Websites are often the first branding element customers come across. During these brief moments, a lot of assumptions are made about your business. Outdated, incorrect or inconsistent web design can sway visitors to distrust your brand. It may even push them to turn to competitors for a product or service. Considering this and the amount of choices there are to make – web design can become an overwhelming task.
This guide illustrates 7 critical and simplified web design practices which can help small businesses fine-tune their design efforts. By incorporating these recommendations produced by our professional website design experts, your company can better-connect with their online audience.
1. Minimalist Design
In recent years, minimalist design has taken over tons of industries. From home design, to product design to everything in between – simple, clean and minimalist elements are now a major trend. Considering this, it is important to incorporate this style into your website. Not only is staying ‘current’ important for a brand, but more importantly, minimalist design will help viewers find information fastest. Once understanding your audience’s key objectives, you can eliminate unneeded page elements and have the focus on key content.
2. High Quality Visuals
High quality and eye catching visuals are a key element for any type of website. Quality visuals help the viewer feel more inspired and personally connected to a brand. Investing in personalized and professional photos can benefit your business long term. Professional photography will not only make your branding more professional, but the images can be re-purposed in your social media and company content down the road. High quality, professional and consistent brand images build trust in your audience and will increase your brand value.
3. Mobile Optimization
The marketing industry has noticed a major shift of how consumers browse the web. Gone are the days of PC search, rather, majority of users are browsing the web via their mobile devices.
Mobile optimization for your website is important for 2 main reasons:
- Majority of searchers browse on their mobile device. By ensuring your website is optimized for mobile, you drastically increase your company reach.
- Your website SEO ranking will increase, as even Google favours mobile optimized websites.
4. Use of White Space
Strategically using white space will increase the overall satisfaction of your web users. You can use white space to make your website content more readable and easier to navigate.
5. Page Loading Time
Ridding your website of unnecessary plug-ins, large images and excessive page elements will quicken loading times. The longer your website takes to load the more your SEO ranking will decrease on Google. Also, not a lot of web searchers have patience to excessively wait for information to load; they will simply move on to the next site.
6. Call-to-Actions
Effective sites contain call-to-actions. Invitations to call now, subscribe to email updates or visit stores are engaging messages inviting users to take the next step in the business funnel. Implementing calls-to-action will influence your website viewers to take action.
7. Copy Write
Your website copy is extremely important. If a website has multiple run on sentences, grammar errors and irrelevant information, users will not stay on your website for long. Web users want to find the information they are searching for as quickly as possible. Investing in professional copy writing for your website will better attract and retain your website users. Further, integrating brand-related keywords will help your company rank higher on Google and better your SEO.
Steps in the Right Direction
There is always room for improvement when it comes to your website. Keep these suggestions in mind the next time you go to make changes to your web space. Our experienced team at Cyrux Smart Solutions specializes in web design and development. Get in touch at (416) 222-0035 and book a no-obligation consultation where we can discuss how we can help your company evolve on the web.
