What factors affect the time it takes to create a website?
How well prepared that you are for the project is a pivotal factor. If you have your content, images, and information ready. It can significantly speed up the project completion.
One thing that you will hear from a lot of website designers is “ I can move as fast as you can provide the information needed”.
The turnaround time can vary. It depends on the type of website that you want to have build and the customizations.
A one-page website takes considerably less time than an e-commerce website which has many products that need to be added. In addition to payment providers, and other features needed to track and ship packages.
Feature-rich sites require more testing and troubleshooting before setting the website live. There are more details and items to implement and make sure are functioning properly.
A fast website design project isn’t always a great website design project
What you don’t want to do is rush a website project. That is how you get what you get instead of getting what you wanted and needed.
Designing a website is the first step but it’s not the only one. It is better to plan for a website design project and all the aspects of it. Ensuring that you get a website that brings results and does more than shows that you exist.
This is where patience and a plan comes into play. Along with trust in your decision of who you selected to partner with on the project. If you’ve done your due diligence trust that they know what they’re doing.
Ask the right questions going into the project. Get a clear set of next steps and make sure that you’re comfortable with the process. Go over the goals for the website. Your goals and the solution that you want to provide for your customers.
What elements need to be present in a website design?
The elements that need to be present in a website design, go beyond the look of the website. It should serve its purpose. Answering the question am I in the right place to address an issue and solve the problem. Will I get the results that I need?
Creating the framework of the website addresses the look and feel of the website. Messaging is important to answer the “what’s in it for me?”. Can I get to “know, like, and trust you?”
You need to be able to tell your story in a way that resonates with your target audience. A solid user experience. That comes with a marketing strategy and understanding of your target audience.
When it comes to the user experience. You want to decrease the number of clicks that it takes to get the answers and solutions the visitor is looking for.
Elements to be taken into consideration when designing a website
A common mistake is to make the website about yourself and what you like as a business owner. Instead of about the customer. Remember to design with purpose and don’t forget the end goal.
Consider long and short-term goals. Where you are now is not where you’ll be a year or two from now. Are you building your website in a way that can grow with your business?
Are you using a template that will limit your ability to evolve? If so what you’re creating and need to be okay with is that you’re building a starter website. One that will last as long as you stay at the same level of business and demand that you’re at at the moment.
You will more than likely end up creating a new website to match the new levels that you rise to with your business. To be clear that’s okay. There are plenty of businesses that use this formula.
Working and building in phases and within your budget. Staying within a lane that you feel more comfortable with and revisiting once you have more knowledge and a frame of reference to lean on.
How best to communicate with your client with your website
It is also important to address existing and soon-to-be existing clients with your new website. How do you plan on providing customer service? Using the website to fulfill orders? Answering frequently asked questions? Responding to questions that your website does not address in a reasonable amount of response time?
While it is great to use a website for lead generation. It is just as if not more important to use the website to maintain the customers that you already have in-house.
Let’s take a look at some statistics to back up this way of thinking
- About 50% of loyal customers have left a company for a competitor who was able to stay more relevant and better satisfy their needs. (InMoment)
- A 5% increase in customer retention correlates with at least a 25% increase in profit (Bain & Company)
- 90% of customers are likely to purchase more than once. (Hubspot Research)
- 82% of customers rate an immediate response (30 minutes or less) as important and very important when they have marketing or sales questions, and that percentage rises to 90% with support questions (HubSpot Research)
- 60% of loyal customers will purchase more frequently from their preferred companies. (InMoment)
Taking these statistics into account. Can you see why it would be important to make sure that you’re addressing ways to accommodate your existing customers with your website?
Retention is such a huge part of business longevity. It is a lot easier to sell a product or service to someone who has already decided that they value you than it is to win new business. It is also a lot more cost-effective.
You can forecast sales based on what you already know about their buying habits. You can also recreate that ideal customer into a customer persona and look for more of that customer. Building out your customer base with brand advocates and loyal customers. People who see the value and don’t question your pricing.
It can cost you more money to fix the issues that would have been found with a more detailed level of troubleshooting.
Website Design and Website Development is more than just the creation
The user experience will dictate the success of the website. This includes the search engines visiting the site and ranking it so that they know who and when to share it with people searching.
A website isn’t a build it and forget type of thing. The investment is ongoing because it requires maintenance, updates, and preventive measures to keep it from being hacked or crashing.
Granted this depends on the content management system (Click here to find out more about selecting the right content management system for your needs) that you select when creating the website. However, It does not exclude the reality of it being a possibility.
How to avoid and be proactive when it comes to issues instead of being reactive at cost
As a website owner, you will either be paying the content management system for its pre-emptive protection or someone for the re-active results of trying to correct an issue.
Issues can be avoided by implementing strategies like performing a soft launch. Where you only go live to a limited group and gather feedback. Once any bugs or concerns are addressed do the full launch.
You should not fully launch a website until you’ve done your due diligence. So much of a business website’s success is based on the user experience.
The last thing that you want to do is have a website go live with bugs, issues, and have to pull it back down again. Worse yet have it get hacked and or crash after it’s announced as live. You lose all credibility and trust from visitors.
Conclusion: How long does it take to complete a website design project
Through communication, planning, and understanding of the project requirements. You can shorten the time that it takes to complete a website design project.
Picking the right tool for the project and person to partner with are key aspects to help in efficiently completing a website design. While getting the desired results.
If you’re getting antsy you can always use that time to start promoting the website and planning for your website launch. Tell potential and existing customers what they can expect with it. Gather feedback for what they’d like to see and what they think would be helpful.
Giving your target audience a voice and a say in a website that they’ll be using just as often if not more than you will.
