Before discussing the tips for web designing, let us answer a few questions. Does your website lack enough traffic? Is your website’s bounce rate high? Does your website take more time to load?
If your answer to the above questions is affirmative, it is high time to check the layout, design and content of your website.
Although there are numerous articles written on web design, it is not as simple as it seems. Each person’s opinion on a perfect design varies as it is purely subjective.
But, still we need to come to a conclusion and for that we can rely on many studies conducted in this area. Let us discuss here a few effective tips that will help us to design a suitable website that brings high traffic and will be conducive to generate leads for your business.
Design a plan
Before starting to design your website, you must design a plan on how to build your website. You must have a clear idea about the purpose of your website, your target audience, what all contents to include in your website, how it would benefit the users etc. If you can clearly define your goals, it would help to leverage maximum benefit out of your website in the future.
High loading speed
It is a fact well acknowledged by all that high loading speed helps to improve traffic to your website. People are busy and they don’t have time to wait for long for a page to get loaded. According to research, if it takes more than 4 seconds to load a website, there is high probability that the user will click on another site link.
Arrange and prioritize your content
The arrangement of contents should help a visitor to clearly identify his needs. Only then he will stay in the site and visit it again. Contents should be well ordered and it should be according to the priority or importance. The most important content should be placed to catch the eye first. Studies suggest that people usually remember what they read in the beginning and in the end, forgetting those in between. Remember this point while listing your products, services, features and benefits.
Simplicity in design
People always tend to make things complex in the hope of gaining more attention. But, research suggests that simple things grab more attention than complex ones. It is the same with web design. Make your website simple by avoiding unnecessary columns, side bars, sliders, carousels and accordions. Follow the same principle with content by eliminating ambiguous terms, technical jargons, cliché phrases and stock images.
Less choice, more leads
Studies have found that if you give more choices to a person, he gets confused and would probably end up in buying nothing. So, make your content menu short allowing less choices and it will result in higher conversion rates.
Prioritize Scrolling Over Clicking
According to studies, Internet users prefer to scroll on a website than click a particular button. So, it is better to make your pages longer with each section below another based on its importance. It helps the user to scroll from top to bottom. It keeps the visitor hooked to the site for a longer period.
Direct Attention with Visual Cues
A person visiting your website may not exactly know what to look for and where to find something useful for him. So, it is your duty to direct him towards the next step that he should perform on your website. Use some visual cues like a person pointing to the content you want to highlight or some graphic elements like pointers that will divert the visitor towards his next action.
Use People in Pictures
Make your website livelier by including pictures of real people places and situations. Human beings are inherently social and they like to interact with real people and situations. Use photos of your company, work spaces, staffs and customers than rely on stock images that are really outdated.
Include social proof
People consider anything socially accepted as worthy of making a part of their lives. So, try to include some proof of social acknowledgements in your website. It would create a great impact on your visitors if you can include a few testimonials about your service (written or video) from customers. If the testimonials come from influencers in the society, there are sure chances of your visitor turning into a customer.
Call to action
Always make sure to include call to action buttons on your website (eg. click here for more information, download, sign up for a webinar, watch the video etc.). Because as we already discussed, people need to be given a direction for their search. And these buttons should guide them towards the purpose of their search.
Easy Navigation
Does your website offer a seamless flow from one page to another? If so, visitors will definitely stay on your website for more time and may turn a customer in the future. Make your navigation bar simple with limited page options and create a smooth transition across pages.
Social share and follow buttons
Connecting with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn can increase your website traffic to great extent. So, never forget to provide these buttons with link.
Use white space
Many people believe in packing the site pages with maximum content without any blank space. But, on the contrary, white space is internationally acknowledged as a part of the design. Leaving enough white space between the contents will give the website an elegant feel and will help the readers to easily comprehend the content.
Mobile optimization
Today, more than 60% of website traffic and leads come from smart phones and if your website is not optimized for mobile phones, you are going to miss out a huge amount of profit for your business.
SEO strategy
Apart from making the technical aspects perfect, don’t forget to align your site content in accordance with SEO strategy. SEO has a major role in diverting traffic to a website.
Check website errors
Visit your website frequently to check if there are any errors like broken links that prevents visitors from accessing your site.
Conclusion
A website can’t simply attract visitors by focusing on limited aspects like image and content quality. It needs to have a design that takes into account hassle free user experience, functionality, and appropriately complements your content. If your website can meet all the above mentioned demands, it would certainly serve as a stepping stone to your business success.
