Whether you’re a start-up or an established enterprise, your most important asset for marketing your products or services for little cost is your website – a web domain can be picked for just a few pounds.
Despite a new trend for “drag and drop” website builders, the best way to ensure your website is of a high-quality and, consequently, as attractive as it can be to potential customers is to employ the services of a professional web design agency. Web design specialists will have extensive experience working with businesses like yours and will be able to ensure your website is as effective as it can be.
When consulting your web design agency, it’s important to keep in mind the following:
REDUCE THE CLUTTER
No one wants to be bombarded with pop-ups, adverts, and buttons the minute they land on a website. When having your website designed or re-designed, be sure to keep everything clean and clear – content should be concise and to-the-point and you should aim to have plenty of white space, too. Years ago, it was considered essential to have hundreds of pages with in-depth information about every aspect of your businesses, however, times have changed. Potential customers landing on your website should be able to clearly identify the purpose of your website and what you’re offering within just five seconds – any longer and you’re at risk of losing the prospective customers’ attention.
DO YOUR RESEARCH FOR A WEBSITES
Before consulting a web design agency, it’s important you research, looking at your competitors, to get an idea of what your website should look like. Your web designer will be able to advise on the aesthetics and usability of your site; however, the process can be made easier and, sometimes, cheaper if you have a thorough outline of what you would like before you get started. However, always try to keep your website unique, taking it to a new level above your competitors – getting inspired and taking small features is fine but you don’t want to replicate your competitors’ entire website.
KEEP YOUR WEBSITE FONT SIMPLE
It sounds juvenile; however, many business owners go wrong at the first hurdle with their website by choosing an unclear, stylised, or incorrectly coloured font. When choosing the typeface used on your website, remember to keep everything readable – font size 10 is a good standard – and clear. Popular website fonts that are also contemporary looking include Open Sans, Arvo, PT Sans, and PT Serif. Generally, always choose black font for a white background and white font for a dark background.
REMEMBER THE “VISUAL HIERARCHY”
Here is a little technical information for you. Your web design agency will be experts in implementing the “visual hierarchy” properly, however, it’s good measure for you to be aware of why your designer is laying your website out in a special way. The visual hierarchy is consumer research that proves, as customers, our eyes move from the top to bottom of a website before scanning left to right, which means you should position your call-to-actions effectively to ensure maximum conversion. For instance, to push customers to call you, display “call now” with your number top left of your site.
OPTIMISE A WEBSITE FOR MOBILES
More than ever, having an effective mobile website is essential to converting customers on the go. Plus, mobile optimisation gives your website a green tick for SEO, too. A recent study suggests that 51% of online sales are made using a mobile phone or tablet so, especially if your business is in e-commerce, it will pay to optimise your website for mobiles – allowing your customers to shop on the go.
