There’s no denying that websites have become essential for any business in the modern world. When over 68% of purchases start with an internet search, not being online can-do serious harm to your business! But that doesn’t mean that a 1-page website thrown together in a day will cut it either. If you want your business to succeed online, you must give your website much more thought and consideration. In particular, there are 5 key things you will need to consider for your website.
Visuals
How does your website look? Visual design is one of the first things users will see when they arrive on your site, so it should be appealing! The visual design of your website encompasses the layout, colours, white space, font, images and contrast. Successful design means each page is clear and well organised, with the reader’s attention drawn to important information. If your website is too cluttered, with colour contrast that makes things difficult to read and many distractions, people are likelier to click away. A visually well-designed website will keep people on your website for longer, and more likely to convert.
Within your visual design, you need to make sure you are consistent. Each page of your website should feel as though it belongs. If a user comes across a page that looks drastically different, they might think they have accidentally left your website! This is tricky to manage with e-commerce sites that use redirected checkouts, but it can be done.
Be Mobile Friendly
The vast majority of web surfing is now done on a mobile device, rather than a desktop. Since mobile phones have different aspect ratios to monitors, which means a website designed for desktops will display very differently on a mobile device. Pages will be cut off, and they generally end up looking like a jumbled mess. Plus, they are marked down by Google and will harm you see rankings. A mobile-friendly website is designed to scale to the size of the screen being used. It’s done automatically and reorganises your site to display the most important information. This allows users to browse your site easily and is a big plus for search engines.
Sensible Navigation
Once users are past the initial visuals of the site, they need to find their way around. This is where your navigation comes in. Your menu bar needs to be easy to understand and navigate, so that users can find the information they need quickly. Links should be organised sensibly to make it clear where you would like the user to go next, and keep the customer journey smooth.
Quality Content
Beyond visuals, the backbone of any website is its content. You need to present visitors to your website with engaging content that’s interesting enough to keep them on the website and hopefully convert them into customers. Your content should include relevant keywords to get the attention of search engines and be free from errors. On top of your main website pages (home, about, services/products), you should also have a blog page. This allows you to regularly update the content of the website and provide valuable information for your readers.
Security
Finally, your website needs to have some level of security – especially if you’re selling online. The very basics of this would be an SSL certificate, which helps encrypt any data held on the website and gives your users a signal that you take their security seriously. There are a number of other security features you can add to your website, depending on the platform it’s built within and the data you process.
Of course, all businesses are different, so you should try to create a website that reflects your brand as much as possible. But by taking these 5 points into account, you can tick off the basics of good web design along the way. At Moyralla Marketing we specialise in helping small and medium-sized businesses achieve their ideal website, boosting their online presence along the way. If you would like to know more, just get in touch with the team today.
