Category: Website Building

A website is a great way to attract customers and clients and promote your brand. However, simply creating a website isn’t enough. It needs some essential elements to give it value and make it effective in its job. While high-quality products/services and customer care are vital, it isn’t all there is to running a successful business. You need compelling marketing, which these days is mostly about online marketing. Here is where your website helps you.

We brought in the experts to help you with some practical web design tips you can apply to your website to transform it into an effective marketing tool.

Simplicity and Accessibility

“These two are the keys in creating a good website, especially if you are just starting up your business. Aside from a lesser hassle when curating it, it has a higher tendency of being accessible than other websites. People are just generally not craving anymore for elegant and visually striking website designs with complex properties that make it uniquely impressive. Instead, they look for convenience, ease, and flexibility despite its subtle appearance. 

“There are times when no matter how expensive and labored a website design is when it has too complicated instructions and appearance, people don’t try hard to venture it out. Moreover, since you started it out simple, you can still improve it little by little in the future without making drastic changes that may overwhelm your audience. This can help your website to gradually develop over time until your interactions through it are at par with bigger companies.” 

Sofie Parker, Wellness Expert Inboard Skate

Functionality

“Functionality is the hallmark of a good website. Many novice website designers or owners of do-it-yourself websites overdesign instead of focusing on functionality. There should be easy-to-use navigation with all main pages included. Incorporate a click-to-call button in the menu of a website for a local business or one that accepts phone calls. Small improvements like this benefit the business owner and make it easier for visitors to contact the business.” (James Oliver)

Design

“Design and branding follow next. Choose your color scheme or create one using any of the free tools available online. Once you have a working color scheme, use it for the website. The same applies to sections used on pages. Using the same layout, but changing the content, can be done if the website offers multiple services. Sites that are not consistent in their layout and design appear unprofessional and disorganized.”

James Oliver, Director Evolved Toaster 

High-Quality Product Videos

“Many firms have begun to add product videos and other corporate feature videos to their websites as video marketing becomes more popular among both B2C and B2B enterprises. This can help to accentuate your brand’s individuality while also showcasing what your company has to offer clients. 

“According to research, 92 percent of B2B consumers watch online videos when investigating services and products for their company, and 43 percent view online videos while researching services and products for their own company. Videos can have a significant impact on how people make decisions.

“These brief movies help your prospect to rapidly grasp value without having to view a lengthy, in-depth presentation. Both are valuable, but the shorter videos allow for quicker comprehension, which is ideal at the top of the funnel. 

“Place videos in strategic locations throughout your website, such as on your pricing page to discuss pricing alternatives, on your product page to demonstrate products, or on your about us page to introduce your team to the public. Video may be a terrific way to add a little flair and movement to your website, no matter where you utilize it.”

Stephanie Young, CEO & Founder Best Camping

Four web design elements according to Marty Kelly, “Through my website building and design experience, what makes good website design comes down to four things: responsive design, page layout, color choices, and page speed:

Responsive

“Responsive websites will render differently depending on if the user is viewing the website from a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop computer. No one likes a website where you have to zoom in on every element to read or click a button. A website can be specifically designed to show different elements depending on the screen size the user is viewing the web page on.” (Marty Kelly)

Easy Navigation

“Page layout is another basic characteristic of good website design. Having articles, products, and elements placed in a way that is easily navigated by the user make them more likely to stay on the website and find the information or product they are searching for.” (Marty Kelly)

Color Choices

“Color choices of the background, text, and any other elements on the web page are a part of good design. Placing yellow text on a lime green background will never create a good user experience. Web designers are taught to use colors that are complementary.” (Marty Kelly)

Page Speed

“Page speed is important too. Including bulky picture files and unnecessary code will take the page longer to render. In fact, many search engines, like Google are making page speed a larger part of their algorithm for which websites are shown in search results. The aim is a better user experience.”

Marty Kelly, Founder and Editor of Actively Outdoor

SEO

“You can create the most eye-catching website on the planet, but if you don’t attract visitors, then your efforts will be in vain. A mixture of a stellar SEO strategy and creating top-notch content will help you increase your site traffic, as well as help you rank higher in search. Begin by crafting content that will target your core demographic and their needs. These can be how-to guides or blogs filled with actionable tips. And, they must be worthy of social media shares!

