Top Ten Things To Consider When Developing a New Website

Hush Digital has worked with some amazing clients over the past 21 years, some of them knew exactly what they wanted or needed from their new website and some didn’t. Needless to say, with our experienced team of developers and designers, we have been able to assist both types of clients, making sure their website meets the needs of their business and customers.

Website Considerations

1. Budget – Probably one of the most important things for client and agency. As a client, you need to know how much a new site design is going to hit your bank balance. As an agency, a budget helps us work out what is achievable, what features can be delivered and the resources needed to develop the new website
2. Timescales – One of the questions we get asked in nearly every client meeting. “How quickly can you get the website live?”. As a client, you want to work out your achievable goals around timescales. Have you worked in any time for content, images, videography? Is your industry seasonal? Will, your new website do better with a later launch closer to your busiest period? These are all things you need to think about
3. Goals – What is the objective of the new website? Is the new design part of a bigger rebrand and thus doesn’t need specific goals? If not, work out what you want the new website to achieve. Some goals can be easy to track and monitor. Some more difficult, but you want to make sure that your website is performing, whether it is contact forms, purchases or phone calls, make sure your website is doing business for you
4. Research – Take a look around in the market, are there any websites you would like to emulate? Is there any competition you want to blow out of the water?
5. Images/Videos – With a new website design will come the opportunity to give your online presence a lick of paint. But, do you need to give any imagery of your website an update? Depending on your business size, locations and staff you might have to plan in a few photography sessions in the lead up to your launch, so it is best to think about these things sooner rather than later
6. Content – A new site design will help your rankings a little bit, but you really need to work on your content also. Copying and pasting old content from one website to the other is a solution, but not a great one. Give yourself time to work up your content plan for your new website
7. Your Customers – Sometimes we forget about the end user, the customers when developing a new website. We focus on how we want it to work and function, but we don’t think about the most important person, the end user. How should your new website work for them?
8. Launch – What are you doing for your launch? Are you going low-key? Are you going to shout it from the rooftops? Working out your plan of action prior to launch will help you maximise your post-launch engagement.
9. Ongoing Content – Post launch you want to get as much engagement as possible and climb the rankings. One of the best ways to do this is with a robust content plan including on-site content updates and blog content to help you jump in the rankings
10. Maintenance – Like a car, every now and again, your new site will need some TLC. With a newer website, you won’t need things looking at straight away, but you will want to make sure that your site is fully up to date with zero security vulnerabilities. We always find it best, to put a little bit of budget aside for ongoing website maintenance to make sure that nothing can go wrong with your site

If you have a new website design or development coming up why not contact the team at Hush Digital to see how we can make your dreams a reality?