What I Need to Consider When Investing in Custom Design for My Website

A custom website design is an investment because you put out money, energy, and time to get it done in hope for a higher sale. Thus, you need to be considerate when making decisions about it.

1. Needs and Expectations

Before making a move, first you should know what you want to achieve. Identify the problems you have with your current website design (if any), and write them down in a list. Write also every single thing you expect from this custom design.

These things would be your goal in the investment of custom website design. This way you can make a realistic plan and be focus when executing it.

 

2. Precedents

Allocate your time to check out as much website as possible. Pay attention to how they do the layout, organization, features, etc. Write down which elements that you find interesting to have on your own website.

Checking out other website can also help you to find ideas that never cross your mind before. Maybe you may also find problems at other website that you may need to anticipate on your own website later on.

 

3. Concept Design

Now with all the informations mentioned above, you can start building your own concept design. To be realistic, maybe you can't get every single thing you want. Thus, you need to set your priorities.

From the list of all you need and want, you can sort them based on which are more important. You might also have at least a glimpse of idea about how you wish your website looks like.

The more solid concept you have, the better. But bear in mind that this concept may need to be adjusted later on. That is why you need that list of priorities. If your concept is still a bit vague, it is okay. It is actually your designer's job to help you finalize the design too.

 

4. The After-Effects

You have expectations when investing in a custom design for your website. That means you have to prepare yourself if you succeed in achieving your goals.

For example, you wish the upgrade will boost your sale. That means you need to prepare more stocks of goods and more people to follow up the orders.

Problems, for your informations, also count as after effects. Newly-launched websites are mostly still unstable. You might face difficulties and maybe complaints from your customers. Thus, better get yourself well-prepared for it.

 

5. Budgeting

There is no exact number for the price of a website design. And the rules "the higher you invest, the higher you will get" doesn't really apply.

If you need this website development to boost your sale, then you would also need to raise your supply. You would need money on that. And if you have spent almost every pennies you had for website design, then you would not be able to handle the increased demands. This makes your website development rather pointless.

Also, without allocating specific budget for this, you may be tempted to spend a little bit more and more for many things. And that is not financially healthy for your business.

 

6. Communication with Your Designer

When meeting with your website designer, make sure you explain everything you have in mind about your website. You can start by telling them about your concept and see how they comment about it.

During the design process, kindly ask them to keep you updated with everything. You also should listen to what they have to say because they may see things you can't seem to see.

 

7. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Gaining traffics for new website is quite a hard work. To get it much easier, you need a SEO plan. You need to plan keywords, contents, originality, etc to make your website easier to be found by new prospect customers.

Coming up with a great SEO strategy might be difficult for you if you are still rather new in online business or website development. But don't worry, your website designer will know how to plan a great tactics and execute it.

 

8. Evaluation and Follow Up

Your new design is there. But don't think that it is time to lay back and relax. In fact, you need to be more focused to see how things going after this.

Check your statistic. Do you see significant increase in traffic? Is there any increase on the sales as well? Do people spend longer time on your website now? Is there any bugs, errors, or any other kind of problems? What else can I do to develop my website?

You also need to have a plan about what are you going to do next once your website is launched. There must be something new every now and then to keep your customers coming back.

Running a website is a never-ending journey. You need to keep evaluating and following up if you wish your business to keep developing.

 

 

A custom design, no matter how good it is, is not an instant booster for your business. But if you make the best dedication while doing it, you will sure get the utmost benefits of it.