Website design tips you need to know and mistakes to avoid
How is your website performing? Unless it’s a good source of business enquiries, leads and sales then you could be losing out to your competitors. There are many reasons why your website may be struggling to generate business leads and its design is an important factor to consider. Here are our website design tips to help you make the right impression online:
Make your homepage awesome
As soon as people land on your homepage you want to grab their attention with quality images and a short but informative statement about your business. Impress visitors my highlighting some of the people with whom you work or the awards you’ve won. This page needs to impress and show the user what you do and why they should do business with you.
A great way to keep your homepage fresh is to add a feed of your latest news or blog posts so returning visitors can see your business is active.
Be on brand
Whether you sell products online or not, think of your website as your digital shop front. It must be instantly recognisable, displaying your logo and using your brand colours.
Draw attention to your contact details
Put your contact details in the top header showing visitors your telephone number and email address. It’s also a good idea to add a contact form to every page, with a call to action. This encourages the potential customer to get in touch.
Promote your social media platforms
If you’re on social media, make sure you add links to these profiles high up on each page. You can also look super swish by customising the icon designs to fit with your branding.
Be smart about your navigation
Think about your business from your customers’ point of view and give them what they really want. What words would they put into Google when they are looking for products and services like yours? Use these keywords as your page and menu titles so people can easily navigate to the information they need.
Utilise your footer
This is so often neglected but it is actually prime real-estate. Use this space to highlight important information about your business, navigate around your site and see accreditation or awards that you’ve won. You should also add your social media icons here and repeat your contact details. The footer is a way of displaying key information on every page.
Add internal links
Creating a web of links around your site will keep people on your pages for longer. It’s also great for SEO as Google sees internal linking as proof that you are experts in your field with lots of related content on your site. Find out more about the advantages of internal link building.
Make your pages easy to scan
People have short attention spans online. They like to scan webpages for the information they require and will click away if they can’t find it. Make your paragraphs short, use bulletpoints and break up text with images and diagrams. Video is also a great way to get across your message and engage visitors.
Use tags
Every time you use headline or sub-headline on your webpages you should be formatting them with Header tags (H1, H2, H3). These tell Google this is important information and what the page is about. Also use keyword tags about your page topic in the metatitle, image alt-tags and metadata. If this is all Greek to you then get a good website designer to talk you through it. If you tackle it yourself, make sure you use a tool like Yoast or SEO Ultimate, if you’re using WordPress as your content management system. This enables you to add on-page SEO with ease.
Be mobile ready
If your site isn’t set up to be compatible with smartphones and tablets, then Google will push it down the search engine results. At the end of 2017 research showed that more than 50% of website traffic came from mobiles. Don’t lose this audience.
Don’t use crazy fonts and graphics
While serif fonts might look nice on marketing materials and logos they can be very difficult to read on screen. Choose just a couple of sans-serif fonts for your website. Multiple, animated graphics will also turn visitors off. Here’s an example of a website that has gone too far.
Size your images correctly
If you don’t reduce the size of your images before uploading them, you’ll slow down your website. Slow websites don’t rank well with Google and frustrate visitors. However, if your images are too small they will pixelate. A website designer can advise you on the correct size for your site.
Need a hand with your website design?
If you need a new website or are redesigning an existing one, we can help. Our website design experts can conduct a website audit and help you come up with a website design in line with your company brand to attract visitors and engage customers. We build websites that look great, are written well and deliver leads. Get in touch with Southampton-based Amplify PR for a chat about how we can help you.