What Does Your Website Design Say about You?

June 21, 2016 Teresa Clark

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You hope your website conveys certain values and ideas to your audience. Your site should say that you are a professional, you can do what you say you can do, and you care about your audience’s needs. But so often, web design is sadly deficient in projecting these ideas. Business owners make the mistake of not looking at their websites from the audience’s perspective.

Before designing (or redesigning) your business’ website, consider the following factors:

Who is your audience? – You should be intimately aware of your audience. What do they like? What is their age, sex, and other demographics? How does this knowledge affect the type of website they need from you?

Which products or services does your company offer? – If you are delivering digital products, you’ll need a protected shopping cart that will be easy for your audience to use. If you are delivering services such as writing or coaching services, you’ll need different technology to provide privacy and information to your audience in a way that’s simple for them.

After you understand these two factors, it’s time to build a website that attracts your audience and converts them into buyers. Take the information you know about your audience and your products and show your audience that you value them first. You can demonstrate this through proper website design.

Understand current website design theory – This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. You need to know that it’s important to have a clean design with easy-to-read text that works on mobile devices. Understand how to make your site easy to navigate for your audience. Ensure that the colors on your website are appropriate for your audience. If you’re not well versed in website design, consider outsourcing it to a professional.

Create content that puts your audience first – It’s tempting to make the website content about you or your company. However, even your “about us” page should be focused on your audience. This can be tricky and takes some practice. Every bit of content on your site should be focused on your audience and what’s in it for them.

Evaluate your website – Knowing this information, now look at your current website through your audience’s eyes. Evaluate whether or not you’re providing an easy-to-use website that answers the questions your audience may have and immediately tells them what you cando for them.

Get professional help – Consider hiring someone to evaluate your site for you. Besides asking a website design to review your site, also consider asking a business coach. He or she may be able to give you a better idea of what your audience needs.

You want your website to perform well for you and your company. But in order to do that, you must put your audience front and center in terms of content and design.