“Place internal links within these posts to other relevant posts, and be very strict about inserting your keywords in the right places, such as H1, H2, and H3 headers, as well as your URL and meta information. Once you get the basics of content creation and SEO strategy down, then you’ll begin to see results and much more traffic!”

Learn When You Are In The Process Of Building A Website, Should You Make It Public?

Moody Nashawaty, Chief Strategy Officer MuteSix

With businesses and various operations turning all the more towards digital and online trends, web design is becoming ever more relevant. In this fast-paced world where information and e-commerce is just a touch of the fingers away, everyone is rushing to the best websites.

Keeping up with this demand and profiting from it means good web designing. No one hangs around a site that doesn’t work on its web design.

We asked the digital experts to bring some of the finer points of web design and their benefits to light. If you are considering learning web design, take a look at some of the top advantages it can bring you.

High Demand

“In almost every business imaginable, web designers are in high demand. That’s because, to be successful these days, a firm must have an internet presence, regardless of industry. Obtaining web design provides you the skills you need to create responsive websites for your employer or freelancing client, and learning these abilities from reputable web design colleges can set you apart from the competition!”

Michael Robinson, Security Expert of Cheap SSL Security

Feed Your Creative Side

“Website design jobs allow you to employ artistic skills in your day-to-day work, from graphics to color schemes. If you have a strong visual sense and a meticulous design approach, Web design could be a good fit for you. Plus, because most projects require something fresh, designers who work for agencies rarely get bored.”

Lee Grant, CEO at Wrangu

Impacts Credibility, Traffic and Clients

“Your customers care about design, and the design of your business’s website has an impact on your customer experience, lead generation, and, eventually, your bottom line. When it comes to your website design, studies have repeatedly demonstrated that visitors judge your business solely on the basis of graphics, and will frequently abandon your site if it is poorly designed.

“First impressions are important, and the appearance of your website can either attract or repel visitors. While the focus of this study was on healthcare website designs, the same may be said for other industries. Poor web design can undermine your credibility as well as turn off potential clients. People prefer to browse content on websites that are well-designed.”

Benjamin Rose, Co-founder of Trainer Academy

Affects Target Audience Perception of Your Brand

“Web design is significant because it influences how your target audience perceives your brand. The impression you make on them can either persuade them to stay on your page and learn more about your company, or it can persuade them to go to a competitor’s page. A good web design aids in keeping leads on your page. 

“If your website is unappealing or out of date, your audience will form an immediate negative opinion of your company. They will make a decision about your company in a matter of seconds. You want to make a good impression on your audience in the first few seconds. 

“Additionally, your website functions similarly to a customer service representative. Your audience will feel more welcome on your page if your website is bright, modern, and inviting. You’ll give the impression that you’re friendly and open to new visitors to your website.”

Cody Crawford, Co-Founder Low Offset

Opens up Many Different Career Paths

“The great thing about web design is that it leaves a pretty open world for you to explore and you can take your career in many different directions. For example, you can be a web designer, UX designer, front-end developer, even a project manager if you feel like it. When you’ve mastered the foundations of great web design, you have many different routes that you can take based on what interests you and makes you feel passionate. This freedom of choice is one of the best things about this career path.”

Petra Odak Chief Marketing Officer at Better Proposals

Get to Become Your Boss

“The course empowers you with skills to build and manage websites that could be yours or belong to others. That includes an understanding of mechanical and artistic elements of web design, mastery of HTML and CSS, and both the front and back end aspects of a modern website.

“As the boss, you have a flexible work schedule to keep advancing your skills as you earn. Web design will always be in demand due to its broad scope that includes work as a game developer, graphic designer, SEO marketer, among others.

“The opportunity to exercise your talents is another benefit of studying web design. Most people would prefer to work in a field they love to enjoy work. As a web designer, you can decide to take advantage of your skills to build a site whose content is your pet subject.”

Katherine Brown, the Founder & Marketing Director Spyic

Good Source of Income

“Post pandemic, the world has the greatest online presence than ever before. In a time like this, most businesses are online operated through websites and that’s why the demand and importance of web designing are extremely relevant now. Students or anyone who is considering learning web design can monetize this skill and make a good source of income. Since the basic course is usually short, it is a great way to earn money in a considerably shorter period of time. 

