In order to become good at something, you first must master the basics. Most business owners hire a digital agency to handle their website design needs, but a good website owner should still understand the basics of good web design to be sure they are getting a quality service. There are many different ways to achieve these basic design ideas, but the core concepts that make up a good website design will always remain the same.
A clean layout means that each page is easy to navigate, the background does not look too busy, and the coding is streamlined. When a new visitor lands on your website, they need to be able to figure out how to use your site in three seconds or they will bounce to another site. A clean layout uses tables to keep the navigation links in one spot, and a color scheme that makes the font easy to read and the website easy to look at.
If a user has to click more than three times to get to the page they want, they will leave your website. Make your navigation menus as simple as possible and include any extraneous content as links within the text of a page. You can also help navigation by including a site map that is accessible from the front page, and a search box at the top of every page.
Graphics, images, and videos make your website more appealing to your users, but only if they are used properly. Avoid animated graphics and also avoid putting self-starting videos on your pages. Give the user the option to start a video, and make sure that all of your graphics and images serve a purpose. It is also important to make sure that your graphic, image, and video files are as small as possible to help your page load faster.
You can enhance the SEO quality of your website when you put a short title on every page that makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site. It is important to keep your page titles short, and make sure that they accurately describe the page they are on. Search engines will penalize your page if it is filled with titles designed to hit on certain keywords instead of describing the page.
These days, every user on the Internet is concerned about the security of the websites that they visit. If you require your users to input information of any kind on your website, then you need to have a security certificate in place to protect your user’s data, and your website.
The temptation to make each page on your website look different can be strong, but it is a big mistake. Your website is an important tool in building and enhancing your brand, and the best way to get the most from that branding is to make sure that the colors and design throughout your website are consistent.
Good website design allows a site that is easy to navigate to load quickly and serve the user’s needs. If your website is not performing the basics very well, then you are losing a lot of traffic and a lot of potential revenue.
