If your intention is to expand your business beyond the local level, developing a quality website is the first step you need to take. It will allow you to gain new clients, partners, and make your business know beyond your neighborhood.
Many people still believe that just having a website is more than sufficient to make the business flourish. However, type in the search bar of any browser a request with, say, one of the products or services that you offer or the field in which your business operates. You will find hundreds if not thousands of results.
Even though a visitor might be attracted initially with a good design, with the fact that your website is unique and attractive, it doesn’t mean automatic success. The website shall comply with plenty of other requirements. For instance, the website loading time, its features, and ease of use will play a decisive role for a visitor. So, when we speak about a website that moves your business forward, we mostly mean a website where web design and development go hand in hand.
What is Web Development?
So, what is web development? We can compare it with the engine of your website. It allows your website to load fast and without errors, collect leads, process transactions, and similar. In other words, web development is a key element to the proper functioning of your custom website. You might not need to know everything about how to design a website. But if you are looking for a custom software development provider, you need to know what details to pay attention to and what questions to ask to find the right company or team. So, among the most common questions to ask are the following:
- The programming background and experience of every team member;
- The functionality that you want your website to have;
- If any upgrades will be available and if yes, what kind of upgrades you can count on;
- Applications and databases that might be available in the future if any.
From these questions, you will see whether the team has the needed experience and whether they understand what you expect from them. Once you have found the right team, you can discuss with them in detail the custom web development services they are going to provide.
Requirements Your Website Shall Comply With
Now, when you understand what web design and development is, you can be checking whether the developers move in the correct direction while working on your website. Therefore, it is needed to check some crucial details that make your website fail or succeed.
1. The website look shall match your business brand
Colors, layouts, fonts shall be appropriate. For example, you will not make a website offering funeral services in bright and merry tones. And on the contrary, if your business is about the organizing of celebrations or tours, you aren’t going to use dark tones and mourning messages for the website layout.
2. A user-friendly layout is one of the prerequisites of success
If a visitor can navigate easily, if all the functions are easy-to-find, there are more chances that the visitor either is going to use the service now or will return to it later. And on the contrary, if it is difficult to find the needed pages, functions, most likely, nobody will even be looking for them. Visitors are going to move to a different website where they will find everything easy and fast.
3. The website, all its pages, shall load fast
Time is money, nobody will wait a couple of minutes for every page to load. Well, the only exception might be the case if you are offering something unique, something that cannot be found anywhere else. Are you offering something exclusive? If not, then just make sure all the pages of your website load fast indeed.
4. Easy integration of third-party services and functionalities matters
Even if now, you don’t need it, with the expansion of your business, such a need might arise. For example, if you are selling something, additional payment options might be needed. Frequently, Google Maps, Salesforce solutions are added. So, at the initial stage of web design and development, you shall be attentive to this detail.
Web Development Is a Continuous Process
Once you have your website functionality and design settled, it doesn’t mean that the custom web development services are provided and the process is over. The web development services also include website testing for stability. It means not just having and keeping the website running. We can speak about the website stability when we know that everything is removed that can make the website prone to failures in the future.
The website shall be also compatible with at least the major browsers. Users shall be able to find and browse it whether they use Chrome, Mozilla, Microsoft Edge, or any other browser that is commonly used. The same applies to mobile browsers if you want people to be able to reach your offers from mobile devices, too.
Finally, it shall be possible to implement new features on the website. Everybody expects that his/her business will grow, thus the website shall be able to accommodate any changes that will be needed over time. A static website is the worst solution for a business, so, make sure you don’t fall for it.
To Sum up
Website development and website design are closely interconnected if you want to get a website that will work. Never sacrifice one aspect for the other, and make sure that every detail is considered and every functionality is implemented properly.
When choosing a team to work on your website, always check whether they are able to complete the task and what guarantees they can provide that they can do it properly. Make sure they have experience in the needed field (if you are going to open a marketplace, you need to choose developers who have worked with similar solutions before) and the needed resources to complete the task. Only then, you can get a solution that will work.