Website Design
We’ve all heard the phrase, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” And although it’s usually made in person, a first impression is being made by your website all the time. At any minute of the day, potential customers are finding your website. Your content, images, and functionality are all being scrutinized to determine if you are the right person for the job, product, or service. At Hummingbird Marketing Services, we want to help you to make that right first impression.
Our website design process starts with a conversation. What are your goals for your website? Who is your target audience? What style of imagery do you prefer? What other websites—in your field or not—do you like, and what sites don’t you like? Do you have any special needs, like an integrated scheduling system, collecting email addresses for your newsletter database, or featuring a Facebook event feed? For what keyword phrases is it important for your website to appear in search results? In this initial consultation, we’ll help you answer these questions and more to determine and refine what it is that you need in a website.
In addition, whether we’re redesigning your current site or building a site for you from scratch, we will review and make recommendations about your hosting and email plan. And then we’ll take care of all of the technical details on your behalf.
Website Structure
Next, the structure of a website is critical for both SEO (search engine optimization) and potential and current customers. For Google and other search engines, the hierarchy of your site tells the search engine what your key products and services are by using something called an XML site map. If your top product offerings are not at the top of the hierarchy, the search engine will be less likely to surface your website higher in search results. (Learn more about our SEO process here.) Not only does a well-structured site affect where you fall in search results, it also is important to site visitors. If potential customers visit your site and can’t find what they are looking for, they won’t spend more than a minute (at best) and will go somewhere else—most likely to a competitor.
Written & Visual Content
The next step in our web design process is to focus on content, which is still king. It’s the top factor in any search engine’s algorithm for ranking. If you’ve already written your content, great! With more than 25 years of professional editing services in our toolkit, we can proofread your content and optimize it for Google. If you don’t have content, no problem! As long as we’ve been editing, we’ve also been writing, and we are experts at crafting engaging content that encourages your site visitors to take action.
Written content’s all-important partner is imagery. Let’s face it: People like to look at pictures. (Plus, the alt text is critical for SEO.) We have a paid subscription to Adobe Stock Photo and can provide almost any type of image needed for your site. In addition, we are experts at Photoshop and image manipulation, so we can perfect any of the images you provide. And if needed, we can recommend local photographers to help with headshots, on-location pictures, and more.
Website Design in WordPress
Once we have all of the content, we’ll build your site in WordPress, the oldest, biggest, and best content management system available. The customizability of WordPress far surpasses that of Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, and Shopify. (If your site is already built using one of these content management systems, don’t worry—we can help you with those too; we just prefer WordPress.) The website we create for you will be beautiful, functional, mobile-friendly, and the perfect representation of you.
Launching Your Site
After we’ve built the website, we’ll have an in-person meeting with you to unveil the site. You’ll have time to review it on your own and provide us with feedback. And we’re open to any and all feedback. This is your website, representing you and your work, and we will work tirelessly to ensure it is exactly what you want.
When the site is launched, we will connect it to several tracking tools, like Google Analytics, so that you can monitor the health of your site as well as a how visitors are using it.
Finally, after your new website launches, we’re available to you—from monthly support packages to one-off consultations. We’ll even provide basic training if you’d like to manage the site yourself.