When you look at a business’ website design, you aren’t meant to see the hard work that was behind it. Websites aren’t meant to look overcomplicated to viewers, they’re meant to look like they were built for them and all the information on there will answer any questions anyone would ever have. However, to anyone who owns or manages a website we all know this: websites can be very complicated things.
Each website we design at NEXTFLY, there is an awful amount of strategy and creative development that goes into designing and developing our client’s high-quality websites.
Many clients come to us as a blank canvas. They don’t have a direction strategically nor creatively for their site and are looking for guidance.
One thing we suggest that is a good way to get started on your website’s architecture is developing a sitemap. A sitemap will help you bring together all of the information you’d like to be on your site and will also help you organize where it will be.
Not sure what a site map is, nor the importance of it? View a recent blog we wrote about it.
After you’ve thought about the important pages you’d like to have on your site, you need to write up your content. Your website’s content is extremely important because it communicates your brand’s values, beliefs and the benefits of its services and/or products. In turn, what the website design provides then is a thoughtful web design and architecture to fit around it to deliver the message.
To know what content you need to prepare, it’s important to ask yourself a few questions:
- Why do you want/need a new website design?
- What is your new/updated website’s purpose?
- What are your goals for your new website?
It’s imperative to put a lot of thought and planning into your website. This will be important for the designers to know how to lay it out to best accomplish all of your website’s objectives.
For example: If you are interested in selling products on your website, you might need to consider an E-commerce website design with a shopping cart integration. Or, if you are a real estate agent and need a special gallery built out to showcase your houses, we can build that into your initial website design instead of working with a plugin that doesn’t do exactly what you’re looking for.
After you have your website structurally planned out, have the content developed and have the functionality thought of – website design and development teams can get to work and put together the website you have always envisioned!
Now, one thing that is great to keep in mind when working with Nextfly Web Design is that we work on WordPress, a Content Management System.
What is a Content Management System? A Content Management System (CMS) is a web application designed specifically for non-technical users to add, edit and manage content on their website. Due to CMS designs, there is a lot of flexibility in your overall website design and it’s functionality.
WordPress comes with numerous plugins that programmers develop to integrate additional custom functionality including SEO tools, galleries, and even social media timelines onto their website.
For a list of our top 5 favorite plugins – check out our blog!
How does this help you? You could do all the planning you want, but there might be a few things that slip through the crack or change immediately after your website launch. When you are working with a Content Management System, however, you have the ability to add new pages, posts, and different plugins whenever you’d like.
This allows you the opportunity to switch up your page’s sitemap and make numerous changes at your convenience.
What does this mean? If you are a small business that continues to grow and offer customers new services or products, you can use your pre-existing website to reflect your companies frequent changes. Nextfly website designs can grow with you as your business grows!
So, get in touch with Nextfly to get started on your site! We’ll help you with every step of the planning process to make sure your website is everything you want it to be and more!