How can you design a website that lasts?

1 Choose a reliable platform

One of the first decisions you need to make when designing a website is what platform to use. There are many options available, from WordPress to Squarespace to custom-built solutions. The platform you choose should suit your needs, budget, and skills, but also offer some flexibility and scalability. You want a platform that can handle your current and future traffic, support your content and features, and allow you to update and maintain your website easily. A reliable platform will also provide security, backup, and support services, as well as compatibility with different browsers and devices.

2 Follow web standards and best practices

Adhering to web standards and best practices is essential for creating websites that are accessible, usable, and consistent. This will ensure that your website meets the expectations of users, as well as the requirements of search engines and regulators. To do this, you should use valid and semantic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. Optimizing your website for speed, performance, and SEO is also important. Additionally, you should make your website responsive and mobile-friendly, ensure it is accessible to people with disabilities, test it for functionality, usability, and compatibility, and implement security measures and privacy policies.

3 Design for your users

The ultimate goal of any website is to provide value to your users, whether they are customers, readers, or fans. Therefore, when designing your website, you should keep your users in mind and not just rely on your own preferences or assumptions. To design for your users, you should use tools and methods such as user research, personas, user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, and user testing to gain insights and feedback. Additionally, you should apply the principles of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design such as clear and consistent navigation and layout, visual hierarchy and contrast to highlight important elements, appropriate colors, fonts, images, and icons, engaging and relevant content and copy, interactivity and feedback to enhance engagement, and simplifying the user flow and actions.

4 Keep your website updated and maintained

In order to ensure your website is running optimally and securely, you should keep it updated and maintained regularly. This way, you can avoid technical issues, security breaches, bugs, and errors that can affect your website's performance and reputation. Additionally, you can keep up with the changing needs and expectations of your users, as well as the latest trends and technologies in web design. To maintain your website, you should update your platform, plugins, themes, and software; check and fix broken links, images, and forms; review and update your content and copy; add new features and functionality; analyze and improve your website's analytics and metrics; and seek and implement user feedback and suggestions.

5 Be flexible and adaptable

Finally, one of the most important aspects of designing a website that lasts is being flexible and adaptable. You should be open to change and improvement, and ready to adapt to the evolving needs and preferences of your users, as well as the emerging trends and innovations in web design. You should also be willing to learn new skills and tools, and experiment with new ideas and solutions. Being flexible and adaptable will help you create a website that is not only durable, but also dynamic, relevant, and competitive.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?