We all know that having a good website is paramount to stay competitive. However, creating a successful and innovative website that converts isn’t an easy task. With today’s tech-savvy audience, it can be even harder than ever to design memorable websites with high-quality user experience.
Is your website leaving your customers confused and frustrated? Then keep reading to find out the best web design practices.
Even a simple design change can affect your conversion rates.
Make sure your website design matches your brand’s values and mission. If your company offers modern, minimalist products, then your online look should reflect that. In this case, your design could be for example: sleek, practical and elegant.
Important features to include:
Logo. It’s best to make it visible but not too overwhelming. You should aim to keep it in the same place on all your pages.
Headline. Your headline or call to action (CTA) should be easy to spot.
Image. A captivating high quality image is recommended to help capture the user’s attention.
If you want to create a consistent brand image, make sure that you use the same font style and color pallet on all of your pages. A style guide can be a helpful tool in this case as it ensures that your web pages will have the same style regardless of who works on them.
The main goals of your website are to attract users, showcase your product/ service and convert users into customers. To achieve these goals your website relies on CTA which entice the user to perform an action.
Your CTA should be positioned in an appropriate place in the layout keeping in mind the target market. A “Learn More” button could be placed higher on the page, compared to a “Contact Us” form, which may be placed towards the bottom of the design. This way the user is more educated about your brand or company before they contact you.
You could create CTA buttons or banners that pop up, which can catch the shopper’s attention and make it easy for them to see how to perform the desired action. An example of such a CTA could be signing up to your email list, adding an item to their cart, downloading your e-book and many more. Be careful, however, not to make your pop-ups too invasive- if your potential customer gets irritated by messages that are too frequent or too intrusive, they could be driven away from your site.
We absorb both written and visual content. It is therefore very important to ensure your website has enough white space to prevent it from looking too crammed and thus confusing. When you’re designing your page, use margins and padding to increase space between images and other elements.
Your page layouts may change depending on the page, but you should aim to have a general look for similar page types, which will help you ensure consistency and keep your branding cohesive. This will also create a sense of familiarity for your users, creating a positive experience.
Another good practice to have when designing your website is creating organized and functional navigation- your navigation bar is a critical component of your site and should not be neglected. Your visitor wants to be able to find information quickly and with ease, otherwise they may click away.
It is beneficial for your navigation bar to have the right headings to separate your information effectively; don’t be shy of subcategories if they make navigation around your website easier.
The truth is that the slower your page loads, the higher your bounce rate. To prevent users from clicking away your site should load within 3 seconds.
Here are a few tips on how to reduce your loading time:
If you have no coding background and are struggling to optimize your website or create it from scratch then feel free to contact Blue Frontier. We build sites using the very best open source platforms to keep your business secure and at the cutting-edge of technology.
As more and more internet traffic comes from mobile users, it becomes increasingly vital for your site to be mobile responsive. If your site is only catered towards a desktop or a laptop, when it is open on a mobile phone it becomes cluttered, unorganised, and hard to navigate. The most effective way to make your site look good on mobile is to integrate a responsive design.
To ensure your website ranks high in the search engine results page you should focus on good SEO practices. The good news is that if you follow all the practices we have listed above they will automatically aid you with your SEO efforts. In addition, you should include all important on-page SEO tags and elements, including schema and XML sitemaps. Sounds too time-consuming? Don’t worry, at Blue Frontier, we can help you optimise your SEO as well.
A well-functioning website can help establish your business’s credibility, and improve your conversion rates and return rates. With the best web design practices checklist we’ve given above you’re ready to start optimizing your website for conversions. If you feel like you would benefit from outsourcing this type of work then don’t hesitate to contact Blue Frontier.
Digital Marketing Executive
Wiktoria lives to create, she is a marketing postgraduate who loves social media and content creation. Customer satisfaction and driving engagement is at the heart of her work. She has worked with different clients including fintechs, affiliate marketing agencies and NGOs for over 3 years to grow their brands, as well as provide them with original and creative content. Since joining Blue Frontier, Tori has focused on content creation and social media marketing.
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