Today, every business, no matter which industry it comes from, needs to be online if they want a chance of making a successful sale. However, it’s worth noting that the online space is very competitive. Getting your website up and running is just one part of the battle, and once people have arrived on your page, you need to make sure that you keep them interested in what you have to offer.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to designing the perfect website, there are things you can do when you’re just starting out to improve your chances of success. Here, we’re going to look at just eight considerations you should keep in mind when designing a site for the first time.

1. Pages Need to Load Quickly

Perhaps the most important thing you can do when you want to make your website a success is ensuring that your pages load as quickly as possible. Although choosing the right hosting provider can help with this, it’s also important to make sure that you design your pages carefully. For instance, steer clear of any big plugins or images that might slow down your performance.

The longer it takes for your website to load the greater the risk that you’ll lose your customers to competitors.

2. Choose Images Carefully

The right visuals are a great way to engage and inspire your visitors, but it’s important to make sure that you make your selection carefully. Small images can help with download speed, by making sure that your website doesn’t have as much work to do to present everything to your customers.

At the same time, make sure that you stay away from any stock images that might make your website look unprofessional.

3. Invest in Great Navigation

If your visitors have problems getting from one place to another on your website, then they’re not going to stick around. You need to make sure that you have navigation options on your website that are clear, easy to use, and direct. If your customers are confused by your navigation, they’re more likely to press the back button.

4. Include Contact Information

Perhaps the ultimate thing that all customers expect to find when they visit your website is your contact information. Your clients want to be able to contact you quickly and easily. This means that you’ll need to offer up some useful options like an email address, a telephone number, and even an instant messaging solution in some cases.

5. Plan on Using SEO

Content is one of the most important things you can invest in when you’re trying to improve the reach and value of your website. With that in mind, make sure that you plan on becoming an SEO expert. Do your research, or consider working with the experts at first, but make sure that you know what you’re doing. SEO can literally put your marketing efforts on the map and make sure that you have everything it takes to transform the performance of your business. Just make sure that you don’t get so caught up in adding SEO elements to your content that you forget to write for people too!

6. Make Sure Your Links Work

Broken links don’t just look unprofessional, they’re a sign to your readers and the search engines that you’re not maintaining your online presence popular. Link rot is something that can happen quite easily, without the person behind the website even noticing. With that in mind, make sure that you regularly set aside some time to check your link and make sure that you’re taking steps to improve your website performance.

7. Make Sure That You’re Mobile Friendly

In the past, website owners didn’t have to worry much about the rise of mobile browsing. Today, more people than ever before are browsing the website from their smartphones, instead of logging on to a desktop computer or laptop. With that in mind, it’s important to make sure that your website is well-optimised, viewable, and easy to use with mobile devices.

8. Remember to Measure and Improve

Finally, the only way you can improve the performance of your website over time is to make sure that you’re constantly measuring your performance and making necessary changes. The more you use web analytics tools to track site visitor habits, the more likely it is that you’ll end up with a clear insight into the solutions that are working for your website, and the tactics that simply aren’t making the right impression. Creating a website and maintaining it properly is a long-term task. Make sure that you know as much as possible about your online presence.