By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: I want a modern, professional, clean website. This is what many of our clients want in their new website but everyone has a different opinion of what is modern and attractive.
Trends at the moment are parallaxing, white space and full site scrolling on one page. You should ask yourself if these features fit in with your existing corporate image, or the one that you wish to portray in the future.
What will you actually use the site for and who will be visiting the site? Websites are often the first point of contact your prospects have with you and are therefore one of the most important mechanisms for future growth, but you need to think deeper about what you want your website to achieve. This in turn will help you put together a good brief to the web developer to give them enough information for an honest quotation.
How much functionality do you really need? Bells and whistles look great but it all costs money. Yes it is extra work to add on an e-commerce facility and yes a customer portal will cost more so think carefully about what your company really needs to succeed. Plan from the start and remain focused on your core objectives. Think about what your visitors will actually use the site for. One page scrolling websites can look edgy but if you are using the website to run through your portfolio of products the whole thing is at risk of looking confusing.
I advise clients to collect links for websites they like as they go about their daily lives. This way they build up a repository of real examples to show a developer their vision of a new website. Remember, we all have a different opinion on what is modern and attractive.