When websites first became mainstream, they were an online business card, formatted like letterhead with your logo, address, email and telephone number in the header and limited text on page it was about ensuring your business contact information could be found so consumers could reach out and speak to a sales representative who would then convert the sale.
Today, websites are regularly the only point of contact a consumer ever has with your business in their purchase process, therefore it needs to contain all of the information required in order to give them the confidence they need to commit to their purchase whether that be physically buying the product online or booking the appointment for your service.
In order for them to be found, they also need to be well written and designed, so that, in addition to appealing to consumers, they are easily able to be indexed and ranked by search engines.
Website design requires the intimate understanding as to how users engage with website, what patterns and flows they are conditioned to follow and how these can be leverage to best engage users on your site.
In addition to the visual components, website designers are also required to strategise the technical and functional requirements of your website. i.e if a consumer on a fashion website clicks on 'notify me when in stock' button, not only does the website designer design the shape, colour, placement and font of the button, but a key component of designing the website is understanding how that back in stock notification will be recorded and triggered for the consumer once the product is back in stock.
Well designed websites will have lower bounce rates, and higher conversion rates than poorly designed websites and will provide consumers with a great first impression of your business.
A website developer is the person who takes the website design and turns it into a functional, working website.
How the website will load across all different devices (is it mobile friendly and tablet friendly, if perchance someone is view it on their 45 inch TV will it still render correctly). Is it fast? Most users will wait only 3 seconds for a website to load, if your website is taking longer than this to load, you may be missing out on the business of potential customers.
Will it rank well based on how the content has been technically implemented on the page? A copywriter might be responsible for writing the content on the page, but if the website developer fails to implement the correct headings/tags and metadata then it's ranking can be considerably impacted.
Lastly, the web developer is the person responsible for ensuring that your website speaks to all of the other apps and tools that you are using correctly so that your whole marketing ecosystem works as it should.
For most businesses, the website plays a critical role amongst the core marketing activities. So ensuring it is performing well is key to the efficient growth of your business.
Conversion rate optimisation - ensuring the website is optimised to convert customers;
User experience - ensuring the website provides a helpful, intentional experience to visitors;
Copywriting - ensuring the website has effective, compelling words that educate and call people to action; and
Website management - ensuring the website is secure, backed up, and is kept up to date to maintain a professional online presence.
