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These days, businesses of all sizes rely on aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly and target-driven websites to grow their brand and help achieve success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. When you’re looking to design a website for your business, or improve the design of your current website, there are some important guidelines to follow and common mistakes to avoid so you can increase web traffic and conversion rates. This will maximise your business’s chances of success.
Want to know how to design a website that will work for your business?
Five key website design tips
1. Create a smooth experience
One of the most important website design tips to remember is that less usually equals more. It’s wonderful to be proud of your business and everything it can offer, but the website should offer visitors as smooth an experience as possible. Find an appropriate website theme. Use minimal fonts and colours. Avoid clutter and unnecessary content. Incorporate a clear navigation structure. A website’s primary job is to help people find what they’re looking for, so key messages belong on the home page, and other supporting information should be just one click away.
2. Optimise loading speeds
In our fast-paced modern world, a loading delay of as little as two seconds can result in an abandonment rate of over 70%. That’s a pretty clear incentive to ensure your website loads as quickly as possible. Large images are the major offenders here. Hence, you should always compress large files to smaller, more web-friendly sizes. It’s also useful to enable browser caching. This allows website assets to be downloaded to the user’s hard drive to be stored temporarily for quick access.
3. Maximise calls to action
Calls to action (CTAs) are one of the most important elements in improving your conversion rates. They are phrases like “READ MORE”, “SIGN UP HERE” or “BUY NOW”. These phrases tell users in a clear and concise manner what their next steps should be. Websites without strong CTAs leave customers uncertain as to how to proceed and lead to higher rates of abandonment. Design-wise, great CTAs use bold fonts and contrasting colours to stand out from the rest of the content on your website.
4. Be Google-friendly
If there’s one player you want on your side, it’s Google. The search engine acts as the gateway for most users to all their web desires. Therefore, it’s critical you rank well for keywords that are relevant to your business. This is known as search engine optimisation (SEO). There are many facets to SEO, but at its most basic it’s about creating a seamless user interface, and continuously developing and adding quality content that provides value to your website’s visitors.
5. Stay mobile
In today’s mobile world, it’s hard to believe anyone could forget about smartphones. However, this is one of the most common mistakes when it comes to knowing how to design a website. Over half of website visits take place on mobile phones these days. Accordingly, it’s important to invest in “responsive design” – website design that is friendly to both desktops and mobiles. TechBrain is expert at developing splendid, responsive websites that maintain your business’s broader objectives and increase your web traffic and conversion rates.
For more advice on how to design a website that works for your business, contact TechBrain today!