Making the Most Out of Your Site
Creating and using a website to help establish your brand is an efficient way to help command your online presence. Aside from being active on social media, having an official website will help you build brand authority.
However, there are some steps you must take before diving right in and building your site. I will share five main points you should consider before making your website public.
Defining Your Brand Identity
The most crucial part of building your official website is defining what you want your brand to be, your brand identity. It would be best to start by identifying your unique brand selling points, values, and target audience. As yourself, who are you trying to reach? Who do you want to click through your page and interact with your content?
You can even create a brand persona that aligns well with your goals and values and use this as a guide for what you want your brand to look like and what kind of messages you want to convey. Your website should reflect you!
Planning Your Structure
There are a few essential things you must include on your website. Customizing your Home Page, including an About page and a Contact page, is necessary. But there are other parts of your site you should include if they pertain to you and your brand. For example, a portfolio page to have somewhere to display your case studies, art pieces, or whatever fits into the category of the industry you’re trying to break into.
Organizing your content into categories and subcategories during your planning stage will help you have a clearer idea of what you should include in your site and how to display it in a way that’s easy to navigate for your audience.
Visuals Are Key
Using high-quality images or illustrations that pertain to the information on your site is an integral part of building the visual aesthetic for your brand and website. Consistent photos, videos, and even graphic design will help enhance your message and tie your brand together visually.
An important thing to remember is to optimize the images you use. You don’t want a piece of media to have a long loading time and lead a website visitor to become impatient waiting and click out of your site.
Content, Content, Content
The content you post on your website should be both engaging and informative. Creating compelling content to communicate your message effectively should use clear language and an exciting premise to hook your readers. Additionally, it would help if you also considered your content’s formatting. Use titles, headlines, sub-headings, and bullet points or lists to break up large blocks of text.
I strongly encourage adding different calls-to-action across your pages. Leading your viewers to click from one post to the next or another area of your website keeps them engaged and clicking through your content.
Optimize for Search Engines
One last step is to optimize your website for search engines. This step is crucial to driving traffic to your site. You can achieve this by using relevant keywords within your content and descriptions. Regularly publishing high-quality content will help increase your website’s visibility while generating that brand authority we were looking to create in the first place.
Creating a website is relatively easy but requires much thought, planning, and attention to achieve something great. If you follow these tips, you can also create an engaging and user-friendly website. You will be able to effectively communicate your message and attract visitors who relate and are intrigued by your personal brand. Your website is a reflection of yourself and your values; making it your own will only lead to success in the future.
