Beginner's Guide to Web Design Best Practices

If you think your company's website doesn't matter that much, think again. According to a survey by Blue Fountain Media, 39% of respondents would think twice about using a product or service if the website is not fresh, user friendly, and current. Another survey tells us that nearly 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if they find the graphics unattractive. A full 75% of users judge a company’s credibility based on visual design alone. No longer can you redesign or overhaul a website every two to three years and expect it to perform well.

You may see this shocking statistic and realize you need a new website. This means more than just the way it looks, though. When you reach out to a web design company, you want to make sure they understand the importance of your website's functionality too. Looks matter, but so does whether the website actually works or not! In fact, this is one of the basics of website design and development. If you're looking for the right place to begin understanding best practices, this is it! Before you start your next website project, learn about best practices you'll want to include.

Navigation is another vital aspect of any website's design. You should keep navigation choices as simple as possible, making your website pages easy to find. You should limit your navigation options to seven at the very most, but preferably no more than four or five. To see if your current navigation passes the test, check out our article.

Furthermore, your website design should reflect your brand. A good web design improves your credibility thanks to brand consistency. If you have a well-established brand, like a logo, colors, and style, your customers should recognize your website as yours. Imagine if you went on Target's website and everything was blue. That would be so weird!

The whole point of having a website is to further your business's success. In addition to your site navigation and consistent branding, your website's written content should be optimized so that it ranks higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This means highlighting keywords your potential customers are using to try and find you.

Last but not least, you want a trustworthy and knowledgeable team to design an effective layout for your web pages, particularly if you have an e-commerce site where people can purchase products directly from the website. User experience and graphic designers know it’s best to stick to a general layout for similar page types for site consistency and cohesiveness. They can apply their knowledge of design patterns, user expectations, and research to make sure your website is helping users find what they're looking for.

Your website is giving providing many first impressions of your company to potential customers. Are they good impressions? If you're not sure how to answer that question, our web design company can help. Reach out today!