The 5 Key Elements of a Website
Your website serves as the landing pad for all potential clients. If it doesn’t shine the best light on your business as humanly possible, you have a massive opportunity on your hands. Though I could probably write an entire book on the intricacies of website design and how the approach must be tailored to the goals of each business, there are 5 key elements that if focused on in the right way, can make a huge difference for your business. And in case you are wondering how I’ve determined the order of these; yes the order of these is completely intentional.
Before I dive in, I also want to point out that all of these elements require an investment - both in time and money, so please don’t feel the need to tackle all of these at once. As a helpful guide for how to approach each, I’ve included some questions and key considerations to help guide you through the process.
Cohesive Branding that Calls in the Right Customer
Our starting place and first element of a well-designed website is your visual branding. Even though this is the basis for the entire website, this surprisingly gets overlooked. Over the years, we’ve had clients ask to work with us on their website without first addressing their brand strategy or ensuring that their visual branding is dialed in first.
Your design aesthetic needs to attract your target audience and align with your business values. From your color palette to the fonts and typography styles you choose, it all makes an impression and creates a vibe. Do you want people to feel motivated, comforted, energized or relieved when they visit your website?
Before you make the decision on whether you’ll hire a branding expert of strategist, here are some questions to ask yourself:
Do I have branding that I am proud of?
Is my branding consistent across marketing platforms? Using different colors or fonts every time you design a new graphic or launch something new can be confusing for your audience and prevent you from creating a memorable identity.
Is my branding attracting the clients / customers that I want it to attract? If the answer is no, consider getting into touch with us to book a no-pressure, free consultation.
Messaging that Resonates with the Right Clients
The words (a.k.a copy) and messaging on your website should resonate with your ideal clients. At Minty Made, our team works alongside a copywriter on all of our larger website projects. It has been an incredible value-add for our clients, and is included in our Custom Branding + Website packages.
At this moment, how are the words on your website feeling for you? Start with asking yourself:
Where am I getting stuck with writing my copy?
Do I feel like my website is written in my / our brand voice?
What is it about my copy that feels awkward, incomplete or just off in general?
What is the CTA (call-to-action) that I / we want website visitors to take?
There are website copywriters who are ready to help you, even on a smaller scale if you’re not ready to dive into a whole website rewrite. Check out a few of our recommended copywriters on our Resources page.
Photography that Makes You / Your Brand Shine
Photos taken on your phone in portrait mode just don’t get the job done. Hire a professional photographer instead for quality images and intentional shots that make you and your brand look its best. They’ll be able to capture your aesthetic and personality through the photos—and you’ll be able to repurpose the photos for other marketing needs.
Before you hire a photographer, or as you are interviewing one to hire, here are some helpful questions to ask:
How can I visually showcase my business?
What vibe / mood do I want to convey?
What specifically about my personality do I want people who visit my website to know or take away?
As a starting point, many photographers offer portraits, headshots or mini-sessions that give you enough photos to work with and you can always book a longer shoot down the road. To check out some of the local photographers that we work with, click here.
Keywords that Drive Traffic To Your Website
Your website should be designed with SEO in mind. That means making sure your website is well-structured with headers and subheadings, the site is easy to navigate, your pages load quickly, and your website is accessible for all types of visitors. There’s a lot to cover here and this truly deserves a blog all on it’s own, so be sure to get SEO support to ensure your website is top-notch.
If you're new to SEO, here are a few tools that we recommend installing or checking out:
Have a Plan in Place Market Your Website
The last element but the most important and impactful is promotion. It’s so important to develop a marketing launch plan that drives traffic to your new website. That means linking to your website on social media, encouraging people to visit your blog or any free resources you may have on your site, and having other people in the industry link back to your blog. Once you’ve spent time building and designing your perfect website, you’re going to want people to visit it!
Before launching, take some time to reflect on and answer these questions:
What's my plan for creating a buzz?
How are people likely to find my website?
What's my longer-term plan for continuing to drive people to my website?
If you need some help getting the word out, don’t be afraid to ask a few other business owners to help you spread the word through their email list or social media. You can also book a Marketing Clarity Session with me and we can chat through what this looks like and put a plan together that feels manageable for you.
Start with one and then the next, and the next…
To reiterate the final importance, when we work with our clients on multi-month branding and website projects, we emphasize all of these areas and so should any other website design studio. If you have the budget to address all of these at once, fantastic! However, as I said before, each of these areas does require an investment to be done well and with the proper attention to the process and detail behind them. My best advice is to move at a pace that is financially sustainable for you and your business and dedicate incremental time to each of these key areas. Speaking from experience, you’ll be glad you did!
Let us know which of these tips were helpful for you by leaving a comment below.