Every business needs a good website in the internet, social media, and e-commerce age. It must look beautiful, work well, and provide valuable information to your clients. Your website is often the most critical point of contact with your target base, either connecting with new clients or cementing the loyalty of return clients. Custom website development, and everything that goes into it, can make your life a lot easier as a business.
The Backend of Custom Website Development
It may not be glamorous, but you can think of the technical details that go into the backend of your website as necessary for building an unshakeable foundation.
Choosing a host is the first step. Consider how much web traffic you anticipate, whether you need technical support, and the types of media you would like supported. For example, a desire to play videos on your home page may influence your choice.
Your domain name needs to be memorable and easy to spell, making it easy for people to get back to your website without any obstacles. It should also reflect your brand in a way that eliminates confusion. You can make search engine optimization work for you here so carefully consider your choice.
The program or software that runs your website can also be optimized for your specific type of business. Whether you primarily provide information or process sales, there are various engines to choose from during custom website development.
It’s around this functionality that the design comes together. Without functionality, such as reliable links and fast loading times, clients get frustrated and move on.
How can we help?
At Rogue Wave Marketing, we reveal the uniqueness of every brand through inspirational and impactful messaging and content catered for your audience.
Brand Identity and Design
A clean and comfortable design draws the focus of the users where you want it and guides them through seamlessly. You want to avoid overwhelming them with clutter, such as loud graphics or too much text. You also want to provide a thorough sitemap and navigation tools so they never feel lost and can reach what they need without much hassle. An effective sitemap offers both clients and search engines a clear summary of your site.
Your branding needs to be apparent throughout the design of your site. You want your company’s voice to be distinct, memorable, and present at all times as people browse. You can achieve this with your logo, font, and color scheme.
The tone and language of your content can also reflect your brand. Consider your target audience, color theory, and the context of your products or services throughout the process of custom website development.
Blogging and Search Engine Optimization
Blogs are a great way for clients to get to know you as a business. This can often be what tips the scales with indecisive newcomers. It also makes your website feel up-to-date, advertises your expertise, and provides valuable information. Fresh content is the key to relevancy and helps keep your web traffic continuous.
It doesn’t end there. A blog page can pull double duty as an infinite source of SEO. With the use of keywords, you can connect your products and services with the latest trends and hottest search terms, giving your brand a better chance of reaching the people that need it. Keeping an updated blog also means you don’t have to rewrite your website every time you need to highlight a new keyword.
Reaching a wider base through search engines is especially effective if you develop your website with SEO-friendly code. This code helps the reaching tendrils of search engines find and get a clear picture of your site. Going back to the importance of the backend, keep this in mind during custom website development.
Social Media and Mobile Devices
Social media is a huge force in modern life since it’s how you get news, find products and services, and share ideas. Some platforms have essentially become marketplaces, and others drive a huge amount of clicks. You want your website to be accessible from any device and work with any browser or platform. There’s no better form of advertising in this day and age.
The best way to do this is with responsive design, which means that your site will resize to fit any screen. This is only possible to do in the early stages of development. It’s much more difficult to retrofit responsive design on an existing site. In this case, you can always build a second mobile-friendly version.
You want to make your content simple to share on social media and give your clients an easy way to stay up to date with your latest news. During custom website development, you can integrate various social feeds onto your page or streamline the ability to share updates from your blog. Regardless, your website must not exist in isolation.
Analytics and Tracking
How do you know what’s going on with your website, let alone that it’s working effectively? There are many tools for monitoring your web traffic and analyzing engagement. This can give you an idea of what areas are working and which need tweaking. If you know where your visitors are coming from, what they look at, and why they leave, you have everything you need to continuously improve.
When developing a new website, it’s important to use tools like this to inform your choices. You can integrate tracking and analytics into your new design to make future calculations easier for your marketing team.
Benefits of Custom Website Development
Every brand is different, and every company has particular needs. How you bring all of these tenets together can make all the difference in terms of success. Focus on what works best for your company rather than trying to do it all. That way you won’t overwhelm your base, and your website will become an attractive and reliable mainstay in your clients’ lives.
Make your website work for you with custom website development. Don’t settle for a one-size-fits-all generic format that may end up giving you more problems than solutions. At Rogue Wave Marketing, we can work with you to build a functional, visually engaging online space that makes a good impression on your clients. Reach out to learn more about starting a project with us.
