We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – your web design is your business card, your storefront, and the absolute best way to showcase your value to your clients, all wrapped into a single user experience. When developing your online presence, it’s important to understand how to design a website that attracts your dream clients. Here’s the web design checklist we use to ensure our clients are attracting their dream audience, every time.

The Oh Sierra Web Design Checklist

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Styled Brand Photography

• Whether you’re going full brand-shoot or high-end stock, professional photography is an absolutely do-not-freakin’-argue-with-me ESSENTIAL to a website that showcases your value.
• If DIY is your jam, don’t fret! You can still create beautifully styled shoot concepts at home, and follow these steps for editing like a pro.
• If you’re going the stock route, Pexels and Unsplash are our favourite sites for gorgeous, free stock imagery that is on-trend and constantly updating.

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Strategic, Sales-Driven Copywriting

• Images create an atmosphere, but your copywriting is the key to conversions.
• Develop a solid messaging strategy that speaks directly to your audience so that they know who you are, what you offer, and why they need you.

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A Compelling Opt-in or Lead Magnet

• Opt-ins are lead magnets that are automatically sent when someone submits their email address through a landing page or sign-in form.
• Establish an intimate relationship with your ideal client by offering a free opt-in offering they can’t live without, and, bonus, you’ll have their email on your mailing list to keep sharing juicy offers with them forever and ever.
• We build our opt-in sequences and email marketing through Flodesk, the easiest + most beautiful newsletter design platform out there.
  

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Social Accounts and Pinterest Integration

• In the online space, your social media is another touch point for your ideal client to get to know more about you. Make sure your most active social accounts are easy-to-find, and set to open in a new tab!
• Are you on Pinterest yet? It’s one of the most efficient social media tools to drive traffic to your site and increase profit.

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Expert + Research-based SEO

• Ahhh, SEO. The elusive and oh-so-necessary acronym for search engine optimization. Great SEO can elevate your website traffic in a matter of days.
• Powerful SEO is based on incorporating key words and phrases into your messaging and alt text, helping your site will rank higher in a search engine.
• Things like consistent blogging and Pinterest can help elevate your SEO.

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Custom, On-brand Website Design

• The absolute ICING on a high-converting cake and perhaps the most important piece of this web design checklist – websites that excel (and sell!) are sites that people WANT TO HANG OUT ON. People want to spend time on gorgeous, cohesive websites, created with brand strategy and design front of mind.
• Beautiful visuals, unexpected touches, attention to detail, and custom graphics are just a fewwww of the ways a website can use visuals to make your customer feel taken care of. And isn’t that the impression you want to kick things off with?
• In addition to a drool-worthy desktop experience, your site should have a unique, custom design for mobile, taking into account differences in user audience engagement on multiple devices.

Designing an engaging website that attracts your dream clients AND includes *all the fixins* can feel super overwhelming – we get it. We’ve been there. BUT, guess what? We freakin’ believe in you, big-time.

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Pro Tip: Try tackling each item on this web design checklist in bite-sized pieces.

Rome’s website wasn’t built in a day, y’know?!

If you’re in need of further support on your Web Design journey, we’d love to hear from you. We design entirely from-scratch custom websites using Showit, strategically crafted with your audience + brand messaging front-of-mind. Oh, aaaand – we empower + educate you to understand how it works, so you’re never left high and dry with a beautiful website in a language you can’t process.

Book a discovery call here, or check out our Brand Experience Guide for more information on how we can help. 

Cheers, 

The Appleyards