Online business requires a great looking website to pull people’s attention. Here, a web designer is your best mate to make it happen. Unfortunately, most web designers are tech-savvy only. They learn advanced technical terms and know how to apply them. But, the design is a different thing that snatches peoples’ eyes. If you are at the beginning of learning web design or a small business owner who is planning to hire a web designer, this article should help you both. Let’s go ahead.

5 Key steps of good website design

Find the goal

A common mistake often occurred by the small business owner while guiding a website designer is to fail to explain the goal. You should know why the website is created and designed. Many business owners are reluctant to spend money here and think they need a website, no matter how it looks. This blunder can mislead visitors as well as customers because they are confused about why they should use the website. You need to focus on a specific goal, uniqueness, and your brand identity while designing a website.

Layout 

Have you ever noticed that websites for different purposes have a different layout? For instance, social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have an almost similar layout. If you look at news portals, they maintain nearly the same layout. This is practiced for years because people are habituated to them and it plays a massive role in user experience. In this continuity, online stores and e-commerce websites also maintain a specific layout. Check this link for a quick example https://www.vaporsolo.com/e-liquids/. Now, you should care about the website layout and discover what layout is best suited for your business.

Sitemap

As a web designer, you should have a clear idea about what and how you are going to design. A sitemap is like a blueprint for a web designer. It’s a clear architecture of a website that illustrates elements, categories, pages, and linking among pages of a website. In the same way, a visitor feels comfortable while browsing a website if it is well organized and directed by a sitemap. Before you start designing or confirming a web design order, discuss a lot about sitemap and how you can make it more usable.

Content and visual

Content is like the blood flow of a website. We are not talking about publishing dozens of content each week. But, they should be useful and relevant to your business. Besides, a designer should make them appealing by applying some UX strategy. Focus on easy to read texts, the background of the website, text size, and a short paragraph. Another inevitable thing to use on your website is visual content. Choose the best matched graphical elements and use visual content as much as possible in your web pages. Useful and visual content assist in visitors’ engagement. 

SEO

Search engine optimization strategies are often underrated. But the truth is, search engines are still the biggest traffic source of most websites. Though SEO is primarily focused on keyword research, content creation, and link building, there are multiple scopes of working with SEO in web design as well. According to the recent updates of Google, UX has been a major factor to have a good ranking. Google’s motive is to rank websites that satisfy users. If your website is well designed, has great content, loads faster, and grabs people’s eyes a lot, Google will love you too. While designing a website, a designer as well as the business owner should focus on these factors. 

Web designing should not be useless. Take your time and brainstorm for more creativity and advancement.

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.