Developing, designing, and maintaining your own website can be tricky, challenging, and disappointing, while hiring inexperienced web agencies may hurt your web presence. You must invest a lot of time and energy (and money) in-order-to create and maintain a website properly. For a lot of companies, surge in visitors has become a mere trickle.
In these scenarios, you must invest in operative website design strategies. Even small website mistakes can hurt your brand. After all, websites create first impressions and they matter the most when it comes to online presence. Visitors prefer websites that have an uplifting and a comprehensive look and feel, while being informative and user-friendly. Once a prospective client has a negative opinion of your site, they are less likely to return.
Speed
Slow loading websites create a major problem. Loading time is one of the main factors contributing to page abandonment. Online users have very little patience and will search for your competitor if your site doesn’t load quick enough. You’ve made great strides in just getting them to hit your site, don’t let a slow loading time ruin it for you once they’re there.
If your site has too many animations, videos, large images, or installed plugins, it is likely to be slow. Talk to your hosting provider about ensuring ample server space and fast download and upload times, remove plugins that are no longer active on the site, reduce image sizes before importing them into the media library and remove any unnecessary videos, to create a quick-loading, user-friendly site. In the long run, slow loading performance will cost you more time, money and frustration. Always consider performance as a part of website design. Your website should be both visually appealing and performance-focused.
Clutter
“Less is more” when it comes to website design. When designing the framework of any site, you should focus on structure and a minimalistic style. Cluttered pages don’t attract attention. Instead, they can chase viewers away. According to a study by Hubspot, around 75% of users look for usability over visual appeal. This is a good statistic to consider when you’re thinking about adding videos, presentations, and pop-ups to your site. Keep your websites simple. Don’t add elements that can clutter your page, and always maintain visual consistency throughout. The pages should have similar layouts, color schemes and positioning. And while content may be key, pages with too much copy will cause the main points to drown in the clutter.
Content
Online users look for crisp content. They prefer getting a quick overview of everything. That means, you shouldn’t include uninterrupted, large blocks of text. Don’t treat websites like books. They don’t have the same layout or feel. Even when you’re presenting million-dollar ideas, too much copy will stop the viewer dead in their tracks. Get to the point quickly and concisely.
Consistency is key. Utilize the same fonts and alternate font sizes where applicable. Text combined with relevant images will engage the reader on a higher level. Always present information in orderly paragraphs with headings, using elements such as images and bullet points to allow for better flow and readability.
Call for Action
If your websites call for action isn’t clear, web visitors will leave the website without ever getting to the point. Prospective clients are deterred by websites that require a lot of digging in order to find the answers – especially answers that should be obvious. Make it clear early on using responsive buttons, internal and external links, bullet points and call-outs. Don’t keep the viewer guessing.
Following these simple tips will keep traffic on your site longer and convert more viewers into potential clients. Busy websites, with no clear objective that lack consistency will leave your website DOA. You’ve worked hard to create a presence on the web, so how about making it count.
