Key Website Design Considerations to Know Before You Start
A great website is more than just a polished design—it’s a carefully planned digital experience that supports your business goals and serves your users well. Whether you’re building a new website or redesigning an old one, understanding key design considerations early can save time, reduce costs, and prevent missteps down the road.
From user experience to content strategy, mobile performance to accessibility, effective website design involves making strategic decisions before you even open a wireframe. This article explores what you need to think about before designing a website—especially if you want it to be scalable, searchable, and genuinely user-friendly.
At WDG, we help clients build strategic websites that align with their goals and deliver measurable value. Here’s what you should consider before launching your next website project.
Key Takeaways
- Know your audience, goals, and requirements before any design work begins.
- Prioritize UX and mobile responsiveness from the earliest planning stages.
- Create a clear content strategy before writing or designing anything.
- Use SEO and accessibility standards as foundations, not afterthoughts.
- Platform and technology choices directly affect performance, flexibility, and scalability.
What to Know Before Designing a Website
Before you focus on the look of your site, get clear on its purpose. Is your site meant to drive leads, generate sales, attract donations, educate, or promote a product? Without a defined goal, it’s difficult to build a site that delivers measurable outcomes.
Consider your audience, too. Who are they? What information do they need? What actions do you want them to take? These insights will influence your site’s layout, messaging, navigation, and calls to action.
If you’re redesigning an existing website, take time to identify what’s working and what isn’t. Are users struggling to find information? Are bounce rates high? What are your conversion goals? Gathering this information early gives your team a strong foundation to work from.
1. Prioritize User Experience (UX) from the Start
User experience is about more than good looks—it’s about making sure your site is easy to use, fast to load, and aligned with user intent. Effective UX design supports conversion goals by making it intuitive for users to find what they need and take action.
Start by mapping out key user journeys. What pages will they visit? How will they move from point A to point B? What questions do they have along the way? Your navigation structure, page layouts, and content hierarchy should reflect these journeys clearly and logically.
Simple, predictable structures often outperform flashy or experimental layouts. Prioritize usability and function, especially in high-traffic areas like product pages, service listings, or contact forms.
2. Plan for Mobile Website Design Considerations
With mobile traffic now exceeding desktop for many industries, mobile design is no longer optional—it’s foundational. But designing for mobile doesn’t just mean making things smaller.
Responsive design should be built with intent. Consider mobile users’ behaviors, such as how they scroll, tap, or navigate with their thumbs. Ensure navigation menus are collapsible and easy to use, buttons are large enough to tap, and calls to action are placed where users can easily find and act on them.
Also prioritize performance: mobile users are less patient with slow load times. Optimize images, reduce scripts, and consider how long it takes a user to access the core content. A site that performs poorly on mobile may see lower rankings, fewer conversions, and higher bounce rates.
3. Define Your Content Strategy Early
Content drives the user experience and supports your SEO. That’s why it’s important to define a content strategy before jumping into design.
Start by auditing your existing content—what should be kept, improved, rewritten, or removed? Identify your core content types: are you publishing blog posts, showcasing case studies, listing products, or describing services? Each of these may require its own template, layout, and taxonomy.
Decide who will write or edit content, and whether you need outside help. Content delays are one of the biggest reasons web projects fall behind—planning early avoids last-minute scrambles.
Finally, consider tone and structure. Your content should be consistent, scannable, and optimized for users and search engines alike.
4. Consider SEO and Site Architecture
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking about SEO at the end of a project. But in reality, search engine optimization begins with structure and content planning.
Start by doing keyword research to understand how users search for your services or products. Use those insights to build your navigation, page names, URLs, and internal links. Organize your site so that both users and search engines can move through it easily.
Avoid burying content in deep navigation layers or using unclear naming conventions. The goal is to make information findable and indexable from day one—not after the fact.
5. Think Beyond Visuals: Branding, Accessibility, and Performance
Good design does more than look good—it works well for everyone. Your website should reflect your brand identity, but also meet accessibility and performance standards.
Start by aligning your visuals with your brand voice, values, and color palette. Then go deeper:
- Use sufficient color contrast to support readability.
- Include alt text for all images and icons.
- Structure content with headings, lists, and semantic HTML.
- Make sure the site is keyboard-navigable and screen-reader friendly.
From a performance standpoint, prioritize clean code, optimized images, and minimal third-party scripts. A bloated, slow-loading site—even if it’s beautiful—can frustrate users and hurt search visibility.
6. Choose the Right Platform and Technology Stack
Your website’s platform affects everything from how easily your team can update content to how well your site scales over time.
If you’re using a CMS, choose one that aligns with your goals and internal workflows. WordPress is often ideal for content-heavy marketing sites, while Drupal offers flexibility and security for complex or enterprise-level needs. E-commerce platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce may be better suited for product-based businesses.
Also, think about integrations—will your site need to connect to a CRM, marketing platform, analytics suite, or event system? Planning for this early avoids expensive rework later.
Finally, evaluate your hosting, scalability, and maintenance options. Your technology stack should match your team’s capabilities and your organization’s growth plans.
How WDG Helps Clients Plan Smarter Website Projects
At WDG, we approach every website project with a strategy-first mindset. We help clients define their goals, map their user journeys, and identify the tools and content they need to succeed online.
Whether you’re launching a new website or redesigning an existing one, our process is built to ensure that every design decision supports performance, scalability, and user experience. We specialize in custom WordPress and Drupal development and offer full support from content planning and SEO to launch and post-launch maintenance.
If you’re planning a website project and want a partner who sees the full picture—not just the pixels—WDG is here to help you get it right. Contact us today to get started!
FAQs About Website Design Considerations
What are the most important things to consider before designing a website?
Define your business goals, target audiences, content needs, platform preferences, and SEO strategy before beginning the design process.
How do mobile website design considerations differ from desktop?
Mobile design requires simplified navigation, faster load times, and layouts optimized for touch interactions and small screens.
Should I focus on design or content first?
Content and design go hand in hand, but content should be defined early to inform layouts, templates, and navigation.
When should I think about SEO in the design process?
Start thinking about SEO during the planning phase. Page structure, URL hierarchy, and content strategy should all be built with search in mind.
Can WDG help me plan my website redesign?
Yes. WDG provides full-service planning, design, and development—helping clients define goals, map content, choose the right CMS, and build future-ready sites.
