Web development is tricky business if you don’t know what you doing. How much should you spend? How important is it for you business? What results can you expect?  These will vary for business to business, but are good questions that need to be considered.  One thing is for certain and that is the internet is growing at a rapid rate, so the topic of web development is going to come up sooner or later. 

The most important part of web development comes in the planning stage.  You need to understand the function and goal of your website.  Is it for information, to make a sale, generate leads or direct people to your store.  This will help dictate your site structure and navigation. 

Before you undergo web development, make sure you have a brand or identify that you are happy with.  This will help the flow of the site and greatly enhance its branding.  Once you finish web development it is much more difficult to change colour schemes or identities, so make sure you put some planning into this at the beginning. 

Usability is one of the largest determinant on how successful your web development is.  The design needs to be intuitive for users so the site is easily navigated.  Your prime real estate is the top left hand side of your page, so make sure you clearly state what you do so that on first impression visitors know they have come to the right place.  Above the fold of the page there should also be one obvious call to action the clearly indicates where you want your visitors to go next.  This could be for more information or to go in your sales funnel, but you need to give users some clear directions. 

For web development to be successful you need create a clear value proposition.  Your website needs to explain the features and more importantly the benefits of what you are offering.  You need to be very clear on these points.  Try to avoid too much confusing text at the top of your web site but rather focus on a few succinct points that outline your product offering.  Particularly for web development testimonials are powerful as social proof to your offering.  In addition guarantees work very well as well.  People are often sceptical when they first reach a website so it becomes important to reassure your visitors. 

When you begin web development it is also important to consider search engine optimisation (SEO).  Once your web development is complete you need to be found by visitors and one way to do this is via search engines.  First of all you need to consider which keywords you wish to rank well for.  Then you need to do all the basic on-page optimisation.  This consists of:

• Title tags – make sure they are keyword rich.  All your pages should have unique title tags.
• Meta descriptions – again make sure these are keyword rich and unique for every page.
• Heading tags – should be keyword rich.
• Interlinking – where possible link from keywords to relevant internal pages.

You may have heard the phrase ‘copy is king’ and is could not more correct.  In web development copy is often thrown together in the hope that the design will win people over.  In fact the opposite is true.  Copy is far more important than design.  Make sure you have well written copy that simply explains what your site offers, with the features and benefits.  Copy is also important for SEO, with search engines loving text rich sites. 

By far the biggest key in web development is in the planning, so make sure before you launch into your web development project have a good think about the questions and concepts raised in this article.  Not only will you save money in the electronics development stage, but you web site will also deliver greater returns in the future.