Your project website is potentially the first point of contact to your target audience. A compelling first impression is key, to get your users interested and ensure long-term engagement with your project. However, even with the best web design software at your fingertips, it can be an overwhelming task to create a project website that has an actual impact on its users. We give you an overview on some of the most essential aspects to consider, to guide you towards an appealing and impactful project website.

A clear, concise and visually appealing website with relevant content is the cornerstone of your successful project. In order to create websites, that make visitors click, you want to take care of all the essentials to create stronger impact and connection to your target group. Here´s some core aspect you should consider, to boost the success of it.

1. Create great design, look & feel

Your website must be visually appealing, polished and professional. Visuality creates an immediate effect on your users and you´ll want to be sure that the visual appeal of your website will be positive, as it will most-probably be the first and only impression they receive. A great logo and an awesome header (also called “hero area”) will draw immediate attention to your users. The “hero header” will serve as a user’s first glimpse of your organisation and project because of its prominent placement towards the top of a webpage that usually extends full-width.

2. Be clear and consistent

One of the main principles of great user experience is consistency. Once you have decided for a great identity, keep the visual appearance of colour schemes, typeface and style clear and consistent as this will make your website more recognizable, professional and dependable. A great logo will communicate and symbolize the project´s identity to your target group, thereby building a closer relationship with them, creating strong positive emotions and facilitating top-of-mind recall throughout your website.

3. Ensure user experience & usability

User Experience and usability are crucial for the overall quality of your website. How is the content structured, can a visitor easily find the information they are looking for? What do you want your visitor to do when they are on your side (should they call you, email you, fill out a form, sign up for a newsletter?). Are the site pages loading quickly? Is the menu consistent and presented in an organized fashion? Good UX is important, because it tries to fulfil the user’s needs and provides positive experiences, that will make them come to your website all over again.

4. Content is king!

Great design will help you to catch one´s attention, however, never forget that content is king. Content is the major factor to get you connected with your stakeholders. You will not be able to improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and therewith improve the quality of your website´s traffic without using the right kind of content. That´s why many outstanding websites also have a content plan. Include a bloglike news section – which provides the latest updates on your project – to keep your target audience engaged. To give more background information, you should also include project details (with objectives, methodology, etc.) as well as a partner section, which showcases your consortium. A contact page will allow your users to get in touch with you directly.

5. Make it easy to find

Being clear and transparent in your message, presenting this message in an appealing way and offering the best user-experience doesn´t help much if your target group can´t find your website. Search Engine Optimization seems to be a basic thing, however, at minimum, you should know how search engines crawl and index your content and ensure that basic on-page factors are optimized. You should make sure, that your page´s written content contains the words that your customers are using and keep the content fresh and updated.