your website’s home on the internet 6
How To Choose a Web Designer/Developer 7
Our top tips for choosing a website designer
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Writing Effective Website Content 10
Our top tips for creating effective website content 10
Arranging Information on your website 11
Start with your keywords 11
Define your content structure 11
Your home page 12
1
Introduction
Your website is your place of business. You may decide to invest in other online activities
such as social media and even online advertising, but ultimately everything will come back to
a single point; your business website. That makes your website really valuable. It’s your own
digital real estate; you have full control over what is and isn’t shown to potential customers.
While you may not be able to control what your customers are saying on social media
(although you can influence it), your website is the one thing over which you have complete
and explicit control. You own it, it’s yours, and it’s the most effective way to build your
business online.
CONVERTING CLICKS INTO CUSTOMERS
Everything we talk about in this guide will have one thing in common: they’re designed to
drive potential customers to your business website. But having lots of people visiting your
website means nothing unless you build your website so that it effectively converts these
visitors into customers – taking all the numbers and transforming them into tangible results
for your business.
Your website is not just an online brochure. Nor is it there
simply to achieve the highest search rankings and
generate loads of traffic. Your website is an investment in
your business and should be designed to achieve a set
of goals, converting visitors gained from all your online
and offline marketing efforts.
Yes, you should provide information about your business,
your products and services – but everything you do
should be with your business goals in mind – everything
on your website should be designed to convert these
visitors into paying customers.
The thing to remember is that conversion is the key to
success online. Keep in mind when you plan and design
your website what you want to achieve and how your
website will help you to achieve your business goals.
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A COMMERCIAL APPROACH TO WEBSITE DESIGN
There are two things to keep in mind to get the best results from your website:
1. Your business goals
2. The needs of your target market
Build a website which aligns the two and you’ll have an effective website which delivers the
best results for your business. Sure, you say, it sounds simple when you put it like that!
Achieving that can be a tricky process – one that requires effective planning in order to get it
right. Approach your website like you would with any other aspect of your business and
you’ll be much more likely to be successful.
This guide isn’t about the technical and creative aspects of designing a website (that’s for
another guide), but how to effectively plan your website to ensure that it delivers a positive
return on investment. In this guide we’ll be covering a high-level overview of the important
elements to consider when planning and designing your website (whether you build it
yourself or choose a professional designer to help you) – although this is by no means
exhaustive.
Our aim with this guide is to give you the knowledge you need to make informed decisions
about your website design in a business context, and to communicate exactly what you need
to engage with your web designer when it’s time to build your website – to make sure you
get it right the first time.
Bradley founded the agency at the age of fourteen,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bradley Agnew, Managing Partner
I founded Agnew Solutions in 2012 and now manage our team
to make sure that each client is successful in achieving their
goals. My passion is helping people and organisations to
achieve their objectives and accelerate growth with bold and
innovative solutions that deliver extraordinary value.
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The Main Steps of Building
Your Website
Whether you decide to build your website yourself (there are a number of ‘website builders’
available online which come with their own benefits and drawbacks) or engage a
professional web designer, there are some important things you need to remember to
ensure that your website is effective.
KEY STAGES OF DESIGNING A WEBSITE
Different web designers and agencies will have their own development processed, but these
key stages will remain pretty similar:
3. Planning – establish your business goals for the website; analyse your competition,
define your target market, how they’ll find you and what they’re looking for, map out
a schedule and decide who is going to do what and when they’re going to do it (a
timeline if you like).
4. Design – decide on the visual composition of the site, its ‘look and feel’, including
use of colour, graphics, navigation, etc.
5. Development – putting everything together, taking the design and building the
actual pages of the site, creating and integrating the website content, links and
navigation.
6. Testing – making sure that everything is working as it should before you officially
launch the site to the public.
7. Deployment – your new website becomes live and publicly available, time for you to
spread the word!
This provides a structure so that you can understand how a website is built.
As you can see, a designer will be unable to do a lot of the planning
effectively – only you know your business inside out. That means before you
look for outside help, you should have a clear understanding in your own
mind of what you want to achieve and how your website will help you
achieve this.
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Before You Start
KNOW WHY YOU’RE BUILDING A WEBSITE
‘What is my website for?’
Pretty simple, eh? It’s a simple enough question, but you’d be surprised how many
businesses have never asked it. They have one because everyone else does – I mean, it’s just
part of having a business in the modern age, right?
