It goes without saying that if you want to thrive as a company or a brand, you must provide your customers with an exceptional user experience. In today’s world, it is easy to get a website up and running in a matter of minutes. However, there is a difference between a live website and one that is optimized.
When a website’s design contributes to the overall user experience and functionality, it truly shines. According to research, 88% of customers are hesitant to return to a website after a negative experience. Furthermore, 77% of agencies believe that their clients’ major vulnerability is an ineffective website design.
So, how can you optimize your website design? To help you answer that, here are the nine web design practices to put you on the right track.
#1. Improve Your Page Load Speed
A responsive webpage takes less than two seconds to load. Visitors may become irritated if it takes longer than that. According to Google research, increasing the page load time from one to three seconds raises the likelihood of consumers abandoning a site by 32%. Furthermore, increasing the page loading time to six seconds raises the bounce rate by 106 percent.
In today’s age, customers seem to be in a rush and lack patience. Keeping that in mind, a web designer must optimize the page loading speeds to better user experience and retain traffic.
Here are some ideas to help implement this practice:
- Check the response timings of your server.
- Reduce the size of the images.
- Clean up your code by removing any unnecessary characters.
- Try to compress everything as much as you can.
- Scripts that obstruct rendering should be discarded.
#2. Make the Navigation More Intuitive
Navigation plays a pivotal role while designing an interactive website. Nothing is more frustrating than a website with a chaotic or unclear user interface. Navigation often acts as a map that directs the users to the predominant features of your website, such as your services, products, and blogs. When enhancing your website’s navigation, it’s critical to ensure that visitors locate what they’re searching for.
Smooth and well-organized navigation communicates to the users that you want them to explore your website with ease, and you have nothing to hide. As a result, users will visit more pages throughout their stay, increasing the amount of time they spend on your site.
#3. Craft a Vibrant Layout for Each Page
Crafting an eye-catching page layout is one of the most effective web design practices. It helps you create a compelling and acquainted site for your audience, encouraging them to keep browsing.
It is pretty normal to have multiple page layouts for various categories but make sure you’re setting them up in a way that gives your audience a great user experience. A persuasive layout gives users a sense of what to expect as they browse your site, making them feel more at ease.
#4. Use White/Negative Space
While designing a high-quality website, it is vital to utilize the white space productively. You don’t want to overcrowd your website with text and images. Users might get confused and overwhelmed with stuffed web pages and decide to abandon your website completely. White space will assist you in keeping your visitors focused on your pages and make it easier for them to navigate your site.
#5. Add "Call-to-Action" in Every Page
It’s easy to overlook calls to action when you’re focused on features like appearance, feel, and page layout. Call to action is an integral part of your website design and demands special consideration.
Every page of your website should include at least one distinctive and enticing call to action, such as a link, form, or button that directs visitors to the next step.
Here are a few suggestions for calls to action:
- A subscription option for your blog or newsletter
- Links to other pages on your site with extra information on a topic
- Downloadable PDFs
- A link to your contact page, which includes a form for the user to complete
#6. Make SEO a Priority
The practice of optimizing your website to make it appear in relevant search results is known as SEO. The whole content on your website should be SEO-friendly, and adding keywords all around isn’t enough. SEO is a technique that constantly targets certain areas to establish your site’s authority in that field.
It entails tactics such as:
- Keyword research and optimization
- Ensuring your site loads quickly
- Creating content to attract visitors
- Ensuring a mobile-responsive website
A proper sitemap shows Google that you have unique content, which can significantly improve your SEO rankings. When designing a website, various SEO elements should be taken into considerations to improve your Google rankings, such as
- Usability
- Keyword optimization
- Headlines and internal links
- Domains
- Site quality
- Backlinks
#7. Pick a Color that Complements Your Brand
Colors have the ability to portray feelings and elicit emotional reactions. A color palette that suits your brand and depicts your narrative can help influence customers’ decision-making process. When designing a website, try to choose colors that are pleasing to the eye. It will make the users ecstatic and improve the conversion rate.
#8. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
A well-designed website tends to be smooth and flexible across all devices. The number of mobile users continues to rise year after year, and if you want to design a website that outshines the competition, it’s essential to make it mobile-friendly. Since mobile screens are smaller, navigation and CTAs must be accordingly adjusted.
#9. Opt for User-Friendly Fonts & Intriguing Imagery
Typography plays a crucial role in the aesthetics of your website. It catches the eye and serves as a visual representation of the brand’s voice. Typefaces should be readable, and the website should utilize no more than three distinct fonts.
The visual part of any communication is often referred to as imagery. The majority of the information a visitor usually consumes on a website is visual. Therefore, it’s critical to use top-notch graphics and photos to create an impression of professionalism and authenticity.
Conclusion
It makes no difference if your website is spanking new or has been running for a decade. The web design practices that you adopt will ultimately impact whether or not your site is successful. When best practices are correctly implemented, they can bring a positive change that can help improve the performance of your website. These practices also elevate the user experience and help in creating an emotional connection between your brand and the visitor.
