It’s a no-brainer to suggest that your business needs a website. However, it’s no good creating something with little effort and hoping your would-be customers will enjoy and utilise your content. Sorry to say, but if your website isn’t visually appealing and easy to use, any visitors to your site will quickly be put off. Web design is key, whether you want to learn front-end web development or use a popular web-builder such as Wix or Squarespace instead. In this article, we will give you a few tips to ensure your web design draws your visitors in, and hopefully, turn them into customers to boot.
Web design tips
- Review your site. Before making any changes, take a look at your website and consider the aesthetics and functionality yourself. Are you happy with what you see? How does it compare to other websites you have seen online? Where would you like to see changes? Make a list of the good and bad points as a starting point for a makeover. Gather information from others as well, be that friends, family, staff or customers, and listen carefully to their opinions on your site.
- Remove any bad elements. After reviewing, there may be elements to your site that are problematic. There may be too many pop-ups. The font may be difficult to read against the background you have chosen. Images and videos may be slowing up the page speeds. Links may be broken or unclear. Whatever the issues, get rid of them as soon as possible, as your visitors will steer clear if you don’t.
- Add functionality. We told you to remove anything that is bad for your site’s profile, but you should do the reverse and add anything to your website that is going to engage your visitor’s interest and hopefully increase sales. As examples, we recommend social sharing buttons to improve your marketing. Implement call-to-action buttons to guide your site visitors to where you want them to be. And add a blog, something to showcase your service in an interesting way, and giving your visitors further reason to stick around longer on your website.
- Focus on your colour palette. Colour is the first thing that catches people’s eyes when they visit your site. From the background page to the logos you use, colour can make all the difference. It can enhance your brand recognition. It can affect the mood of your site visitors. It can help certain elements of your site stand out. Choose the right color scheme, and you may see a higher conversion rate and engagement from your visitors. Choose the wrong scheme, say something drab and boring or overly bright and glaring, and you may very well repel your visitors. Play around with colours, and chances are, if you find them aesthetically pleasing and functional within your site, your visitors will too.
- Use images and photos. Pictures are worth more than a thousand words, or so the saying goes, and this is particularly true in the visual age we are living in. Why explain something within reams of text when a picture can convey the message instead? For example, rather than explaining what your product does with huge chunks of text, use a simple infographic instead. Rather than write about the people who work for you, include photos of them at work. Post high-resolution photos to convey all aspects of your business, from pictures of your product to faces of happy customers. Rather than using stock photos from the internet, use pictures you have taken yourself for a personal touch. Use the services of a professional photographer or take one of the frequent photoshop training classes run by Training Connection to produce something that looks professional yourself. You don’t want to overload your site with images – they can cause slowdown on your web pages – but upload enough to make your website more interesting to look at.
- Consider the use of video. Pictures may be worth more than a thousand words, but a video is worth more than a thousand pictures. Maybe, but you should hopefully catch our drift. In today’s society, many people can’t be bothered to sit through reams of text, much preferring to receive content from popular sources such as YouTube. So, rather than explaining key points about your service using words, consider creating your own videos instead. You might offer product tutorials, for example, or showcase staff and customer testimonials in this media form. You might even give a personal introduction to your business, talking about your mission statement on video, rather than using a lot of space on your site to go into written detail. There is much you can do, but remember to be professional in your video production – this isn’t your opportunity for five minutes of fame, but rather the chance to showcase your business at its best.
It takes time to create and design an effective and good-looking website, but the reward for your hard work is worth it. Your site visitors will have a happier time perusing your site, and you may see an increase in sales as a result. Check out other sites for inspiration, especially your nearest competitors, and produce something that truly stands out from the crowd.