You can’t run before you walk, and you can’t walk before you crawl. We love this logic, so we’ve separated our website development process into three phases: crawl, walk, and run (CWR). This phased approach lets us get our feet wet and ramp it up as your business grows.
So, what’s a crawl website?
A crawl website is the minimum required version of your website that establishes your digital presence.
For us, a crawl website achieves the same thing for every business, but varies in requirements. For instance, a small business may need a few pages ready, while a large corporation may need hundreds of pages. Among other variables, the company size introduces different challenges and approaches to building a crawl website.
Because of these differences, we’ve identified key elements that go into a successful crawl website:
Web Designs That Are True to Your Brand
Your brand is the lifeblood of your business. It’s what customers recognize and interact with. For us to bring your brand to life for your crawl website, you’ll need to communicate the following to us:
- Your unique selling proposition
- The story behind you and your company
- The goal of your website and website
You’ll be forced to “disrobe” aspects of your company that you may have never discussed. Not everything needs to be discussed, but we aim to have enough information to understand your brand. Only then can we start web design. Because websites should always have a purpose, we’ll design it for that purpose, whether that’s to sign up for a newsletter, submit a contact form, or something else entirely.
Build Only the Core Web Pages for Your Business
Your website must do one thing right and extremely well: communicate your core business to customers. The other non-core areas can still exist but should take a backseat for later during the walk and run phases. Regarding the information architecture (think of all the web pages on your website), your website should include a home page, services page, about us page, and contact us page. Your web design team should add these pages to the main navigation across your website. When designed correctly, your customers can quickly explore your website, identify your core business offerings, understand what sets you apart from your competitors, and convert immediately.
Analytics Implemented Across Your Website
If you haven’t done so, learn how to implement Google Analytics here. Data is everything, and you’ll need it to compete in today’s age. Even though data analytics is important, we’ve noticed many businesses forgetting to do one of the following on their website:
- Implement analytics tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar;
- Pull insights from analytics; and
- Take action on those insights.
If you’re not doing all three, you’re doing analytics wrong! For example, your web design team should implement analytics to make a great first impression on customers. Remember, your website is likely the first thing customers interact with from your company. Leveraging analytics will uncover what’s working and what’s not working on your website. Customers may have stopped interacting with parts of your website, spent a lot of time on certain pages, and stopped converting on certain pages. You can use this information to reinforce what’s already there or redesign any bad user experiences on your website.
Conversion is Aligned with Your Business Objectives
Converting customers is usually the primary goal for any website and business. Therefore, orienting your crawl website to match your business objectives for conversion is essential. You can have your web design team assign any action on your website as a conversion. However, choosing which actions can be challenging and require much thought – a form submission goal radically differs from a traffic goal. Both require different approaches, and the resulting website will vary in design, content, and customer journey.
At Uplancer, our web design services can help align your website and business conversion objectives to get the most out of your crawl website.
Your Digital Footprint is Established through Web Design!
What you’re doing in all of the above is establishing your digital footprint most effectively. You want people to find your website and interact with it easily. Search engines reward good websites by ranking them higher, and customers appreciate finding a website that addresses their pain points. There’s a ton of web design legwork to get your website up and running for a crawl site, but remember, this is just the start! You still have the CWR walk phase and run phase to consider!
The Bottom Line / TLDR
A successful crawl website is simple, focuses on your core business, and offers essential web pages like home, services, about, and contact. It’s crucial for a crawl site to implement analytics to gather insights that inform future improvements and ensure your site engages users. A crawl website must also align your conversion strategy with your business goals to improve your customers’ website experience and set future expectations. Connect with us today to get started with web design for your crawl website.
