Website Design Best Practices
But, if you spend a little time browsing other websites, you’ll soon discover that the Internet is filled with a web design that misses the mark on many levels.
Your website is the vehicle that builds traffic and generates leads for your business. Without website design and development that’s been optimized for success in the global marketplace, your digital marketing strategy will sink before you even get started.
As Q1 comes to a close, now is the time to look at current website design best practices to make sure your site is on point for success for the remainder of 2018.
Landing Pages with a Purpose
Landing pages are a basic, but important, a feature of your website. Landing pages are designed with the specific intent of encouraging visitors to act. Unfortunately, there are many websites that aren’t realizing the potential of optimized landing pages.
A well-designed landing page will lead a visitor to make a purchase or supply you with their contact information via lead forms. But, you can also get more creative than this.
For example, a landing page that encourages the user to sign up for a newsletter is common. This strategy is frequently used because it’s successful. It’s also expected.
Brands can keep things interesting by taking the intent of landing pages in a new direction, for example inviting the visitor to a podcast or vlog, rather than a newsletter.
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The key is keeping design simple. Think of a landing page as an opportunity to warm customers up to your brand. Keep it focused, clean, and avoid overwhelming them with too many options.
Optimized CTA Buttons
Websites shouldn’t be difficult to use. Someone visiting your site doesn’t want to work too hard to find what they’re looking for. If any part of the experience is difficult, chances are you’ve lost a potential lead.
Why is this?
Because there’s no shortage of competition on the internet and they are just a Google search away.
To keep users engaged, the website design process should include creating easily identifiable, actionable targets, otherwise known as a Calls-to-Actions (CTAs).
Here are a few statistics that tell us the secrets of CTA design best practices.
- First-person phrasing, as in “my” instead of “yours,” increases the click-through rate of a CTA by 90%
- Colors matter – One company found orange CTAs to increase conversion by 32.5%, while another found that red CTAs boosted their conversions by 21%
- Personalized CTAs convert 42% more customers
- Reducing clutter around a CTA increased conversion by 232%
High-Quality User Experience
When it comes to web design, a site that’s easy and enjoyable to use can be summed up in two words: User Experience.
User Experience (UX) is a design concept that, if done well, visitors will stay on your website longer and are more likely to make a return visit later.
This happens when you optimize features that make it easy for visitors to use your site, like fast load times, graphic design elements that are visually pleasing, easy navigation, expedited checkouts, and mobile responsiveness.
Content is another major player in a high-quality UX. There are few things worse than a site that’s all surface elements with no substance underneath. Content that’s relevant and valuable to your target market provides your website with the substance you need to attract and convert visitors.
There’s one more thing. Search engines love websites with a high UX rating. Search engines, like Google, benefit financially when users enjoy the sites that they’ve given priority ranking to. A focus on UX in web design can improve your eCommerce SEO results.
Responsive Design
It’s no longer acceptable to assume which device your visitors are using. It might be a desktop, but there’s a good chance it’s a mobile or tablet device. How a visitor experiences your site is largely dependent on their screen size, which is why you need to invest in responsive design.
The fact is that 8 out of 10 users will stop interacting with a site if the content isn’t displayed well on whichever device they’re using at the time.
This is a huge deal for users because they want a seamless experience, regardless of the device. Responsive design that adapts your site depending on device and screen size is a solution that all businesses need to adopt.
Social Media
While your website is one of your business’s biggest growth tools, it’s not a standalone entity. You should be thinking of your website as the core that other elements of your digital marketing strategy are built around.
One of these elements is social media. In today’s digital age, your audience expects everything to be interconnected. Their experience moving from social media to your site, or vice versa, should be seamless.
This means a couple different things. First, there needs to be some continuity in design and content between your website and social media accounts. Secondly, a visitor should be able to easily access your social media profiles from your website. This makes it easy for each visitor to learn more about you, and instantly increases your brand’s reach, visibility, and traffic.
Visual Hierarchy
Let’s say you have all these great design elements and ideas for your website. Placement matters, so you can’t just stick them anywhere and expect impressive results. There’s something called visual hierarchy, and it’s a concept that crucial to web design.
When a visitor lands on your website, their eyes follow a natural path across the page. How you arrange the elements on your page needs to play into this pattern of movement.
Visual hierarchy allows the visitor to easily move from one activity to the next without interruption, it also helps them to see the overall message of your site, and it puts the most important elements of your web pages in a position of visual priority.
Originally Published At www.chicagodigital.com
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