Is Your Website A Little More Than a Pretty Face?
Beautiful images. Bold color schemes. A sleek design.
These are all important elements of a great website design. After all, they are the first things a new visitor notices and judge you by.
Your website acts as a virtual front door to your business. If people don?t like what they see inside, they hit the back button and leave without converting. But, here?s the deal: although the design is one of the most important factors in deciding the credibility of a company, functionality plays a more important role.
Think about it that way: would you spend time on a site that looks good but works poorly? Probably not.
Let?s take a look at all the important elements that, together with the design, make your website a force of nature.
- Comfort Comes First
The number one trick to follow is to build your website so as to provide comfort to your customers. You want everything to be as easy and flowing as possible. That said, if any design feature interferes with your site?s functionality, then you should disable it. Try to identify what would provide users with a seamless onsite experience and implement those instead.
Last but not least, make it easy for potential prospects to contact you. Include a search bar, preferably on the top of your blog. Fast, easy access to desired information is essential.
- Responsive Website Design
One the same note, you want to make your website responsive for mobile use. A wide majority of the time spent online is on mobile devices. You want your web design to be easily translatable into various screen sizes. To make sure your website runs smoothly via smartphones and tablets, test it with Google?s Mobile-Friendly Test.
- Make It Relevant and Specific
While you do want to have enough content and features to cover up a wide spectrum, relevance is still important. In other words, you need to cut the fluff and stick to what matters to your audience. Sure, everyone might be talking about the latest trend in tech, but that doesn?t mean you should jump on the bandwagon if the topic doesn?t fit your business profile.
- User-Centric Design
This might sound obvious, but your website?s design and functionality must fit your customer?s needs like a glove. Know your target audience well enough to translate their needs into your web design. Think about what they might want when they land on your page and try to put that information in front of them. Make navigation simple and intuitive and don?t make them think too much about how to find their ways around your site.
If you don?t know where to start from, try asking yourself this: Why would anyone want to visit my website?
Do a thorough research ? there are plenty valuable resources out there on what user-centric design is and how to apply it.
- Don?t Forget about SEO
Last but so not least, don?t forget that a well-designed website can help with your SEO efforts. Google prefers websites that have a clean structure with friendly navigation, solid backlinks, and descriptive image file names. ?
Building a good website that looks great and works properly is no easy task. By paying attention to these elements, you can rest assured that your website won?t be just another pretty face on the internet.
