As a business owner it might be time for your first website or your website to get a bit of a revamp. Poor quality websites can do quite a bit of damage to a company’s reputation as a website that looks like a geocities site from the 90’s doesn’t instill confidence regardless of the service or product they provide. There is a chance that you are considering taking on the project yourself as you have a bit of design experience. One important thing to remember if this is the case is to subscribe to best practices instead of personal preferences. Doing research about how to design your site when it comes to layout, color, etc. is essential in producing the best website possible. The following are some web design tips for your business’ website.

Keep Your Homepage Free of Complex Media

There are plenty of businesses that flood their homepage with videos and pictures galore. This is fine for those people who have incredible Wi-Fi and fast browsers but it can alienate those who do not. Nothing discourages a visitor from returning like their device freezing or the site causing their browsing app to crash. Videos and rich media can be put on other pages and sections in order to keep browsing speeds up for site visitors. The homepage should help complete the objective of the website as a whole. If the website is used to make appointments, the phone number or an online way to make an appointment should be at the top of the homepage.

Easy Navigation

Sites that are going to be swamped with traffic are going to need a few things. Cloud hosting is the first thing that will be needed but a site that is easy to navigate is a close second. The simpler the layout the better as many people do get frustrated with complex navigation processes. Designing a mobile friendly site is also important as mobile traffic is increasing in staggering numbers year after year. In the case that you are selling products via the website it is important to make the checkout process as easy as possible as well. Complex checkout processes can lead a buyer to leave the website from frustration. Keep these as simple but secure as possible as you want the sale to close as fast as possible to eliminate buyer’s remorse that some people feel right before they complete a transaction.

Don’t Forget To Add a Blog

One of the main reasons to have a company website is to showcase knowledge on a particular subject. An internet marketing company would have a blog with different tips to market a brand or do online reputation management. The blog can help market the company and can even help the website rank for certain keywords on the search engines. Some companies with less experience designing these blogs might try to make the blog bright colors or overridden with media. Avoid this as you do not want the same problem that is encountered with too much media on the homepage happening on the blog. This also helps the authority and trust of the domain especially if this is your first attempt at designing the company website. Interacting with customers can be done through comments on the blog. Engage with readers as this can help build visitor loyalty or even convince a new customer to try out your services or products.

Work on your SEO

Building a website isn’t the task that it used to be as there are plenty of templates that can make the job much easier. Follow the best practices that you find on web design sites like this one in order to build a website that helps convert with leads and sales. Use the above tips to help take your website to the next level!

Interaction with your website doesn’t start on your website, it starts when your website is found in search engine results. To even get people to your website you need to entice them at the search engine result page – Which is easily done.

One great way of getting clicks is to add your keyword to both your Title Tag and Description, but make it sit naturally – Don’t add it tons of times. Let’s say you’re a web design agency, just like the guys over at ALT Agency. What they have done is added their main keyword, web design Birmingham, to their Title tag, this matches with the visitors search string and tells the visitor at a glance what the website is about and entices clicks.

This is an example of how elements of website design and your sites structure play a part in your website being engaging before a person has even actually seen your website’s design.

About the Author

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Mirko Humbert

Mirko Humbert is the editor-in-chief and main author of Designer Daily and Typography Daily. He is also a graphic designer and the founder of WP Expert.