Not true! It may be that your business doesn’t need a website. Just like any other marketing
activity, it’s about understanding your business and your target market to decide whether it’s
a wise investment. Your website shouldn’t just be, it should be constantly evolving along with
your business and actively generate new business – it should support your day-to-day
operations.
Ideally you should have a clear idea of exactly what it is your organisation wants to achieve
from a website before you start looking for a professional designer to build the site.
KNOW WHO YOUR WEBSITE IS FOR
Knowing who your potential customers are and building your website for them is the only
way to build a truly effective website which delivers results. We see far too many websites
that have been built to impress a committee of executives who sign off on the project,
instead of the people actually using them. For your website to deliver, you only need it to
appeal to one group of people: your target market.
Think about it from your customers’ point of view. What information are they looking for?
What is their thought process? Put yourself in their shoes, or better still, ask them directly
what they’d like to see/do on your website.
Example #1 – a local builder offers bespoke bathrooms and is well-known for excellent
customer service. Potential clients would like to see a portfolio of her work and perhaps
customer testimonials. They may even look on review websites to get an understanding of
their reputation.
Example #2 – a local book shop prides itself on excellent customer service, an in-store café
and a range of books from local authors. They may consider including a section dedicated to
local authors, their café menu and possibly a catalogue showcasing their range of books.
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Taking the time to think about your website from your customers’ point of view may be
illuminating, and could be the difference between a successful website and an expensive
online experiment.
WORDS MAKE YOUR WEBSITE TICK
While the design of your website will be a key focus of your planning and efforts, your
website will only be as good as the information available on it. Even at a time where videos,
photos, audio, flash, animation and interactivity seem to be everywhere online – it all comes
down to the quality of your website content.
The information you provide on your website is particularly important when trying to reach
new customers online, as search engines will rank your website based on the relevance and
quality of the content you provide. Your website should be designed to meet the needs of
your target market by providing them with the information they need in a format which suits
them.
KNOW YOUR COMPETITION
Just like you would with any other aspect of your business, it is absolutely crucial that you
have a good understanding of your competitors and what they’re trying to achieve with their
websites, where they’re succeeding and where they’re failing can serve as a great starting
point in establishing how your website will work and the information and features you will
provide.
Take a good look at what they are doing well. How easy would it be for you to emulate and
improve on those things? From a customer’s point of view, how easy if the site to navigate
and find the information they’re looking for.
A thorough analysis of your online competition can reveal a lot and prove a very useful
process, and influence the direction of your website to ensure that you compete effectively
with your rivals.
YOU NEED A DOMAIN NAME
If you don’t have a domain name for your business, you’re going to need to register one.
This will be used for your business email address and website address – it will form the
backbone of your online presence.
You’ve probably seen business websites with unprofessional addresses like
www.businessname.someotherbusiness.com or www.someotherbusiness/businessname, it
looks amateurish, it’s difficult for potential customers to remember and generally tarnishes
your business image wherever you publicise it, online or offline. It also means that you’ll find
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it difficult including your website and email address on print materials like business cards
and stationery.
The good news is that registering a domain name is actually quite cheap and there are a
number of choices available beyond the standard .co.uk and .com extensions – like .bike (for
a cycle shop) or .agency (for a designer). There are a number of websites which will let you
search availability, select your domain and register it in minutes with prices typically about
£10/year.
You can look for yourself, just type ‘domain registration’ into your favourite search engine
and you’ll find lots of options. Just be wary of free domains or really low prices, because
you’ll likely end up paying a lot more for it in the long run.
Here are our top tips for choosing your domain name:
Business name – your domain should include your business name or a phrase that is
commonly associated with your business.
What you do – it should represent what your business does, so customers can easily
understand what your business does.
Don’t over complicate it – your web address should be easy to read.
Keep it simple and short – don’t choose odd spellings and keep it short.
Read it through – check that your chosen domain name is easy to read, short and
simple, and that there are no mistakes.
HOSTING – YOUR WEBSITE’S HOME ON THE INTERNET
The other thing you’ll need to take care of before your website can go live is hosting. When
you’ve finished designing and building your website, you’ll likely have a number of files and
possibly a database, all of which sit on a special computer which is always connected to the
internet – this is called your ‘web server’ and enables users to download and view the pages
in their browser.
