If you want to make your website stand out from the millions of other sites on the internet, it’s important to develop it with professional web development practices in mind. You may have an amazing product or service to sell, but if your website doesn’t look professional and has lots of technical errors, you’ll scare away customers and hurt your brand reputation in the process. Make sure that you follow these 10 tips to ensure that your website is developed properly and impresses visitors every time they visit it.
1) Identify your target market
When you’re working on professional web development, it’s easy to get wrapped up in how cool your product or website is. But before you start coding, you need to step back and ask yourself: Who are we building for? If you can’t clearly identify a target market for your project, maybe it isn’t worth pursuing.
2) Study the competition
Take a good, hard look at your competition. You need to make sure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes before you go any further. It can also be incredibly useful to see what your competitors are doing well (and maybe not so well). This can help you identify what people in your target market want and how they might perceive a brand like the www.robinroo.com site. By studying others, you can ensure that you’re developing a professional website that will attract potential customers and earn business from them.
3) Check it in different browsers and devices
Before you even think about working on your website, get a complete idea of how it looks and works in different browsers and devices. The fastest way to do so is by creating a wireframe that outlines each of your pages as they’ll appear on the mobile, tablet, desktop and other devices. This will give you an overall picture of how everything should work before you dive into Web development. If a web application is what you need, there are numerous platforms that make developing easy.
4) Look at screenshots, not just your design
When you’re planning a new website, it’s easy to get caught up in your own design process. It’s important to remember that what users see is a screenshot of your site, not your design. Looking at both can help you catch potential problems with legibility and readability before they happen. The more you can emulate real-world conditions when testing designs, the better off your final product will be.
5) Get testimonials from past clients
A professional web development company should have testimonials from clients on their website. These can be client logos, actual testimonials, or both. Since these websites deal with large sums of money and valuable time, they need to reassure potential clients that they are a safe option. By collecting testimonials, they not only present themselves as a reliable organization but also reassure current and future clients that other people have been satisfied with their services.
6) Be on time with deadlines
Despite all your best efforts, deadlines will get missed. The key is to have a contingency plan in place before that happens. If you’re going to be late, let your customer know upfront and ask if it’s okay if you come in late, or complete certain tasks early so that you can hit their deadline later. You may not make a sale every time, but when clients know they can count on you – even when things go wrong – they’ll come back again and again.
7) Don’t do everything yourself
When you’re first starting out, it can seem like a great idea to do everything yourself, but there’s no quicker way to waste your time than by doing all of your website development in-house. It takes a lot of time and knowledge to build websites—something that’s outside most people’s expertise—and you can either pay somebody else or spend years learning yourself.
8) Hire specialists to finish projects faster and better
One of the best things about being a small business owner is that you have 100% say over everything that happens to your business. One of the worst things, though, is that you’re also responsible for everything that happens to your business. There are plenty of other professionals out there who can help with various aspects of running a business, but you should still take a look at their specific abilities before hiring them and make sure they’re a good fit for your company.
9) Invest in SEO expertise (this is your most important investment!)
SEO stands for search engine optimization. As an online business owner, you should know SEO because it’s crucial to your site’s performance in Google and other search engines. Consider investing in a consultant who can help ensure that your site has a chance of showing up on page one of Google. The investment will be worth it. Just look at Apple: They spent $100 million advertising their iPhone 6; however, more searches were done on Google regarding iPhones than Apple did advertising.
10) Use templates carefully. Avoid them if you can.
Templates are great if you don’t want to spend a lot of time customizing your website. But keep in mind that templates are not customized to suit your specific needs and requirements. If you want a unique, personalized website that serves only your business, avoids templates as much as possible.