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Hey, guys! Today I’m chiming in with a very condensed version of important questions you NEED to ask yourself before designing a website. So without too much other babble – let’s dive in!

  1. What’s your website’s purpose? Generally, this ends up being the intent of your readers to hire, buy, or contact contact you. Sometimes though, this can get a little blurred with just wanting a website, “Because everyone else has one,” which is EXACTLY why you need to really have a focus on the purpose of your website. Each day, 2 million pieces of content are published to the web. You need to stand out to your viewers and that starts with knowing the real reason behind needed a website.
  2. What do you want your readers to feel when they first hit your website? Pumped? Vulnerable? Curious? Relaxed? It’s important to know everything about your audience, especially where they’re coming from so that you know what their problems are to present solutions (your product) for.
  3. How do you want to be perceived? This can be tough, especially if you’re a creative business (and person). I think business owners, particularly those starting out, want to please everyone but that just doesn’t ever work out well, does it? Try to hone in on five or fewer attributes you want to be known for and ways you can instantly convey that on your website.
  4. How do you want your website to direct readers? This can get pretty detailed, but long story short, what tactics will you utilize to direct your readers to hire, buy from, or contact you on your website? Will you use beautiful graphics? CTAs (Call-to-action)? Just menu items? How can you make this process more fluid for readers?
  5. What value can you present to your viewers at first glance? It’s easy as website owners to want to throw everything at our readers. But that often leads to clutter and an overwhelming reason to leave our website. So think of one to two things you believe to be primary necessities to your website viewers and remove everything else. Keep it simple.
  6. How can you quickly build trust with your website audience? From the moment someone views your website, you need to be trustworthy or they’ll leave. The easiest way to do this is to be transparent and create an environment that is conducive to engaging with you. Know what your audience wants and make it easy for them to get there.
  7. Who are your competitors? I recently talked about this on Instagram because it’s crucial to your success. Understanding what your competitors are doing to build their business will help you figure out where you need to spend more time adjusting your system. Your competitors share your target audience so seeing what they’re doing right can greatly help you. This doesn’t mean stealing ideas and completely copying everything they do. This simple means taking notice of what they’re doing right or (dare I say it) better than you and looking to that for inspiration.There you have it! How did you do with these? Anything eye-opening? I feel as though these are pretty straightforward, but hope I was able to give you some clarity. Until next time!