As a small business, it’s very unlikely that you’ll have your own server. A common
arrangement for small businesses is to use a specialist hosting provider which should
typically cost you about £5 per month depending on the size and type of website you are
running.
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How to Choose a Web
Designer/Developer
Unless you are a web designer yourself, or have your own in-house web development team,
you’ll need to bring in a professional web design or marketing agency to help you with your
website project.
You might have friends or family who are offering to help out, or you may be considering
using an online website builder – whichever option you decide to use, think about whether
you or the designer you are using has the relevant technical, creative and business
experience to build a website which is designed to deliver real results – a design on its own
achieves nothing.
The good thing is that, once you’ve gone through the initial planning stage, you’ll have a
good idea of what you want out of your website, who your target market is and the sort of
features and information you’d like to include. You’ll be able to use this information to
whittle down the list of potential designers to something more manageable.
OUR TOP TIPS FOR CHOOSING A WEB DESIGNER
It’s likely that in your local area alone there are a number of professional marketing agencies,
web design firms, freelance designers and developers. Then you’ve got a whole suite of
online tools claiming that you can build your own website for free (they come with their own
benefits and drawbacks).
And to top it all off, there’s some national companies offering a number of packages and
phone support. It’s all about weighing up your options, understanding your needs and what
the best decision is for you. To help you figure it all out, here are our top tips for when you’re
choosing a designer:
Look at their own website. When you’re trying to weigh up the relative merits of a
web design company, the best place to start is with their own website. Examine it
with a critical eye. Does it look professional? Is it functional and easy to use? Do they
provide the information that you need to understand who they are and what they
do? If they’re not meeting your expectations, do you want the same people working
on your website?
Examine their portfolio. Every designer, whether they’re a freelancer, a marketing
agency or a national company should provide an online portfolio showcasing their
recent work. If they provide case studies, this can show you how they understood the
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needs of their client and the results the website has delivered. Go beyond the
portfolio pages and look at the sites themselves – what is the business trying to
achieve, who is it aimed at and have the designers achieved those goals?
Now that you’ve gone through the list of designers, this should help you to produce a
reasonable shortlist of potential candidates. Now you can go the next level:
Ask their customers for recommendations. Go back to their websites and get in
touch with the businesses themselves and ask for some honest feedback on their
experience of that firm. What did they like about the service, how could it be
improved, would they recommend them to another business?
What’s their reputation like? Another good place to look for information about
web design and marketing firms is to do a thorough search in your favourite search
engine. Look at web forums, online communities and review sites to get a feel for
their reputation; is the general vibe positive or negative?
Are they designing SEO-friendly websites? Your website is only as good as the
quality of traffic it gets. Are your shortlisted designers search engine savvy? Go back
to the portfolio websites and pick some key phrases you’d expect them to rank for,
then go to your favourite search engine and see if they pop up. Are they ranking well
in search engines?
Are they business/marketing specialists? Your website needs to be designed to
deliver tangible results for your business. That means that your designer needs to be
able to build an effective website which supports you in achieving your business
goals, meets the needs of your target market and generates sales – that requires a
solid understanding of business and marketing.
By now you should have a few competent and professional companies you’d like to
quote/tender for your website project. Of course, we’d love for you to pick us, but it may be
that you only need a very basic one page website with your logo and some contact details, in
which case an online tool would probably be the best option for you.
Still not sure exactly what you need, or which option is more suitable to your needs? With so
many choices, it can certainly get very confusing! Do you use an online tool, a less
experienced freelancer with packages and add-on features, a local design firm with a fixed
hourly rate, or a full-service marketing agency like Agnew Solutions? There sure is a lot out
there!
We’re here to help you figure out which is the best direction for your business as marketing
specialists with over 6 years’ experience in helping small business to grow and thrive with
bespoke marketing solutions. We’ll be upfront with you and let you know which option is
best for your business, whether it’s an online tool or an alternative company.
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Writing Effective Website Content
Alright, so you’ve got your content structure sorted out. Now you’re ready to insert your
content and launch the website.
Stop!
Don’t make the mistake that happens all too often with new websites. In order for your
website to be effective you can’t simply just insert your existing content from flyers and
advertisements. It simply won’t work.
Your website content needs to be tailored to your audience, which is completely different
online. Your customers may well read your leaflets from beginning to end when you provide
them with a high quality colour brochure, but online is a completely different matter
altogether.
