Building an effective website and online shop

How to build a website that will attract the right people and spark sales? An effective website has to have all the key elements and has to be clear and tidy, not only in the foreground (in the graphic part), but also in the background (in the technical part) of the website.

Let’s look at how to build a top-quality website or online shop.

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‘If you aren’t online, you don’t exist’ is a fact of the 21st century and an important message for all companies.

The website is today the centre of business. Do you already have your website set up and is it bringing satisfactory results?

When we take on building a website, our goal is to create a website that will effectively attract the ‘right’ people, keep them on the page, and over time turn them into satisfied and loyal customers. For this we need a website that wins people over with an excellent user experience, the most modern design, and with its content presentation hits the heart of your story and activity.

The website is your company’s shop window

The website is the place where your company’s story can come alive. Few other places allow you to present your story to such a wide audience and in the way you want, in the best possible light. But as a result, building a website requires a lot of time, knowledge, and effort.

Of course, that is if you want to build a website that effectively captures the values and mission of your company and is user-friendly, fast-responding, aesthetic, and technically perfect. So a website that people will gladly stay on and that they will return to again and again.

The website is the place where your company’s story comes alive.

Building a website is a big undertaking

Many people take on building a website themselves. But building a website is an extensive project that, for successful realisation (and later results), requires sufficient knowledge, thorough research, and all the necessary steps to be carried out, which have to be carried out professionally and carefully. Among them are a good understanding of the goals and wishes regarding the website, the preparation of the content concept and visual materials, the technical development of the page, optimisation of the page, and long-term maintenance of the page.

What to watch out for?

If you have sufficient knowledge of all the mentioned areas, you can take on building a website yourself. But it can quickly happen that, with independent development, the website at first looks attractive and appealing, but almost always has certain shortcomings. These can have a major impact on your presentation, user satisfaction, and also on the website’s ranking in search engines. What kinds of irregularities are these?

• Inconsistent design.
• Inappropriate structural layout, for example when ineffective elements on the page are very prominent, while important elements are hidden (for example purchase or enquiry buttons).
• Errors in the code.
• Images that are too large (and as a result a slow page).
• Links that don’t work.
• Invalid meta tags or keywords.
• Unclear or ineffective content presentation.
• Poorly polished SEO.

With a lack of knowledge and unfamiliarity with the technical demands of websites, it can happen that you are losing visits and have much smaller conversions on the page than is possible for your page. So that your financial investment is optimally used, it makes sense to hire a digital agency that will build for you a technically, content-wise, and visually effective website according to the highest standards and with the best results.

Professional website development

With professional website development, you don’t have to worry about anything from the above. Let’s look at which elements must not be missing in the building of a website. A digital agency ensures that:

• Your website will meet all the criteria of search engines and will, as a result, rank high on Google.
• It will be responsive and adapted for mobiles, tablets, and other devices, and will enable an excellent user experience on all devices.
• It will be sensibly and effectively structured and will have the most important elements highlighted in the most visible places.
• It will also include contact forms and calls to action, elements with which you guide users to actions you want them to make on the website.
• It will have added links to your social media and customer reviews, which will increase the credibility of your website.

• It will contain a form for signing up for the newsletter with the aim of informing about new things and promotional offers, which is an additional strong element of marketing.

• It will include a sensible, high-quality, and rounded content presentation, which will be just the right length to bring your story closer to users and ensure better ranking in search engines.
• The content presentation, together with attractive visual elements (visual identity), will effectively present your activity and tell your company’s story.

Building a website, the steps

When creating a website, cooperation and two-way work between client and agency is important. You know your company best. So it is essential that you determine the strategy (the structure of the page and the content and visual aspects of the page) with the agency and adjust it together in the long term.

Already before the building and design of the website, it is important to know what your story is, what you want to communicate, and what the added value is for visitors of your website. You also have to ask yourself whether you want to have a complete website made, just a landing page, or perhaps (even) an online shop. So how do we approach a website step by step?

Step 1: Analysis

The agency, in the first step, carries out a page analysis for you. It checks the design of the page, the number of images, videos, the content on the page, customer reviews, the speed of the page, the security of the page (HTTPS certificate). In addition, to gain a complete picture, it studies your activity, purchase processes, and target audiences. It also checks competing companies and their online presentation and your ranking on Google (your SEO result).

Based on the analysis, it determines the main goals and functions of the website and, with the target audience of users in mind, prepares a breakthrough strategy for building the website, which becomes the foundation of all further work.

