That includes traditional marketing mediums like brochures and other print and electronic media options.
Out of all the marketing tools available to a business owner, today's most effective is a website.
You can run a very efficient lead generation (prospects) operation - with a good website.
That explains why almost 1.8 Billion websites exist online today, with at least 500 million web pages created daily.
Those are big numbers, but it simply shows; owning a website is no longer a phenomenon but a necessity.
What are the 3 general purposes of a website?
You can use for a website:-- Information display
- Advertising
- E-commerce
It all depends on the industry and the goals of the business. Goals are the best point of reference for invalidating a web design project.
A website can help you meet business goals in the following ways:-
● Get new customers
● Educate your audience on the products and services offered.
● Make a sale
● Build relationships
Hence, websites are of various types.
10 different types of websites that you should know about
Websites exist in various forms, and the website choice is dictated by the industry and purpose or goals the business has yet to achieve.
A website may fall into any of the following categories:-
● Portal - Complex websites that serve specific functions related to a business, organization or government
● eCommerce - Websites that exist to sell products
● Brochure website - Simple information based websites
● Portfolio website - These types of websites are used to display art for businesses or individuals. The primary role is to showcase work to potential customers.
● Business website - A website used for branding purposes where information on the business or brand is presented.
● Entertainment / News - Websites that carry entertainment or news-related content falls into this category.
● Education - These can exist as portals with vast educational content in video or written form. Education websites are mostly interactive.
● Non-profit - For promotion purposes, non-profit organizations use these types of websites to showcase their offerings
● Personal website - Celebrities and professionals use these types of websites to inform the public of their expertise or engage their followers in the case of celebrities
● Forum - These are websites where content is mainly user-generated. Discussions on specific topics take place in forums.
Having looked at the types of websites, let us now delve into the creation process. Each of the websites highlighted above has a different development route.
The 8 phases of the web design process
The first phase of web design that cuts across all types of websites is goal identification. From a fully functional website launch, you can have various alterations to the design process, depending on the problem being solved and the industry.
Overall, The developers must include the following steps in the web design process.
● Strategy & Design Concept
● Site Optimisation and Building
● Site Maintenance & Updates
However, a more detailed process that involves the following ingredients is more likely to feature in many web design projects.
● Identify project and business goals
● Design concepts
● Content architecture and development
● SEO implementation
● Development
● Testing
● Launch
● Maintenance
Depending on the goals, a web design project roadmap can include more steps than outlined above.
When the need arises, UX web design is used, and that calls for a different process. That means the budget or costs involved scale up considerably.
Once a website has launched, the nurturing phase begins and depending on the type of website, and you could be looking at various tasks in maintenance.
What is website maintenance?
Keeping a website running involves several tasks, including:-
● Content generation
● SEO procedures
● Landing page design
● Server maintenance
For each of the functions above, a website may require full-time attention and a budget to run.
Sometimes teams of hundreds of professionals are needed to keep complex websites running with daily critical tasks allocated to everyone to ensure smooth running.
Website maintenance checklist
Most website maintenance rituals are mostly technical in nature, and they usually cluster around SEO procedures.
The following is a checklist to follow in maintaining a website of any nature:
● Check for broken links (pages that are not loading on the browser)
● Website loading speeds
● Update content
● Ensure all pages are loading properly
● Add new pages
● Backups
● Software updates
The tasks above should vary depending on the website size and the owner’s preference.
Some owners prefer to do most of those tasks once a complete website is handed over to them. But if you lack technical skills and need a helping hand - Hotsnow is there for you.
We offer monthly and yearly packages to website owners who need help in servicing their websites.
Conclusion
Websites are critical to any business that is keen on building a solid reputation and audience online.If you need web design services, we are glad to guide you through getting a website that will serve you and your business.
Contact us, and let’s begin the journey in creating a great website for
