10 Essential Do's And Don'ts's Of Professional Website Design

Ten-Essential-Dos-And-Donts-Of-Professional-Website-Design

Overview

Website Design is an important component of any eCommerce or online web development project. As a web designer or an online enthusiast, in order to get your project well off the ground, you need to ensure that the following pointers are in order so that your website leaves the desired impression on visitors and prospective customers.

1. Incorporate a professional Layout:

A Layout is an important component of developing a successful website. Hence, creating a layout that is challenging as well as interesting can be a great start to a successful web designing project.

Hence, do try and create a website with an intuitive layout and interface, and provide them with a pattern that feels familiar to visitors. Try to capitalize on how people navigate the web and put a twist on the classic way of presenting information on your website.

However, do not build something that the customer has to scroll right across left and right to see everything that you have put on your website pages. Put all your content within the viewable width of most website browsers. The currently acceptable method is to put the most information “above the fold”, means that the most critical part of your web page component should be visible to viewers before they need to use the scroll bar.

2. Utilize Fluid Navigation:

Its best to visualize who will be viewing your website and categorize the website content in such a way that it will make sense to those who look it up on your website.

Hence, the best way forward is to use a top navigation or left-side navigation, as this navigation format is best liked by visitors. In case you wish to put up a blog page, the best place to include the blog filters and widgets is the right column, while the main column is the best place for the posts that you have written.

However, don’t use hidden navigation or remove navigation on certain pages. Make sure that the navigation that you have provided makes it easy for your customers to get around on your site. So, do not waste your visitor’s time by making them fidget around the site or making it hard for them to get the information that they seek.

3. Use meaningful Color Schemes:

As you will know, color is a very useful tool that can help your visitors express their interest and help them engage with your website. However, use color with care, so that it is not too distracting, jarring, or gaudy.

Hence, use colors to enhance your design and draw attention to specific elements on your website such as the checkout button, buy now button, add to cart button, etc.

Avoid using colors to complicate your website and create a jarring effect. A website is not a piece of abstract art, unless you are an artist and wish to display your abstract art on your website. Use colors to enhance your website rather that taking it over.

4. Include the Mobile Component:

Today, more and more people are turning to their mobile gadgets, smartphones, and tablet devices to browse the web. This makes it important for you to include a strategy to engage this segment of viewers so that they can view your website on their devices.

Hence, go ahead and include responsive design as part of your website that adjusts the resolution on basis of the device that displays the site. This is ideal for a website that receives traffic from a wide variety of mobile as well as tablet devices.

However, do not procrastinate when it comes to including the mobile component. Most people form the tendency of implementing the mobile theme separately after first developing a website. This is not the right route to business success as it can effect the branding as well as search rankings. This is because your website will have two separate sets of HTML code for the same website that is abhorred by search engines and complicate the matter further.

5. Consider Persuasive Call to Action:

A clear and persuasive call to action prompts your customer to take the specific action that you desire.

Hence, prominently featuring your call to action on your web page and making it stand out from the remaining text by using a large graphic or a bright color can do wonders for your business.

However, avoid packing your page with too many graphic elements and buttons that could make the Call to Action feature lost in background.

6. Go in for Crisp and Original Content:

Despite several updates to the Google Algorithms, Content is still king. This is an important element of creating a successful website.

Hence, create good and original content that engages your customers. This concept is equally applicable to website copy as well as images and graphics.

However, avoid plagiarizing or using duplicate content. Search engines have become smart enough to detect such anomalies and punish the website by lowering its rankings.

7. Use Interactive Elements:

Increase the efficiency of your site by adding interactive elements to it. You can use these elements for specific promotions or messages to your customer. Try rotating or changing graphics, so that their focus and attention is drawn to the specific area on the website where you want it.

Hence, the right way forward is to use sliding banners for your home page, which allows you to convey a specific message to your customers about the various promotions and new products that you are using, in such a way that it is easy for them to understand. Such elements help you grab a customer’s attention and keep them glued to your website.

Avoid using flash. Most websites do not require flash. Mobile devices are incapable of handing flash and search engines do not like it. An alternative to flash currently is HTML 5. Try using this in lieu of something that you would normally use flash for. Also, avoid music for your website. This is especially an annoying feature if it is set to play automatically. Music for your website makes sense only if you are promoting your own music band or music store. Otherwise, the use of music is simply annoying for many people.

8. Use Strong Marketing Techniques:

Introduce a marketing strategy that will help you build your website’s reputation as well as its marketing capability. Get going through SEO and page rank for your website.

Hence, the right way forward is to create content that is relevant for your website and the product or services that you want to sell. Incorporate meaningful keywords that will help customers find what they are looking for via the search engines.

However, do not overuse keywords or mess up your keyword strategy. It is more important for your content to be better understood by your target audience than making them read a page of keyword dense stuff – it just doesn’t make any sense. This strategy will help get traffic to your website, but the actual readers will be turned off when they sense it. They will most likely abandon your website and head off to your competitors.

9. Don’t Avoid Optimization:

Spend quality time optimizing your website. Ensure that it loads quickly, which will help your customers to remain engaged on your website.

Hence, go ahead with techniques such as code optimization, Style Sheets (CSS), and site speed tests. These techniques will help speed up your website and maintain a low bounce rate.

However, do not upload huge image files, which could slow down your page loads. Image quality should not bother you to such an extent that it slows down your website. Compress your images instead. This method will optimize your images for the web and your customers most likely, won’t even notice.

10. Use Social Media:

You might need to be proactive and interact with your customers regularly. The best way forward is to use social media and implement a social strategy to engage with your customers.

Hence, add various social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and others to your website. This can be achieved via links to your accounts or via social sharing widgets.

However, do not add a blog or social feed that you do not want to update regularly. This could make customers question your ability. Additionally, if you have just commenced with your business and have a small following, hold off adding your social stuff to your website as these could reflect poorly on your brand.

eCommerceEcommerce Website Design

Minal Joshi is a content marketer at Krish with a flair for eCommerce and Digital Commerce aspects. She is a MarTech fanatic with a knack of writing with which, she helps brands to curate, create, & commence digital brand positioning. Sharing insights via articles, case studies, eBooks, Infographics, and other forms of content creation is what she lives for. Being an ardent traveler, when not writing, you'll find her sipping coffee into the mountains or petting a stray.

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