It may seem hard to believe but the success of your website … and your business … depends on the design of your website.
A well-designed website produced by someone who knows what they are doing can enhance your business and encourage people to buy your product or service.
A poorly designed website designed by someone who fails to understand the fundamentals of web design can drive people away from your business and ultimately destroy your business.
So how do you ensure that your website is well-designed? Here are a few tips.
Know what you are trying to achieve
Have a clear idea of what you want your website to do. Do you want it to entertain? Do you want it to inform? Do you want it to sell a product or service?
A website that is designed to sell a product or service can also inform visitors but it should never try to entertain.
Don’t follow the crowd but stand out from them
Just because every other website you see in your line of business tries to do things in a certain doesn’t mean that they are all doing it the right way.
It is almost certain that many of them have copied from each other without giving any thought to whether what they are copying will be effective or not.
Keep your website focused on the outcomes you want
If your website is designed to sell a product or service everything … and I mean everything … that goes into the design and content should be aimed at just one thing. Everything should be aimed at leading your site visitor from a vague interest to actually buying what you are selling.
If there is anything on your site that distracts from that aim, it should be removed.
Make sure people can actually read the text
Pastel colours in backgrounds and text look cool and you see them everywhere. Don’t be tempted … especially with the text.
Strong contrasting colours … and for text nothing is as strong as black text on a white background … is the only thing that you should be using. Faint text colours are hard to read and if people can’t read your text then they will leave.
“Busy” websites tend to drive people away
Clutter … avoid it at all costs. You might think that a busy web page will impress your potential clients but all it will do is make it harder for them to find the information they need.
White space and just a few images is good and it makes people feel comfortable when they visit your site. People who feel comfortable are more likely to buy what you are selling.
Make life easy for the people who visit your website
Make things easy for the people who visit your website. Don’t make them have to go looking for important information … because they won’t.
Contact details should be on every page on your site. If people have to come to your business or office, then include a map so that they can find you.
Simple, standard fonts make sales
Standard sans-serif fonts … use them even though you may think that they are boring. People have no trouble reading standard sans serif fonts and that’s important. If people have trouble reading the text on your website, then they won’t.
Not everyone has good eyesight
The size of the font that you use on your website is important. Remember, no everyone has the same 20/20 vision that you do and if people struggle to read the text on your website because you have chosen a small font they won’t stick around to buy what you are selling.
Follow these web design tips and you will end up with a business website that won’t win any design awards and it won’t be the coolest website in cyberspace but it will work as a sales machine for your business and that’s more than most websites out there do for their owners.
