The design of your website can make or break the success of your business. Do it right and you will be reaping the benefits for years to come. Do it wrong and you will find it hard to bounce from it.
While it may be hard to discuss what is considered appealing design, as this is something highly subjective, it’s much more easier to discuss the fundamentals of a design that will bring more customers and leads.
In today’s article, we’ll go over the fundamentals of customer winning web design so that you can implement them on your website and take your business to the next level.
- The Goal
A website with a goal is a successful website. Every website owner should be clear on what the goals of the website are: is it to attract more readers? Increase the sales of a product? Get more leads for their services? To inform? To entertain the masses?
Your website’s goal should be immediately obvious when someone lands on your website and you need to ensure every page has a clear and distinct purpose which serves your ultimate goal. By doing this, you will make sure your website is easier to understand.
- Visual Content
Visual content is essential to every website. You can use images and infographics to communicate information in a fun and easy way. Using photos of your products helps visitors to visualize how your product looks so they know what they are buying. Videos are more engaging than images and can be used to showcase your product in action or to add a welcome message for new visitors. Because they are more engaging, they have better chances of users viewing them and they also have a better potential of going viral.
In a nutshell, visual content can make a lasting impression on your website visitors, so don’t leave this one out.
- Branding
Your website should be a natural extension of your brand. As a business owner, you already have a brand, an image that your customers associate with you, your services, and your products. You should take that image and incorporate it into your website by using your brand’s colors and fonts, and using the same voice that you use in everyday communication with your customers and clients. It will make you stand out from the competition and make your customers relate to your business more.
- Mobile Friendly Design
If you want to improve the number of visitors who interact with your website, develop a mobile-friendly website. Not only will it help retain visitors on your website longer, it can also improve your conversion rates and boost your SEO in the process. Your website should be easy to read and navigate on smaller screens, images should scale correctly to accommodate for smaller screen size. Social media buttons for sharing your content should show up below the content without obstructing it.
Furthermore, you should also consider using 2 step optin forms which are less obtrusive on both desktop and mobile devices. They won’t show up until a visitor clicks on them, which means visitors won’t get annoyed with popups they can’t close until they have had a chance of reading your content and engaging with it.
- Clear Navigation
The navigation on your website should have a clear path to how you want your website visitors to move around on your website. It should be laid out in a logical and hierarchical fashion so website visitors can use your website with ease and progress through it in order to get the best possible experience. To aid you with this, use one level of navigation and consider utilizing drop-down menus to add additional pages if they are necessary. On top of that, you can also add a search bar to your navigation menu to make it easy to find relevant content. Make sure the search has an auto-complete function and the ability to correct the typos to ensure visitors don’t miss out on any search results.
Final Thoughts
It goes without saying that the design of your website should be appealing. But, it is much more important that the design is appealing to your visitors than your personal preference. Furthermore, it is also much more important that the design of your website presents the best possible user experience for anyone who lands on your website and to make your website easy to use.
By implementing the 5 tips above, you’re surely to accomplish your goals and gain more customers.