“It also develops one’s technical skills as it requires knowledge of programming languages. This skill of web designing ensures work from home and flexibility even when things get back to normal.”

David Attard, Digital Consultant and Web Designer Collectiveray.com

Low Time Investment

“Although formal learning of web designing will require total dedication and time investment of time when it’s being compared with other available courses & their payoff for web designing stands tall. Also, web designing can be learned with the flexibility of time & location.

Skill: It’s a misconception that only technical background students can learn web designing, but it’s not true. The basic skills to know web designing are creativity, progressiveness & far-sighted vision.” (Miranda Yan)

Freelancing

“After the course, anyone can start doing live projects on freelancing sites. Many firms offer web designing projects for them on these portals with handsome payments too. So it will allow the students to stand up in their careers.” (Miranda Yan)

Starting Your Own Business

“Many digital market businesses are available for web designers to create with & it has no limits to rise on. Since the market is moving toward the digital platform, the demand is growing day by day.” (Miranda Yan)

Remote Working

“The web designing profession allows the designer to work for his own company or any organization from any remote location with the flexibility of time accordingly. This flexibility opens up the scope to rise in the career very fast & very efficiently. According to the organization’s flexibility, you can manage your time to work on your projects too. It will always keep you & your work in the potential of the market.” (Miranda Yan)

Starting Own Classes

“Since the education industry is an evergreen industry when operated with ethics. Thus having your web-based platform for web designing classes will give you immense opportunity to rise. It will allow you to grow and enable you to educate students for a brighter future.

Miranda Yan, Co-Founder of VinPit

Bounce Rate is the number of times traffic came your website’s way, but quickly left without checking the rest of the site. A lesser bounce rate means your site is doing well; on the other hand, a higher bounce rate means your site isn’t optimized to encourage traffic to stay.

To improve your conversion rates, it is essential web traffic spends more time surfing your site. To help you with some practical tips, we have consulted the experts and compiled a comprehensive list of tips you can use.

To Improve Your Website’s Bounce Rate, Reduce The Amount Of Scripts Used On Each Page

“One of the leading causes of a high bounce rate is slow page loading times. And an aspect of web design which contributes to this problem is excessive JavaScript files and scripts on your website that grind things to a halt. After all, people might be browsing on weak mobile Wi-Fi, and won’t always have time to wait for certain aspects of your website to load. The best approach is to minimize the JavaScript resources that you need to do and eliminate unnecessary code. This should keep your website as sleek, minimalist, and quick to load as possible. That way, those browsing on weaker signal strength can still read about your business without waiting a long time for each individual page to load. This improves your bounce rate as these users can readily hop from one page to another without fear that their browsing experience will be diminished.”

Brian Turner, Chief Technology Officer at ConvertBinary

Communicate The Information You Optimized For and Provide a Good User Experience

“When users bounce from a web page, it’s often for two reasons: The first is that they don’t believe they will find the information they need on the page they have arrived at. The second important reason is that there are user experience issues that cause friction for the users. To fix the first problem, it’s important to make sure that the web page is communicating clearly what was advertised. If users arrive via search results, make sure that what you optimized your web page for is the content you are providing and that you provide immediate visual cues about that content on the page. 

“This should include clear descriptive headings on the pages, relevant imagery, where appropriate, and a visual presentation that’s conducive to the consumption of the content on the webpage, as well as clear calls to action to guide the user journey. To fix the latter problem, make sure that the actual aesthetics of the web page don’t chase your visitors away. 

“There are many potential issues that could irritate visitors but some obvious things to avoid include:

• Texts that are too large or too small or large bodies of text that’s presented in a way that is hard to read.
• Images or videos that take too long to load up and stop the page from displaying properly.
• Auto-playing sounds and videos that could catch your users unawares.
• Garish color choices that clash and create an unprofessional look.
• Unnecessary pop-ups and interstitials that detract from the user experience.”

Bryan Osima, CEO Uvietech Software Solutions Inc.

Have a Strong Site-Search Solution

“Many websites avoid including site search feature boxes to display the most relevant results. If you’ve never thought about how site-search affects your site’s experience, now is the time to start. If a user is looking for a product or simply wants to search for something, they want to be able to do so right from the current page. This is a very valuable feature that they can use to search rather than leaving the page or site altogether.”

