How to Design a Website
Creating a successful website seems easy enough, right? You just answer the question: what should my website look like…right? This can be a difficult question for business owners to answer. How do you separate yourself from your business enough to be truly objective, to evaluate what business website design will engage your customers? Here is a list of things your visitors see, even when you don’t.
How to Design a Website Homepage
Is it organized, easy to navigate? There are too many websites with crowded menubars, poorly placed advertisements, or long-winded paragraphs. What is pleasing to a potential customer is not how much content you can fit on the homepage, but how simple and concise it is. Remember, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Say what you will, but use fewer words. Let the tabs on the toolbar guide the audience if they wish to learn more. The Homepage, after-all, is just the cover (even though we know how important that can be).
How to Pick the Look and Feel
What is your color palette, and how does it relate to a brand’s style? We have seen so many sites that were clearly built to someone’s specific tastes. Take a spa’s website, for example. While the owner may like black backgrounds and neon green text, very few visitors will. In order to go correspond with the brand’s image, calm and warming colors should be used to translate a sense of peace. What is your brand message, and how can that be translated through colors?
Call Your Visitors to Action
A given website may provide a ton of useful information, but many sites leave the next step up the the visitor. It’s critical to give the reader clear calls to action at the appropriate time and place. Typically, a button that takes a visitor to a form, or a contact page is much more effective than hoping the visitor will go there herself. Statistics show that if the address, phone number, and/or email address aren’t easily located, the chances of losing a customer skyrocket. The customer, after all, is looking for a straightforward solution. Make it easy for them, and you’ll make it easier on yourself!
