Every business needs a website. But how do you go about creating one that delivers the best user experience and maximum chance of you gaining plenty of leads?

Plan your company website

There are four main steps involved when you create a website:

1. Establish your website objectives. For instance: to find more customers, spread thought leadership, support existing customers or sell directly online.
2. Plan the structure. Produce a site map describing what pages you need and how they should be laid out. Remember that your company's internal structure and naming conventions may mean little to your customers, so try and see things from their perspective. You may wish to create wireframe diagrams showing what will go where on key pages.
3. Create the site. Build the pages and add appropriate text, images and other media.
4. Publish your company website. Use a web hosting service that provides fast access to your website and plenty of bandwidth to ensure it won't fall over the more popular it becomes.

You need to get several key elements right to make your site easy to use:

• Keep navigation bars and menus easy-to-understand.
• Put page elements in the same places across your site.
• Reduce clutter and focus on what visitors want.
• Make sure pages load quickly to reduce frustration.
• Create content appropriate for the audience.
• Ensure it works perfectly on mobile devices.
• Create clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons to ensure visitors know how to complete their journey.

Lots of research has been done into what affects website usability, and it can help to read up on the subject. Nielsen Norman Group's articles are a really good place to start.

Usability testing can help further by showing how people actually use your website in real-life situations. The design of key elements like order forms can have a huge effect on enquiries or sales.

With Google now operating a mobile-first index and smartphones increasingly becoming the primary web browsing device for many people, it's vital your website displays well on mobile devices, too.

There are three main ways to build a website:

1. Build a website from scratch

This means working with the raw code (known as ‘HTML' and ‘CSS') that websites are built from.

This provides ultimate control, but it requires significant technical knowledge. For this reason, building a site from scratch is really only an option if you have an in-house web developer.

2. Create a website from templates

This is usually the fastest way to build a website; you pick a design from a range of templates and add your own images, text and other content. It's good if you lack technical know-how or have a limited budget.

Template-based systems are usually quite easy to use. They're often called 'site creators' or 'site builders'. A starter package from a web hosting company will cost from £10 a month. Many pieces of website building software also include templates to build a site.

3. Build your company website with professionals

With a budget of £1,500 or more, you can work with a web designer or agency. If you pick the right partner, you will create a highly professional website.

To end up with good results, you'll need to be involved at every stage of the process - from delivering a carefully considered brief to offering constructive feedback.

Website accessibility

To reach as many potential customers as you can and meet legal requirements such as the Equality Act 2010, make your website accessible to the widest possible audience. For instance:

• Build your website so screen readers - software which reads out what's on the screen - can interpret it.
• Ensure information presented as video, audio or images can be accessed in other ways (as text, for instance).

If you're working with a web design agency, they should be aware of these guidelines. If you're relying on templates, try to find another website using the same system and run it through an online validation tool.