Adam Harris, Co-Founder Best Tool

Easy Navigation

“Visitors should be able to navigate with ease. When a user first arrives on the site, they need to know where to go next to find what they’re searching for. They will most likely leave the website if the navigation is not obvious and a little perplexing. If users are unsure about where to click next, they will leave quickly. Navigation bars, on the other hand, are an excellent tool to direct users. A website’s bounce rate will be reduced if it has a roadmap or navigation bar. As a result, make the navigation headers big and prominent so they’re easy to find.”

Kate Libby, Founder Best Kids

Have Relevant Call-to-Action (CTA)

“On the web page, there should be a call to action that is plainly apparent to the users. Within the first few seconds, you should be able to find it. Your visitors can complete a variety of tasks using a CTA. You can use banners, advertising, links, videos, and other media to create a CTA. If your CTAs aren’t consistent with the next page on the website, you’ll get a lot of bounces. 

“For instance, you may have a CTA that says ‘Get Free Books,’ but visitors are directed to your site. The bounce rate of a website will increase as a result of such CTA buttons. Make sure the landing page is relevant.”

Michelle Mayers, CEO of Best Cat

Readable Content

“The content you publish on your website should be useful, clear, and easy to understand. Because legible language may enhance the appearance and feel of websites while also making it easier for visitors to read and comprehend the message. If the website is content-driven, this is absolutely true. Users will have an easier time understanding the content and will be more likely to read it in general if it is more organized with smaller blocks, bullet points, or graphics, or video content.”

Stephanie Young, CEO & Founder Best Camping

Use a Visual Hierarchy

“The idea of improving your website with a strong aesthetic hierarchy goes hand in hand with the previous point regarding conversion optimization. One of the most crucial pieces of web design advice we can offer is to make sure your website’s most important functions are also the most appealing. Bold fonts, huge text sizes, and vivid colors can help create a visual hierarchy, indicating to website visitors what is more important and what is less important on your website through clear visual cues.

“Want a quick way to see if your visual hierarchy is working? The squint test is a fun way to find out if you’re a good Squint and step back from your computer screen until the entire page is a blur. The largest, boldest, and most colorful sections of the screen will be the only ones that stand out. Are those the areas you want people to concentrate on? You’re on the right track if you responded yes!”

Vanessa Dyer, CEO and Founder of The Magickal Cat

Stick with Sans Serif

“Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, contain little flourishes at the ends of their letters. Fonts without flourishes, such as Helvetica and Arial, are known as sans serif fonts. When it comes to website design, sans serif fonts are frequently preferred because they are easier to read.

“Serif typefaces are more beautiful and exciting, but they should only be used for headlines and branding. To optimize the readability of your website, body text should always be sans serif. People will stay on your site longer if your material is easy to read, which will increase your time-on-site stats. Another of our finest web design advice, when it comes to fonts, is to keep your site to just two or three different types. When you use too many various typefaces, it might become confusing, fragmented, and even messy.”

Naomi Bishop, Chief Insurance Officer Surfky

Use Unique, Eye-Catching Images

“While white space is important and having too many photographs on a website can be distracting or overwhelming, you should make the effort to improve the quality of the images you do have. Investing in high-quality product photography will pay off in the long run. Blurry or low-resolution photographs might come out as unprofessional, and they could cost you a key consumer. 

“Don’t worry if you don’t have any custom images. Stock photography has progressed significantly, and many of today’s free stock photographs are no longer as corny as they once were. Using a few high-quality photographs instead of dozens of low-quality images to decorate your website is a far better option.”

Jeff Cooper, Manager at Messagely

Deliver Content in a Flow

“To say the least, expecting a visitor to navigate your website and find all of the fantastic gems you’ve recently uploaded is naïve. If you want users to spend more time on your website, you should display your content in a continuous flow: The end of one gallery should be the start of the next, slideshows should be set to autoplay, and there should be some overlap between the various sections of your website.”

Lee Grant, CEO at Wrangu

Get Rid of Intrusive Pop-Ups!

“Pop-ups, most commonly used for email signups, CAN work well and not annoy your readers, but you have to think about how best to implement them. Forcing a pop-up into a user’s face, as soon as they arrive at your site, is going to both irritate people AND increase your bounce rate. Even worse is a pop-up that’s deliberately made hard for users to close. You may think you’re being clever by using something like this, but it’s not a good user experience.”

