Did you know that a difference of half a second in page load time is likely to make a sales difference of 10% for an online retailer? Simply put, online shoppers will move to the next site if yours is taking more than three seconds to load. Yes, three seconds!
Your website is the best tool you have for creating a lasting first impression. A poor design, slow loading time, and low-quality content will make you miss out on potential conversions. Having a great website design shouldn’t be debatable.
Fortunately, there are practical website design tips that you can consider. Keep reading for website design ideas that will take your online business a notch higher.
1. Prioritize Website Optimization to Drive Conversions
The growing use of the internet has led to a surge in the number of active websites. Today, millions of businesses have websites. You’d be surprised at the number of websites you’re competing with!
It would be absurd to imagine that you’ll get visitors to your website effortlessly. Now that you have created a website, you need to strategize about its optimization. When you have an optimized web design, it will be easier for visitors to stay longer on your homepage and scroll through other pages.
Your site visitor should have a well-mapped journey from the homepage to the point where they convert. Getting through every point should be as simple as possible if you want to work on your bounce rate. You might want to test the website to get the first-hand experience before inviting visitors.
Some of the website design tips you can consider for optimization include bolding the main conversion points, having a clear CTA, and an easily notable lead box. Your website visitors shouldn’t struggle to try to figure out where to click to purchase an item!
2. Consider the White Space
It’s not surprising to find websites that have filled each space with features or content. Understandably, you might be having great ideas that you want to share with your site visitors. The result will be a crowded website that can be a turn-off.
When you create a website, you have to consider the end-user. Overcrowding your pages will reduce comprehension by a significant percent, as it will be quite distracting. You should have adequate white space to allow your visitors to have a break, which helps them grasp what the page is all about.
Different types of websites might require diverse provisions when it comes to balancing websites. However, any site should consider having white space between footers, graphics, columns, margins, and gutters. Each of the elements will be readily understood if the whitespace in between is sufficient.
3. Build a Visual Hierarchy in Your Website Design
Hierarchy is central to website design. It ensures that you’re displaying your content correctly. Using hierarchy in the right way will allow you to lead your website visitors to different page elements in your site based on their priority.
Visual hierarchy has several components, with size and weight being the first elements. It is crucial to highlight your site’s most remarkable assets like your logo and business name. Make these assets prominent by enlarging them as readers will prioritize bold and large titles.
When it comes to element placement, focus on having the ideal website layout for your visitor to pay attention to the right direction. You can centralize your logo or have a CTA button at the center.
It would also be vital to have spacing, contrast, and striking color to increase accentuation. With the visual hierarchies, visitors will unconsciously follow your guide.
4. Use the Right Pictures
Images produce a 650% higher engagement than the typical text-only posts. Your website and blog should have good visual content if you want to appeal to users. Your audience will comprehend the message better and retain the information for long.
The type of images you use can be a deal-breaker for your website. The pictures should keep your visitors engaged while building trust. You can’t use any image, so you’ll need to think critically about the type of message you want to convey with the pictures you use.
Focus more on having real images of either people or products. You can consider the professional headshot of your employees. Website visitors spend a significant amount of time checking out the portrait images on your site!
If you’re in a position to get actual images, avoid stock photos at all costs. Real images evoke a sense of credibility and trust. The right images will bring a sense of realism to your products, especially if they complement your shared content.
5. Incorporate Social Share Buttons
If you don’t have social share buttons on your site, you’re missing out on one of the best website design tips that can give unbelievable traffic. Given that more than 3.8 billion people are active social media users, failure to have a presence in social media sites is a disfavor to your brand. Your website content should be shareable.
You can have social share buttons at the top or bottom page of your blogs. The buttons are small icons that allow you to share the page to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These buttons are non-pushy tools, and they will encourage people visiting your site to share if they deem the site valuable.
Social sharing buttons are a great way to increase brand awareness. They also improve your bounce rate. Readers who find your blog impressive need a sharing option, which will increase your site’s popularity.
The more social media links you have, the more you’ll have people coming to your website. You can use tools like the Shareaholic and SumoMe to have the social sharing buttons on your site. If you want to create a vibrant social media presence for your brand, your website design should have noticeable social sharing buttons.
6. Work on Your Site Speed
Site speed is an indispensable aspect of good website design. You have to convince your site visitors to stay longer by improving your load time. Failure to have a commendable site speed will have people leaving your website even before taking any action.
