Building a website can be a brutal and painstaking process, especially if you lack the necessary web design or coding experience. Thankfully, countless website builders exist to allow you to be more in control without knowing a single piece of code. That said, making that website sustainable is the next challenge.
Things move so fast in all areas of life, but perhaps nowhere more so than in the online realm. You might have built a website in 2017 that’s already outdated some 5 years on. So how do you keep your finger on the pulse of what’s hot and what’s not? Moreover, how do you keep it sustainable?
Think about your environment
Firstly, think about your product or service – how do your competitors look, and what works well for them? What are some things you should avoid ‘borrowing’ from their methods? Take notes and check out some crash courses on basic web design if you’re stuck on how a good, sustainable website should look.
But when thinking about your environment, it should also go beyond that which is local to you. Much like in the industrial revolution, the information age is not without its excess uses of energy. Nowadays, however, you can host your website on a platform that uses renewable energy, which can at least make some difference to being sustainable in that sense of the word.
You might also consider optimising B2B landing pages, particularly through consideration of image and file sizes that you use, or even the headline size. The larger the file or image size, the slower the loading times will be. When it comes to loading times in web development, every millisecond matters for the fully optimised experience.
Think of your website like a wardrobe full of old shirts that you don’t have the heart to throw away. Sooner or later, you’re going to need more space in the wardrobe for newer, better clothes. A website is no different in terms of what needs to be decluttered.
UX is everything
UX, or User Experience has to be your primary focus when building a website, as users are unlikely to return to a website that takes forever to load. Not to mention, you should ensure your website is equally accessible and usable on all devices. This can be tricky without any experience in coding, but of course you can always ask for external assistance on this.
Make sure you use video sparingly. Though it can be effective, it can also play havoc on those loading times that you’ll be wanting to reduce for that optimised UX. Keep it relevant, short and to the point if possible. Restraint is the key to positive UX that should hopefully keep prospective customers coming back.
Navigation is also something that should take priority. Make sure it’s easy to get from the homepage to the desired page and back in as few clicks, with as little loading time as possible. Not only will this use less energy, but it will save time and money.
We are quite fortunate that the process of building a website is a lot easier and a lot more sustainable than it once was. Hopefully with some of the advice in mind, you can build a website that brings customers to your business in their droves.