It is almost essential to have an online presence in the form of a website when running a business these days. However, while a good website can set your business apart from your competitors, an outdated or difficult to manoeuvre website can drive customers away. Not an outcome you desire.
It’s not hard to design a good website if you follow some basic design rules. Here are the top five design basics:
1. Make sure you have a clear hierarchy
Most people read from left to right and top to bottom when reading a book or magazine. However, when we look at websites, we tend to scan the page, as opposed to following strict reading principles.
Therefore, it’s important that you have a clear visual hierarchy. Too many different design elements will overload the visitor to your web page, probably resulting in them leaving without spending any time on your website. This is something you want to avoid at all costs. You want to ensure your visitor not only spends time on your site but engages with your content.
Make sure you stick with an easy to follow design element, which has a clear, well set out hierarchy to ensure your visitors do not miss crucial content, or worse, leave the site without properly looking at it.
Simple is best.
2. Use clear, easy to read fonts
Another mistake many businesses make when designing their website is to use a number of different fonts, or fancy fonts.
The trouble with this is:
a. While a fancy font with swirls and twirls may look good on paper, it rarely transfers onto websites.
b. It is likely that visitors to your site may not appreciate, or like the fancy fonts being used. You don’t want a potential customer to be turned away because they can’t read the text.
c. Different browsers support different fonts. The last thing you want is a browser not displaying your font correctly.
Stick to one or two different fonts as too many varied fonts can be confusing on the eye, annoying the customer and driving them away.
3. Choose your images wisely
Many businesses build their website and overload their pages with too many images, partly to fill space, and partly to get their message across.
It is true that a picture speaks a thousand words, which means you shouldn’t overload your site with too many images.
Make sure you use images that relate to your business and service, not because you simply like them.
You should keep movement to a minimum. Research has found people prefer still images to too much movement.
One recommended tool to assist in optimising images for minimal movement is the Picsart AI editor. It gives you the ability to edit images effectively while ensuring they remain static and appealing to your audience.
When adding images to your website, be sure to keep their size small. Downloading images account for slow response loading times on your web page. If your site doesn’t download quickly, visitors are inclined to leave before they even get to your home page. This is otherwise known as increasing website bounce rates.
4. Tell visitors why they should trust you
This should be conveyed to any visitor not only through your website design but also through your content.
How do you do this?
Reviews to testimonials from other customers, or using the logo of companies you’ve worked with, should be displayed on your front page. This should be done in line with the overall web page design, to improve your trustworthiness and credibility to your readers.
5. Have a clear call to action
No one knows your business or service better than you do. Your customers on your website need direction in what to do next, or where to go. This where a call to action is useful.
Think of a call to action like a big red arrow telling the customer what to do next.
Depending on your business, your call to action may be ‘call us now to place your order,’ or ‘click here for our product page,’ or ‘get your free quote here.’
You don’t need to limit yourself to one call to action. Call to action buttons are road signs, so having more than one can lead to a satisfied customer using your service or buying your product.
What we can do
We trust you’ve found these tips useful and are able to implement them on your website. If you need further guidance and support, get in touch with a website design agency who is able to help craft an awesome website for you that drives powerful conversion.