Step 2: Design and content

The goal isn’t just creating a visually attractive website, but rather creating a page that comprehensively presents you and your activity and addresses users and their wishes, problems, and concerns. The agency achieves this by using the right tone of communication, logo, colours, typography that best represent your company (visual identity), and calls to action and other elements of an effective website.

In this way, it strives to create an excellent user experience that will attract users. Because of the satisfaction the user feels when viewing the website, they will return again and again and recommend the website and also the product or service.

Step 3: Development and maintenance

When both the agency and the client know what they want and have the vision of the new website in front of them, the technical development of the page begins. The agency ensures that the page works fast and smoothly, that its security is at maximum, and that it has well-implemented page optimisation. At the same time, it is important that the agency connects the website to your social media and adapts it for all devices.

Of course, the agency’s contribution doesn’t end here. It also takes care of long-term maintenance, updating the website and the comprehensive promotion of the new page through digital marketing services. And it regularly informs you about new things that are important for your website.

In building a website, cooperation and two-way work between client and agency is of key importance.

How much does building a website cost?

The price of building a website can’t be set on the first guess. It depends on the number of hours used and also on the complexity and scope of the page itself. Every website is a story and a project of its own, and as a result the price of every website is also adjusted to each client. Above all, the price is influenced by your long-term vision that you want to pursue with the online presentation.

Building a landing page

Often, however, companies already have a website but only need a landing page in order to particularly highlight a particular product or service. So already before the start of building the new page, it is essential that you know what your goals are and what you want to achieve. Then the agency will know whether it is appropriate for you to have a website made or ‘just’ a landing page. If we don’t know what the difference between a complete website and a landing page is, this can cause confusion.

What is the difference between a website and a landing page?

Let’s look at the difference. While the purpose of a complete website is the presentation of the company, the team, and the company’s activity, a landing page is created with one single purpose. And that is to bring the visitor to make one specific action.

We ‘land’ on a landing page from an ad, articles, an email message, a post from social media, or from another external page (an external link). So it is usually also created as part of a marketing campaign that is prepared with a particular goal in mind. This goal can, for example, be that the user clicks on a button or call to action such as signing up for the newsletter, downloading an e-book, making a purchase, submitting an enquiry, or another conversion.

Building an online shop

You can also decide on building an online shop. This can be a B2C (business to clients) or B2B (business to business) online platform that has all the elements that make it clear and simple. Here the agency carries out the option of various payment methods, search engine optimisation (SEO), design of the online shop, and connection to various programmes and automation. These are, for example, Datastudio, MailChimp, Excel, Minimax, Vasco, etc., which allow for even greater practicality in the use of the online shop.

Create a website that will win people over with an excellent user experience, the most modern design, and will hit the heart of your story and activity.

How to start?

Whether you decide on building a website, building a landing page, or building an online shop, at the start you provide information and materials to the chosen digital agency.

It is important that you choose a unique domain name and a fast server for hosting the website. What you also have to have is material for the website, including texts, photographs, and other necessary content. You have to understand well what you want to achieve, or what the vision of your page is, with the help of which you will, alone or with the help of an agency, prepare the strategy for the execution of the page. This is followed by the execution of the page itself, and your page will win people over with an excellent user experience, the most modern design, and will hit the heart of your story and activity.

And what then?

Excellent. Your page is finished, SEO for search engines is done, and it excellently presents your company’s story. And what then?

The page can be carried out at the highest level, but without further executed steps it may not even create results. For users to take the desired steps and achieve conversions on the page, they first have to even come to the page. Additional digital marketing activities take care of this, with the help of which you refresh and strengthen your online presence and bring potential users to the page. These are, among others:

• social media management,
• online advertising,
• email marketing,
• advanced search engine optimisation (SEO),
• content marketing and strategy.

But that is already a story of its own and an additional step forward towards your goals. In digital marketing activities, an integrated marketing strategy plays an important role, with activities that support each other and with which you will achieve excellent reach, ensure higher visits, and improve your business results.

To sum up

Is it time for a new website, but you don’t know how to even take on this project? In this article, we have walked you through the most important facts, mistakes, and key factors that you have to watch out for when creating a website. You can leave the building of the website to the agency. This way, it will include all the necessary elements, will be safe and optimised for search engines, and will carry out its task with distinction. More customers and higher sales are at your doorstep.

Read also

• What do you have to add to your website?
• Yes. You urgently need a website.
• The Act on the Accessibility of Websites