Ben Taylor, a Technical Consultant since 2004 and Founder of homeworkingclub.com, an advice portal for aspiring freelancers.

Website Design is crucial for running a successful online platform for your business. Using a good webs Design can greatly affect the traffic that comes your way. It aids in brand outreach, creating trust, user-friendliness, displaying all your information properly, helping you get ahead of the competition, SEO, advertising, accessibility, increasing online visibility, and of course; increasing conversion rates.

We talked to industry experts to explain how a good web design helps your business.

Web Design Has a Great Impact on Audience Perception

“Web designing has become more popular than before with a revolution in IT and Digital industry. When given a small frame of time to consume content anyone would prefer to look at beautifully designed websites rather than plain and simple. A web design thus has the greatest impact on audience perception of the brand. Five crucial reasons web design is important are- 

1. It sets the first Impression
2. It aides the Search Engine Optimization Strategy
3. Builds perception about Customer Service
4. Builds Trust with business audience
5. Helps to outrank Competitors”

David Attard, Digital Consultant and Web Designer at CollectiveRay

Web Design Is Your Most Valuable Asset

“In a world where you never have more than a few seconds to convince customers to click, read and buy, web design is your most valuable asset. Companies who invest in their visual brands and spend optimizing their online presence are more likely to:

6. Be noticed and remembered, which translates into organic growth and cheaper acquisition costs.
7. Keep people engaged on their website, which means a lower bounce rate.
8. Be perceived as trustworthy and qualitative brands, which leads to higher conversion rates

“Competing in the attention economy means relying on web design.”

Andrew Matlock, CEO and Co-founder of Designware, a no-code builder for websites and apps.

9. First Impressions

“The website is the first impression that potential customers will have of you. With so many different companies around that might provide the same services you do, having a good website is important to make sure that anyone looking at your website stays on your website. If it’s too difficult to navigate or doesn’t look put together, people will  automatically click off and scroll down to the next available option on the Google search Page.”

Deepak Shukla, Founder Pearl Lemon

10. SEO

“This year, the single most important benefit of good web design seems to be coming from a completely different area – SEO! That’s because Google is especially keen on rewarding responsive, fast, user-friendly websites with good navigation and clean interface, and punishing websites that lack these elements. They are pretty explicit on this (which is not a usual thing), and have made it the main point of their core algorithm update which is rolling out as we speak. All things considered, it appears that a good web design is turning from a mere benefit to a must-have. If you don’t have it or if it’s considerably worse than your competitors’, nobody will be able to even find your site on Google any longer!”

Mark Coster is the Co-founder and lead SEO specialist of Australian digital agency; FairyDigital.

11. Aesthetics

Devon Fata says, “If all you want for your website is a simple landing page with information about your business and a way to contact you, you may not need a web designer. There are plenty of simple website templates out there that may meet your needs. Even if this is all you need, though, there are still a lot of reasons to hire a professional web designer. First and foremost, simple website templates all tend to look alike. Any experienced internet user who comes across your self-made site is going to immediately be able to tell that you went with the lowest-budget option available. There are also aspects besides aesthetics to consider;

12. Tools to Measure Traffic

“A good web designer can help you to find hosting, register your domain name, and set you up with tools to measure traffic. If you want your website to be more than a business card, there’s even more that a web designer can do for you. If you’re going to be collecting customer contact information or doing any kind of e-commerce, security is absolutely essential. If you’re also planning to advertise online (which you absolutely should), a good web designer can help you with this as well.”

Devon Fata, CEO Pixoul

13. Brand Image

“Good website design helps the business sell. A website is a huge part of your brand image as a business. Customers perceive the business from how the website looks. A well designed website shouts “great business” . On the other hand, a poorly designed website creates a negative impression in the eyes of the customer. It therefore makes the business less appealing, and dampens the chances of making a sale from your website. Website design also influences search engine marketing. The elements of web design determine how you publish your content, how your content appears, and how the content ranks on search engines. On-page-SEO fundamentals needs to be taken care of in order to help the business attract leads through search engine marketing.”

Alina Clark, Growth Manager and Co-founder of CocoDoc, a software development company.