On average, it takes visitors .05 seconds to form an opinion about your website, and 75% of those opinions will be based on the design of your website.
In the modern age, a website is essential for business growth regardless of industry. It’s basically a virtual representation of your business, so you want to make sure it properly conveys your message and brand.
If you’re looking to build or revamp your business’ website, make sure your web development team follows these eight important guidelines.
#1: Simplify the navigation
The site navigation should let users know where they are and how they can get somewhere in the least amount of clicks as possible. Order the items based on importance and have the company logo link to the home page. If you have a large number of different pages on your site, you can organize them within drop-down lists. Your website’s menu bar should ideally be horizontal across the top of each page.
#2: Prioritize site speed and performance
Website load speed affects your SEO rankings and is an even larger ranking factor for mobile pages. The load time of your site also affects the user experience. If your site is slow, visitors will not stick around, resulting in higher user bounce rates. Review your hosting service plan and declutter your site. Ideally, your website should load within three seconds.
#3: Stick with sans serif fonts
Sans-serif fonts like Arial and Helvetica are easier to read on digital screens than serif fonts like Georgia and Times New Roman. Serif fonts are fonts that have small flourishes at the ends of their letters. They can be fun and more ornamental, but they should only be used for headlines or branding. Limit your entire site to just two or three different typefaces.
#4: Keep the most important information above the fold
What visitors first see without scrolling is considered above the fold.
The following items should be included above the fold:
- Company/business branded logo
- Simple navigation
- Contact info – especially important for an e-commerce store
- A well-written unique selling proposition (USP) This is the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition. Use a clear and descriptive headline and include your main call-to-action.
#5: Include social media channel buttons
If your company has business social media pages and is regularly active on them, those channel links need to be displayed on your website. Typically these are the channels’ logo icon. This helps users easily find your specific social media pages, improves your website’s SEO ranking, and grows your social media followers.
#6: Make your layout responsive
Responsive web design is an approach to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and/or screen sizes; this includes desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. If your website layout is not responsive, you’re missing out on a huge percentage of the market, as the use of mobile devices is steadily growing.
#7: Add a blog
A blog is not necessary for all websites, but if you don’t have one, you should strongly consider it. By adding a blog to your company website, the content posted will be indexed by search engines, linked to by other websites, and likely shared through email and various social media channels. These actions will inherently increase your SEO ranking.
#8: Include a contact page with a fillable form
The contact page is how potential customers can get in touch with you if they have a question that is not answered on your website. Additionally, contact forms add security by letting you lose the published email address (and lose the spam too). You can customize the forms with easy fillable fields and check boxes to help you better answer and direct their question to the appropriate internal personnel.
If you’re not feeling confident in how to apply these website design tips, be sure to reach out to Green Bay marketing agency Baer Performance Marketing. BPM offers custom web design that will take your business to the next level.
