New webdesign - what to consider

About to get a new webdesign for your website? If you want the best results from your new website you need to plan the project carefully and not just choose the first solution you find. Here's a few things you should keep in mind before starting out on the project.

Design it yourself or hire a webbureau for the job?

With modern CMS systems such as WordPress it's actually pretty easy to get a new website up and running.You buy a domain and redirect it to your webhosting company. You install WordPress (can require a bit technical skills depending on which webhotel you choose). You install a theme, add some content and voilá you are up and running with your new website. Pretty simple right? Well for some simple types of websites this maybe actually be the most ideal solution. If you need a simple webdesign where people can find a little information about your company, and you really don't need the website for any type of online marketing then yes. I would recommend this solution as it's cheap and you get the job done fast. No need to pay a webdesign agency tons of money to code a website you could almost as easily do yourself.
But should you need something more fancy, start doing things like traffic generation on social media, use Google Ads or even get started on SEO or other types of online marketing then please no - don't even consider building it yourself unless you already got a lot of experience with websites. Why you may ask? When you start working on SEO, Google Ads or any type of online marketing it will cost you money to drive traffic to your website. A modern website with a design that fits the target audience and a a site that is optimized for conversion and a good user experience is more likely to convert these visitors into customers. I have seen examples of websites and webshops that have more than double their income from the website after getting a new more userfriendly webdesign. So even if you save 2000$ on a website, it will most likely be the most expensive money you save. And don't even get me started on SEO! SEO requires a good structure and a lot of planning if you want to have a chance of competing on the harder keywords. So do consider choosing a professionel webdesign company for the tast.

Read also: Selecting the right webbureau

Which CMS system should you use?

It all depends on your needs and the type of business you have. If it's just a simple website you need for your company with static content that is updated now and then, then by all means go with the same solution as 90% of other people do - WordPress.
The same if you got a simple webshop - WordPress + WooCommerce.
There are other alternatives like GoDaddy website builder, WiX and similar systems but don't even consider them. Go with WordPress. It can do all you need and even handle pretty hard amount of traffic if you got the right hardware.
For webshops it starts to become more complicated. Here there are a few more options such as Magento, Shopify, Shopware, Bigcommerce and many other webshop systems. Again for most people a simple WooCommerce shop would be the best and cheapest option. For larger companies, especially when you need tons of product variants or multiple languages other solutions like shopware or magento may be a better webshop solution. Most are good CMS systems but not all are equally great for creating beautiful webdesign solutions.

Choosing the right webhotel

Should you go with a cheap shared webhost, a semi dedicated or a fully dedicated cloud server? It depends on several factors, how fast do you need the website to be? In many cases you can improve performance quite a lot with a cheap CDN and some caching plugins - even on a really cheap webhotel. Once you start getting enough traffic or having so much content on your website that it begins to become slow at the backend, then it's time to upgrade to a dedicated or semi dedicated server. You will most likely notice an improvement in speed. But for many even a 5$/month webhotel if often more than enough. For webshops a little more is often preferred. Lucklily the price of the webhotel doesn't effect the webdesign or functions of the website. But it an effect load times if you choose a to cheap webhosting solution, and slow load times does affect if a visitor buys something or contact you, or just leaves the website instead. So having a fast website is almost always a good idea. I would say that it should load faster than 5 seconds, otherwise you should consider optimizing it for speed or upgrading the hardware. Larger webshops may even require really large server setups or in some cases multiple servers with load balancing. Especially on days such as Black friday the hardware is often pressed to the maximum.

That was all I had to share with you guys for now. I hope this gives you a better understanding of what things you should consider when getting a new website or webshop.