Why professional website development pays off

A professionally developed website does more than look presentable. It explains your business clearly, works properly on every device, can be found in search, and turns interested visitors into enquiries. For a Perth business, the difference between a site that does those things and one that doesn’t is usually not visible in a screenshot: it shows up in whether the site produces any work.

This article covers what a well-built site does, how to think about platform choice, and what a sensible development process looks like.

More than a digital brochure

For many customers, your website is the first place they meet your business, often before they’ve spoken to anyone. A site that is outdated, confusing or broken on a phone raises doubts at exactly the wrong moment.

A well-built website should:

• Communicate clearly what you do, who you do it for and where
• Build confidence, through professional presentation and accurate, specific information
• Answer common questions so customers arrive at a conversation already informed
• Make contact easy, with an obvious next step on every relevant page
• Work well on phones, which is where many visitors will see it

A site that does these things is a working tool. One that doesn’t is a cost that isn’t returning anything.

Choosing the right platform

There’s no single best platform. The right choice depends on what the site needs to do and who will maintain it.

WordPress is flexible and widely supported, with a large ecosystem of themes and plugins. It suits content-heavy sites and businesses that want wide control. It does require ongoing updates and security maintenance.

Wix, Squarespace and similar builders are hosted and designed for ease of use. They suit simpler sites that the owner wants to manage directly, with less flexibility as needs grow.

Shopify is purpose-built for selling products online and handles hosting and security for you.

Custom-built sites are developed specifically for the business. They can be very fast and precisely tailored, and suit businesses whose needs don’t fit a template or that want full control over performance.

We compare the main options in more detail in choosing the right website platform.

What a sound development process looks like

Whoever builds your site, a reliable process tends to follow similar stages:

1. Discovery. Understanding the business, its customers, its competitors and what the website needs to achieve.
2. Structure and design. Planning the pages and how people move between them, then designing the look before building.
3. Development. Building the site to be responsive, accessible and fast, with sensible structure for search engines.
4. Testing. Checking forms, links and layouts across devices and browsers before launch.
5. Launch and handover. Going live, confirming search engines can index the site, and making sure you know how to manage it.

Skipping discovery is the most common cause of a site that looks fine but doesn’t suit the business.

Thinking about the investment

It’s more useful to think of a website as an ongoing business asset than a one-off purchase. A site that clearly explains your services and makes contact easy keeps working in the background, while a poor one quietly loses enquiries you’ll never know about.

That said, the right investment depends on your business. A sole trader needs something different from a multi-location company. It’s worth being clear about what you need the site to do before comparing quotes, so you’re comparing like with like.

Questions to ask any web developer

• How will you learn about my business before designing?
• Will the site work properly on phones, and how is that tested?
• How will search engines be able to find and understand the site?
• Who maintains the site after launch, and what does that involve?
• What will I be able to update myself?

If you’re planning a new website or rebuilding an existing one, see our web design and development service.