What makes a good website design?

Did you know that it takes just 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your website which then determines whether they like your site or not and whether they’ll stay or leave? If that doesn’t stress the importance of a good website design, we don’t know what will!

In this day and age, the digital era, a website is more important than ever for your business. A website is now so much more than just a basic page that tells readers about your business and your location. It offers the possibility of introducing endless prospects to your brand and now can have the ability to ‘wow’ your visitor through a visually exceptional site design offering a special user experience. A site adds personality to your business, sets you apart from competitors and encourages your most valued call to actions to be actioned.

CTAs mean having a prompt on your website that tells the user to take a specified action. These range from asking people to do things like sharing, downloading, watching a video or getting in contact; anything that basically prompt another beneficial action to be carried out to make the users website visit even more beneficial to you.

SEO is a huge contributor to your site’s success too and must be considered when it comes to sprucing up your site. Search engine optimisation is the process of improving your site’s organic traffic and ranking on search engines through creating high quality content, monitoring your site’s technical health and gaining traffic from outside sources like location or links from other websites.

You might be thinking: ‘Well, where do I start?’. To help you out, we’ve compiled a straightforward list of pointers and tips to follow when planning your site design, to achieve an outstanding end result.

1. Research your audience?– You’ll need to know, of course, who will be the primary audience viewing your website and who it is that you would like to attract. This way, you can tailor the type of website experience you offer to your visitors and can set the tone of voice you’ll use, which your audience will respond most positively to. Conducting basic market research on your consumer’s interests and behaviours will allow you to produce SEO optimised content that is of interest to your desired market, again following that tone of voice that will feel most suited to who will be reading.
2. Stick to the point?– Filling your site with overly wordy, some might say flowery, content can distract from the main message you are trying to get across through your site. Keeping content concise and relevant will ensure your audience remains engaged and you should even consider directly addressing your audience, by using words like ‘you’ or ‘your’.
3. Add value for your visitors?– The content included on your website must add value to or assist the user in some way. If after leaving your site your reader feels that they have benefitted from their visit, they are much more likely to engage with your site again, share your site content with others, make a purchase or subscribe and will have built up a trust with your site. When it comes to writing up new content for your site, consider how you will add value to your returning customers. You can do this by solving a problem your target audience is likely to be experiencing with each piece of content you add, prioritising content for the reader and not for yourself and by making sure that all of your content is actually actionable with a clear CTA.
4. Remain professional?– Okay, we’re not saying to make your website boring and stuffy, if that’s not the look that you’re going for, it’s simply important to keep your content grammatically correct and factual. Keeping a professional tone can also help you come across as an expert in the industry, making you a reliable and trustworthy source.
5. Don’t be too ‘flashy’… literally?– Having too many distracting features on your site like pop-ups, image carousels, loud or clashing colours and too many different fonts could overwhelm users and take their attention away from key information or CTAs.?It’s all about balance with website design – keeping things engaging, but not at all distracting.
6. Establish a User Flow?– To encourage users to convert into customers or subscribers, it’s important to ensure your content follows a user flow, leading users through a natural and logical route through your site. Using easily readable fonts and colours, simple clean backgrounds and images that do not distract from the content are all ways to keep your site seamless and simple to follow.
7. Keep your CTAs clear?– When writing content for your website, you should always bear in mind a relevant call to action you’d like people to act upon once they have read that content. Make CTAs easily actionable and clear to see with the use of clear fonts and engaging colours.

And there you have it! 7 steps to guide you through planning a great site design! Do you cringe a bit when it comes to showing people your current website? If you answered with a ‘yes’, it’s likely other people in the business hold back from introducing your website to prospects, feeling that the website isn’t up to standard or doesn’t represent your business accurately anymore.?It’s time for a new site design!

Simply put, we can make your website look amazing. With decades of graphic design and website usability experience, we can create your site design from scratch into something outstanding. As a team of versatile digital and graphic designers, we can help you create a site that you’re proud of and can’t wait to show off!?We understand the importance of having a holistic view of your company and goals too, and the necessity of remaining consistent across ALL brand activity.