It’s estimated that roughly 76% of consumers will explore a website before visiting a business in person. In the past, it might have been possible for a business to get away without having a website.
However, these days not only is it a necessity to have one, but it also needs to look and operate great. Remember that your website will be the first impression that a customer or client has of your business.
As such, you need to use modern website design to make sure that it captures their attention.
And this isn’t just important for aesthetics; you also want it to run great. So to help you accomplish this, we’ll go over some tips on transforming your web design to cater to visitor appeal.
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
It’s true that people still use laptops and computers to access websites. However, these days the vast majority of people will take advantage of the mobile nature of accessing websites on their smartphones or tablets.
That’s a problem because most website developers cater their design toward computers and only treat mobile devices as an afterthought. When designing your website, you need to make sure that all the design elements work on mobile as well as web-based devices.
If you want to do this right, it can often involve twice as much work since you’re developing two different versions of your site.
Alternatively, you could begin with mobile design first. This can be smart because it’s much easier to scale up a website than it is to scale it down.
Invest in VPS Hosting
If you have a large business, you might be considering investing in a physical server with your code. While this can certainly have a lot of benefits, it’s also quite expensive and time-consuming.
The good news is that there’s a better way. Specifically, VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting bypasses a lot of the challenges that come with managing your physical server.
Instead, you’ll receive your virtual server that you can immediately begin using to deploy applications and websites.
A web host provider will handle all of the backend, so you just need to focus on making a great website. If you need a suggestion, you can’t go wrong with FirstLink VPS Hosting.
Standardize Your Design Elements
You want every element of your topography for your website design to be consistent. Many people think that topography only refers to fonts. However, it also includes things like color theme, line spacing, font height, and more.
If you’re using different fonts for different pages (or worse, within the same page) it can be jarring for the viewer. The best-case scenario is that it makes your design look a bit strange and unprofessional.
Worst case, it can make a person feel like they’re on a different website entirely, causing them to leave. By standardizing your elements, you ensure that your website maintains a beautiful look regardless of the page.
Make Sure It’s Not Slow
People may have had a bit of patience with slow websites back in the 1990s and 2000s. However, those years are gone. These days, if your website even takes one or two seconds to load, it can feel strange to the visitor.
If it takes longer than that, you can be sure they aren’t going to stick around. The good news is that there are things you can do that will help speed up your website.
First, as we suggested, make sure you invest in a good virtual private server (or a physical server). Pay close attention to your images. While PNG files might offer better quality, they take a lot longer to load.
Consider investing in compression tools to compress any files you include on your website. By reducing the size of the files, you can drastically increase the speed.
Incorporate SEO Elements
SEO refers to search engine optimization. Optimizing your content is a vital function that allows viewers to find you on search engines using relevant search terms.
Many people think that SEO just involves incorporating relevant keywords into their blog posts. However, the reality is that you should also be baking it into the very design of your website.
That starts with the code itself. Optimize your headers and meta tags by including relevant keywords in them. If you have a local business, make sure to use local terms so you can access potential customers in your area.
Streamline Navigation
Think about what the goal of your website is. Do you want your visitors to contact you for your services? Or do you want them to end up on product pages and eventually a checkout page?
It’s important to consider these questions so that you can build your navigation around these goals. Remember that each additional step or page your visitor has to click is another chance to lose them.
So minimize this threat by completely streamlining your user experience. Make the end goal as clear to see as possible.
And during things like the checkout section, reduce the number of pages so they’re not having to click through multiple things.
Take Advantage of Minimalism
It can be tempting to provide your visitors with as much information as possible. However, if you bombard the viewer with long paragraphs, confusing images, and conflicting color schemes, it can result in information overload.
One way to combat this is by incorporating minimalism into your site. Condense your message or strategy down into an easy-to-read three or four-sentence paragraph.
And utilize white space in the design. If you give the eye a lot of space to breathe, it will focus more intensely on the parts of the website that you want it to.
Appreciate Learning About Modern Website Design? Keep Exploring
We hope this guide helped you learn more about the fundamentals of modern website design. If you don’t have much experience with this type of design, you might be feeling overwhelmed by all of these tips.
However, hiring a good web developer can ensure that you check every box on your design list. Want more content like this? Keep exploring to find plenty of similar tech advice for your business.
