There are many things to consider when designing or redesigning a website. If you’re hiring someone for website design we recommend that you have a good idea of what you want so you can give the website designer clear instructions. This will increase your chances of getting a good website that not only looks great but is easy for your visitors to use. With that in mind, here are 10 tips for good website design.
- Keep it simple: Things like animation and slow-loading graphics annoy visitors, and annoyed visitors don’t come back. You want people to like your site enough to bookmark it and return again later. You don’t do that by using pop-ups or flashing graphics.
- Make it easy to read: Add a little extra space between lines of text to make it easier on the eyes and make sure there is a high amount of contrast between the background and the text. The background should always be a very light color or white, and the text should be dark or black.
- Basic SEO: Each page should be targeted to get traffic from a certain keyword phrase. The title and description META tags should be used and pages should be internally linked using the targeted keywords as anchor text.
- Good copy: The articles and other content on your website should all be high quality, original content written with the visitor in mind. Each page should contain valuable, useful content that readers will feel compelled to share.
- Include a call to action: Think about what you want your visitors to do when they get to your website. Do you want them to buy something, sign up for your list or request a quote? Each should should have one goal and there should be a clear call to action telling the visitor exactly what you want them to do.
- Easy navigation: If your visitors can’t find what they are looking for quickly, they will leave and look for it somewhere else. Make it as easy as possible by including navigation that is easy to understand and use. A column on either the left or right side of the page with links to category pages is a simple way to do this.
- Test everything: Make sure your everything on your site works. Check your links, forms, buy buttons and anything else the user could possibly click. If you have forms on your site, check to make sure that the information is sent once the form is submitted. Try W3C validator to validate your HTML code.
- Measure traffic: You need to have some kind of analytics installed on your website so that you will be able to evaluate your incoming traffic. You need to know how much traffic you’re getting, what keywords they are using to find your site and the conversion rate. You can’t improve if you don’t know where you are.
- Fast loading: Make sure your site loads quickly. Google is now penalizing sites that take too long to load. Large graphics, widgets and multimedia are some of the things that can slow your site down. Visit http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ to check the load speed of your website.
- Quality images: Don’t risk legal action by stealing images from other sites. You either need to produce your own images or buy the low cost rights to use high quality professional-looking images from a site such as dreams time.
If you follow these 10 tips we are sure you will increase your chances of attracting visitors to your site. You may also find that visitors stick around longer and are more inclined to subscribe to your list and buy your products.
Gravity Informatics provide excellent website design and development in Ludhiana and around the world. Contact us if you are looking for a great website.