On the web customers scan through content, they are impatient, they want the information
they are looking for right this moment. Now. Writing effective content for your website is all
about understanding how people behave online, applying this to your target market and
using this understanding to deliver your information in a form that meets those readers’
needs.
OUR TOP TIPS FOR CREATING EFFECTIVE WEBSITE CONTENT
Grab attention – on the web your customers are impatient and demanding. That
means getting rid of those lengthy introductions and elaborate descriptions; get right
to the point and present your information as clearly as possible.
Make it scannable – divide up your content into concise sections using headings,
subheading and bullet point to break text up into manageable chunks.
Make it original – the key to engaging your users and achieving the highest search
rankings is be delivering highly relevant, original content.
Use the inverted pyramid – deliver the most important points first, and then go
onto the detail so that users can stop reading at any point and still understand who
you are and how you can help.
Be consistent – use a simple, easy to read writing style throughout your website to
maintain consistency – people don’t like surprises!
Engage with your reader – use a conversational style and speak to your reader as an
individual, on their level. This will help you to engage with potential customers on a
personal level.
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ARRANGING INFORMATION ON YOUR WEBSITE
Your website’s structure – the way you arrange and group your information and how users
navigate their way around it – can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your website,
its rankings in search engines and its potential to convert visitors into customers. Getting
your information architecture (the structure and arrangement of information on your
website) right is absolutely crucial to the success of your website.
It can be difficult to know where to start. OK, so you know what information your potential
customers are looking for, but what is the best way to arrange this information on your
website to provide you with maximum exposure to search engine and make it as easy as
possible for visitors to navigate your website?
It all depends on the nature of your business, the type of site you’re looking to build, your
target market, your business objectives and a whole host of other variables which will
determine the structure of your website.
START WITH YOUR KEYWORDS
A good starting point is to think about the keywords your potential customers are going to
be using to search for you. This should give you a good indication of the type of information
your customers are looking for and the key phrases that you want your website to rank for in
search engines.
DEFINE YOUR CONTENT STRUCTURE
Look at your website content and try to divide it into themes based on the keywords that are
associated with those pages and the information that you want to include within those
sections.
For example: A local bookshop is well known for its excellent customer service, good range
of books including local authors and a relaxing in-store café. This bookshop would be likely
to categorise their content into these key themes:
About us – this could include a history of the shop, profiles of the team members,
their favourite books and selection from the café menu.
Books – this might include an online shop, a directory of local authors,
recommended books from team members etc.
Café – this may offer customers an online café menu and possibly printable discount
vouchers/coupons.
Within each of these sections the book shop will include a number of pages and information.
By categorising the information into themes, it makes it easier for potential customers to find
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what they are looking for, and search engines will recognise that each theme is highly
relevant for a particular area – thus pages will achieve higher rankings in search engines.
For the most effective content structure, arrange your information so that the most
important information (a summary if you like) is provided at the higher levels, allowing users
to drill down to more detail in the sub-pages within each theme.
For example, the about us page might include a short history of the shop, a photo of the
team together, a few recommended books for that week and new café items. This provides
customers with an update on all areas of the website, with the option to learn more about
each area (for example, clicking on the team photo to view individual profiles for each
member of staff).
YOUR HOME PAGE
Your home page is a ‘jumping-off point’ for the rest of your website, and should offer users
intuitive one-click navigation to the main sections of your website. It is highly likely that the
majority of your traffic will be directed to your home page, so it is important that your home
page immediately tells visits what your website is about and how it can help them.
If you offer a range of products and services, your home page can be an ideal place to
highlight new products and services, special offers, news, a free download or anything else
that you want to offer on your website. Your home page should deliver real value to your
users and encourage them to learn more about your business by navigating to the key
themes, and try not to create any barriers between your visitors and your real content by
using a ‘Click here to enter’ button or flash into which offer no benefit to your customers.
Your home page is a central reference point for your website, one from which customers can
return to in order to easily navigate the information available and reassures them they can’t
get lost.
Deliver Exceptional Value. Receive Extraordinary Results.
Agnew Solutions
The Willows
Catton, Thirsk
North Yorkshire
YO7 4SQ
www.agnewsolutions.co.uk
For further information on this
white paper contact:
Bradley Agnew, Managing Partner
M: +44 (0)7480 129758