You are missing out on money if you aren’t implementing all of these web design tips. A good website can be the most important asset for almost any business. Make sure your website is living up to its potential with our 8 web design tips.
Running a business is not easy, there are so many things to think about, like marketing, managing staff, and keeping up with the latest trends. Let alone a website and what you need to put on it.
But what most people don’t realize is that their website is one of the most important aspects of their business. If you don’t have a good website, it can really hurt your company in ways you might not even realize at first.
For example, if someone types in your domain name into Google and sees an outdated or unprofessional-looking site, they may click off immediately without ever clicking on any links on your page or reading anything about your business.
That’s not the first impression most business owners want to give. It can lead to a decrease in traffic which could ultimately cost you more than just money…
Now you may be wondering, what does my website need to have on it, or maybe, why hasn’t he told us the web design tips yet?
Here are our top 8 web design tips you probably didn’t know your website needed
- A new, professional design
- An effective way to manage your content
- A means of capturing leads and showing them offers they won’t want to miss out on
- The ability to build a relationship with your customers and subscribers
- Clear contact information for people who are interested in learning more about your company
- Compelling call-to-actions that make it easy for visitors to take that next step with your business
- A blog where you can write articles that will help establish yourself as an authority
- A way to keep your website updated on a regular basis so that it is always current and relevant
Once you have all of these top web design tips in place, you will be able to run one of the most effective websites for your business!
Remember that when people come to your site, they want to do business with you, not just read about what you offer. You want to show your visitors how you can help solve whatever problem they are coming to you for.
They need a reason to stay on your site and browse around (and maybe even buy something). These eight web design tips will help make sure you are doing everything possible to make that happen.
1. A Fresh Design
Your website is often where your customer gets their first impression of your business. It’s crucial you have a website that attracts users and helps you stand out from your competition. According to a study by Stanford:
Make sure your website looks good across all devices and browsers. Your website needs to look professional and represent your business.
There is a reason this is number one out of the eight web design tips, the rest of these won’t matter much if you aren’t enticing users the second they land on your website.
Pro Tip:
You should redesign your website every 2-3 years depending on your industry. If you are wondering if you need a redesign, check out our article “Is it Time for a Fresh Website Design?”
2. An Easy Way to Manage your Content
Having an easy way to make updates to your website is so helpful. Whether it’s updating prices, changing a phone number, or maybe swapping out some photos, having a streamlined way of updating your content will save you time and money.
It will also benefit your SEO and help potentially increase your search rankings. Google favors sites that keep their content fresh and updated.
Pro Tip:
Use a Content Management System to help make these edits to your site easier. We use WordPress.org to build all of our websites.
3. Capturing Leads and Showing them Offers
A couple of common ways to do this web design tip is by having a form or a sign-up field on your website that captures your user’s email and permission to market to them.
And having this integrated into a CRM like Hubspot to capture these leads as they submit their information will make it easy to channel these leads into their appropriate marketing funnels.
Pro Tip:
Follow up with these leads using automated emails to help keep your business top of mind.
4. The Ability to Build a Relationship with your Customers
This is one of the web design tips that extend past just your website.
People want to do business with a brand they trust. A clear and engaging description of who you are allows users to get to know your brand.
Building trust and establishing authority allows you to offer your customers what they want before one of your competitors does.
Adding pictures of the people behind the brand takes that trust-building to the next level by letting your users get to know who makes the business what you say it is.
Pro Tip:
If you want to take it to the next level, do a brief intro video of your brand and include things like who you are, what makes you unique, and why the viewer should choose your brand.
Loom is a free option that makes it easy to record videos of yourself.
5. Clear Contact Information for People who are Interested
The best-case scenario is when someone knows they want to do business with you and just needs your contact information. Not being able to find a phone number could be the deciding factor in whether someone does business with you or not.
You’ll want to make sure all of your preferred methods of contact are easily found on your website. Some common places for that information are a designated contact page, in your footer, and for some industries in your website’s navigation.
Pro Tip:
Make sure your business’s Google Profile is up to date with all your contact information as well. Check out our article on Google My Business Optimization.
6. Call-to-Actions that Make it Easy for Visitors
This is another one of the web design tips that also involves making things easy for people.
If your website isn’t converting users, it’s simply not doing its job. Make sure you have a clear and concise call to action that directs your users to the intended action.
Some common call-to-actions are:
- Call Now
- Schedule Today
- Buy Now
- Request a Quote
- Book a Demo
You’ll want to figure out what your target audience responds to the best and align that with your website goals. A really common error we find on a lot of websites is a lack of a clear call to action.
Courtesy of Shopify
Pro Tip:
A really effective way to implement number six of the eight web design tips is by having your intended CTA (call to action) at the top of your website visible right when someone lands on your webpage without having to scroll.
7. An Authority Establishing Blog
A blog with a proper SEO strategy benefits your business in more ways than one. Having industry-related articles shows expertise in your field. And when done with SEO best practices, can serve as traffic-generating content.
We recommend posting 2-4 articles a month consistently for the best results. The more articles you have demonstrated expertise in your field will help you build notoriety in your industry.
Pro Tip:
You can repurpose your blog posts as content for social media posts and email campaigns. Check out our article on the importance of SEO.
8. A Way to Keep your Website Up-to-Date
And for number eight of the web design tips, websites need updates, plain and simple. Whether it’s updating the PHP on your server or theme files on a WordPress website, you need to keep your website up to date.
Most updates address security vulnerabilities so it’s important to be updating your site at least once a month.
Pro Tip:
Many companies offer maintenance plans to help website owners keep their websites up to date so they don’t have to.
Need Some Help With Your Next Website?
As we can see from those, there are a lot of elements that need to be considered when building a website. These web design tips will help ensure your website is doing everything it is supposed to.
It is important to have a clear strategy in mind and not just focus on one aspect of the project.
While these web design tips will help take your site to the next level I always recommend you schedule a consultation with us so we can help you get started implementing these web design tips today!