You need to have a site speed of about five seconds or less! Your valuable customers won’t wait for your site to load if it’s taking more time. With an improved site load, your bounce rate will be unmatched.
One of the ways to improve the site load is by eliminating unnecessary plugins. Your plugins have to load when a visitor clicks on your site; many plugins mean more load time. Not unless the plugins are entirely useful, get rid of them.
It would also help to truncate your image files as pictures tend to take up unimaginable bandwidth. You can reduce the size of the images to take up less bandwidth without messing with their quality. Minifying your site’s code is another way of improving your website’s load time.
7. Have an SEO Strategy
Search engine optimization is among the website design tips that you can’t afford to ignore. Without SEO, your website won’t be found. Your visibility will depend on the efforts you have made towards SEO.
If you’re not familiar with this concept, a complete guide to SEO will give you great insights. It would be best if you start by creating a great SEO strategy. You’ll need to consider your target audience and what they’re most likely to search for.
With SEO, your content has to align with your site visitors’ needs. You can use e-books, blog articles, and videos to get your content to prospective buyers. The right keywords will help you come up with content that will enable you to rank.
Once you have created a website, research more on off-page and on-page SEO. There are many approaches that you can use to rank. Your SEO strategy will increase your competitiveness and allow you to outrank other local eCommerce sites.
8. Use Colors Correctly
Colors evoke different emotions. They are part of any website design. When you create a website, you have to be sure of the aura you want to create as you choose the colors.
If you want to arouse calmness, go for blue; red signifies excitement. Yellow evokes happiness, while green is a sign of growth or positivity. You have to know which color to have without making your site appear ‘busy.’
When requesting customers to take action, such as answering a survey, you can use the color blue as it shows calmness. For time-sensitive deals that you’d consider urgent, use red. Having a red pop up with the message ‘Clearance Sale!’ is more likely to prompt customers to act.
You might also want to consider your color scheme to avoid emotion-provoking colors that don’t complement the primary hues. The contrast between colors shouldn’t cause visitors to strain their eyes. If anything, your choice of colors should enhance readability.
9. Mobile Responsiveness
Are your site visitors able to navigate the pages when using their mobile phones? About 72.6% of global internet users will be accessing the web solely through their smartphones within the next five years. You need to consider mobile responsiveness as part of the website design tips that will elevate your business.
Responsive website design will ensure that visitors using mobile devices can have a commendable experience on your site. You don’t have to limit potential users to desktops. Some consumers might want to check out your website while on the move, and they shouldn’t feel frustrated trying to make sense out of an unusually large image covering the whole screen.
Utilize CSS and HTML coding to minimize, hide, or change the design elements based on the device you’re using. With the technicality involved in making a website responsive, you might need to work with a professional developer. Alternatively, you can create a basic responsive theme then have additional customizations.
An unresponsive site will increase the bounce rate as it won’t be appealing to visitors. Mobile responsiveness is also a significant part of SEO.
10. Your Website Content Should Be Easy To Read
A good website design should have the right readability to reach the intended audience. In this case, readability means having sentences, phrases, or words that people can recognize easily. Users should be able to skim through the site effortlessly and still get what it’s all about.
You can increase your content’s readability by having large-sized fonts. The size you choose should be visible enough, and visitors won’t need to strain their eyes to read through. You’ll also have to consider the type of font, which should either be serif or sans serif as they are ideal for lengthy texts.
It would also help to have a limited number of fonts as using more than three in a single website can be distracting. Unless you’re dealing with specific projects that call for font combinations, having different fonts can make your website appear cluttered and distracting.
Contrast is also vital in your website’s readability. Consider having adequate contrast between your background and text color to improve website accessibility and readability. While you’ll still want to maintain your brand’s color scheme, your elements should have enough contrast to be visible.
If you have a good marketing partner, you won’t struggle with readability. The experts know the steps you’ll need to take to ensure your site has adequate content readability.
Website Design Tips Are Resourceful for Businesses
Practical website design tips can help people who are considering websites for their online businesses. However, it is crucial to point out that website design has several complexities that might overwhelm you. The best option is to work with a competent agency for guaranteed results.
Do you need professional web design services to take your business to the next level? Riserr has years of experience in website design, SEO, and all forms of the digital market. Contact us today and book a free consultation with our team.
