Want to get the absolute best out of your website?
Website design is an absolute deal breaker. Get it right, and your clients will fall in love with you. Get it wrong, and you’re just another chucked web page. You’re wanting to enhance your web traffic’s online experience, not to detract from it with easily avoidable clutters and messes. There’s a few simple keys to getting it right, and below you’ll find a list of what to look for, and what to avoid, in making the most of your online presence.
Simplicity
That, right there, is the absolute lynchpin when it comes to website design. Keep it clean, concise, to the point and easy to follow. Avoid useless waffle that no one’s going to read anyway. Use the 80-20 rule of economy – pare it down to only the essential 20% that will express 80% of what you want your website to say. Don’t flood the screen with annoying pop-ups, flashy animations and gimmicks because this might slow down the bandwidth stored for you by your web host company.
Make a bang
Most internet readers will only ever grant a website a single glance. So put as much of your essential message up in that first screen, above the fold as it were, or at very least centrally in your homepage.
Make it flow
Following on from the last point, make the direction in which you want your users to go unmissable. Make every click count. Lead your clients exactly where you want them to go.
Color
Again, keep it simple. Use only a three color maximum. Nothing gaudy or painful – flashiness is an instant turn-off.
Fonts
As with the color scheme, keep it simple. Nothing too flashy, but opt instead for something plain, honest, easy on the eyes.
Reduce
Cut down on the number of needless pages. It saves space, and makes the most out of your clients’ time. Cut out anything that’s not serving your main purpose. Simplicity is efficiency and style.
Links
Make sure you’ve got links to your homepage and contacts on every page. This is key for making your website as easy to navigate as you possibly can, and a website that’s easy to navigate makes for a much better online experience.
Adverts
As a general rule, avoid all pop-up advertising – it’s the absolute most frustrating distraction imaginable, and it’ll have your users running for the hills. Native advertising is easy on the eye and blends well, while still netting you that extra revenue.
It’s all about simplicity. It’s really that simple. Sometimes, especially with the kind of website design options available to you from web hosting companies, you can be overwhelmed with the potential tools you could put everywhere on your site. Sometimes it may seem that putting more will repeatedly drive home the point and look impressive through its sheer multitude. But take a step back, and take it out. If it’s not supporting the essentials you need in your website, then it’s a waste of space and major distraction.
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