5 Key Ingredients To A Great Website
5 Key Ingredients To A Great Website
An effective website design should fulfil its intended function by conveying its particular message whilst simultaneously engaging the visitor. Several factors such as consistency, colours, typography, imagery, simplicity and functionality all contribute to good website design.
When designing a website there are many key factors that will contribute to how it is perceived. A well designed website can help build trust and guide visitors to take action. Creating a great user experience involves making sure your website design is optimised for usability (form and aesthetics) and how easy it is to use (functionality).
“Your website is the centre of your digital eco-system, like a brick and mortar location, the experience matters once a customer enters, just as much as the perception they have of you before they walk through the door.”
― Leland Dieno, Face The Book With Your Small Business: A step by step guide to establishing your small business on the biggest social media network in existence
Your website is the first digital impression from your company and you want to make sure it’s a great one. It should reflect everything you want potential customers to know and remember about your business. To marketers and other business owners who have been around for a while, this is nothing new. Successful businesses are always trying to improve the quality of their websites to meet the needs of their visitors.
People are visiting your website because they want to learn something. You want to ensure that they are finding what they are looking for quickly and with ease. You may have the most amazing business model and offer extraordinary customer service, but with a poorly functioning website, you could miss out on a significant amount of business and ultimately make a bad impression.
“Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that.”
― Paul Cookson
The quality of your website is critical. Since it’s likely that your competitors have an incredible website, expectations are high, and you must at least meet the bar, if not exceed it. If you want to stay in the game, you’ve got to have a website that makes it easy for your users to browse your products and services, make purchases, and to interact with your business.
So, what makes a great website? How can you set your website apart from the rest?
I’ve put together some key website trends to focus on for success.
5 Key Ingredients
1. Responsive Design
The concept of using responsive design is not new. Since the Google update known as “Mobilegeddon” back in 2015, everyone has been hustling to upgrade their websites so that they are easily viewable and usable regardless of the device it is being viewed on (mobile, tablet, desktop).
This will continue to be a basic requirement of a great website. With new and improved mobile devices coming to the market on a regular basis, having a responsive website design is a must.
2. Minimalism
Many businesses are taking web design back to the basics with minimalistic designs and layouts. Websites are featuring fewer pages, with simpler designs and more blank space.
Some websites are also implementing what’s referred to as “Flat Design”. Flat web design uses two-dimensional/flat images which are aesthetically pleasing to look at, in combination with lots of open space, and bright colors. Flat design also meets the requirements of a responsive web design.
3. User-Friendly Experience
Usability has always been of key importance in a successful website. Websites with an intuitive design, and with images and aspects that are pleasing to the eye are going to attract more customers than those without these features.
A simple, intuitive, and functional navigation is another important feature to focus on. If customers can’t easily make their way around your site, they aren’t likely to stay long.
The speed at which your pages load also has a strong impact on users. Quickly loading pages and simple ways to get to specific information will be critical in setting your website apart from the competition.
4. Super Fast Load Time
Waiting for a website to load will lose visitors. Nearly half of web visitors expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less and they will potentially leave a site that isn’t loaded within 3 seconds. Optimising image sizes will help load your site faster.
To find out how your website does right now, check its speed here. If you need a faster website, I’d be happy to hear from you. 😊
5. Content
An effective web design has both great design and great content. Using compelling language great content can attract and influence visitors by converting them into customers. From videos to blog posts and informative pages about your services, your content helps to engage your visitors and simultaneously show search engines that your website is worth ranking for.
Are you ready to get a website that is as beautiful as it is useful? Check out my web design services or/and book a discovery call to see how I can help moving your business forward.
