Deliver Exceptional Value. Receive Extraordinary Results.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE

TO BUILDING A WEBSITE

THAT WORKS

i

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

E: bradley.agnew@agnewsolutions.co.uk

M: +44 (0)7480 129758