The Internet or web network has millions of websites created from different parts of the world for personal and business purposes. When you search for anything in search engines, it’ll give you many pages of results associated with your search box query, or entered word or phrase.
Whether you’re a blogger who earns money through affiliate marketing, or an owner of a brick-and-mortar or online store, it’s important to have an impressive web design. By having a functional and aesthetically pleasing web design, you can achieve your sales and marketing goals.
However, what makes a great web design? Check out the top features of an impressive web design below.
List of Contents
1. Aesthetically Pleasing And Simple
Simplicity is a great way to improve user experience and boost your website’s usability. But, how can you achieve simplicity through web design? Take a look at the following web design tips to attain a simple, yet appealing and functional website:
- Choose The Right Color
Colors have the power to evoke emotional responses, allowing you to communicate your marketing messages effectively. Find a color palette that best fits your brand to influence a customer’s behavior and interest in your brand. Just make sure to limit your color selection to less than five to avoid eye strain. Complementary colors are the best. You can also combine colors to highlight your brand’s uniqueness and to boost customer engagement.
- Choose The Right Font Type
The font type or typography plays a vital role in a website’s capability to command attention. It’s a visual interpretation of your brand’s voice. Therefore, you need to make sure that the typefaces you use in your website are legible, with a maximum of three different fonts.
- Include Great Visual Elements
Visual images include videos and images, which are important in communications. They also include charts, PowerPoint slides, illustrations, and infographics. All visual elements should be expressive. You need to make sure that they capture your values and principles, which make up your brand personality. Use high-quality images to make a great first impression, showing your credibility and professionalism.
2. Fast-Loading
Shoppers have many websites to choose from, so having a slow website can be a major turnoff. If your web pages are sluggish, your customers will move on to faster online stores. So, you lose the chance to convert those page clicks into sales due to bad customer experiences.
One of the essential features of a great web design, which attracts visitors and lets them stay engaged in a website, is speed. A fast-loading website generally loads within the first two seconds. The length of time a web page loads and appear on the screen is referred to as page load time.
Page load time is calculated from the time you click on a web page link until the page has been fully loaded. The different parts of page load time include the server and network time (Internet connection), and the browser time (the duration it takes for the browser to execute or render the page).
Here are some ways to make your website faster for an impressive web design:
- Evaluate and get rid of unnecessary plug-ins
- Compress large files
- Upgrade your web hosting service
- Take advantage of cache
- Optimize images
- Limit external requests from third-party services, like social media sites
3. SEO-Friendly
Every website should be search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. SEO defines your rank in the results pages of search engines. So, if you want a high rank in giant search engines, you need to have SEO in mind when designing your website.
When you rank high in search engines, your website will get plenty of visitors or traffic. SEO comes in during content creation or the time when you start adding words to your web design. For instance, SEO starts from the time you create your ‘About Us’ page and your other landing pages and articles.
SEO for beginners can be complex and overwhelming. It encompasses using relevant keywords, building links, and proper keyword and link placements. Many website owners hire SEO writers to help them with content work. But, you can learn the basic SEO strategies yourself to ensure you have an SEO-friendly website. These include the following:
- Search relevant keywords associated with the web page topic using an SEO tool, and use them to create unique content.
- Include keywords in your titles and subheadings, as well as the first few lines of the page or the meta description (only visible in search results).
- Include keywords in the first paragraph of your blog content, anywhere in the body, and the last paragraph or conclusion (on-page SEO).
- Consider guest posting, then share a link to readers to direct them to your website (off-page SEO).
4. User-Friendly
In web design, user experience is always a priority. Always remember that you’re designing a website for your target audience. Hence, you need to understand the needs and qualities of your ideal customers. While you might be an expert in creating buyer personas, it’s crucial to know the essential features of a user-friendly website, such as the following:
- Easy-To-Find Search Box
Online users are familiar with search boxes. They use such features to easily find what they need on the websites they visit. So, make sure that your search box is highly visible.
- Call-To-Action Button
A CTA button is a useful feature of a website because it directs online users to the next step, such as subscribing to your newsletter or buying a product in your online store. This feature should be highly visible to catch the attention of the web visitor.
When you pick a text color, you can use dark text or font on a light-colored CTA button. On the other hand, you can also use light text or font on a dark-colored CTA button. CTAs should be clear and effortless to read, so avoid using script fonts. Use sans serif fonts instead of CTA buttons.
- Short Forms
Don’t ask for a lot of information from your visitors. Only get the relevant details to save time and effort. Keeping your forms short is best because many online users don’t find filling out long forms practical.
5. Mobile-Friendly
An impressive web design works on any size of the screen, including mobile devices, like smartphones, tablets, and laptops. It means that the texts are easily readable and the links are easily clickable. Generally, your content should be easy to consume.
You can use a mobile-friendly test tool or a mobile phone emulator to see what your website looks like on different phones. A responsive web design is mobile-friendly because the screen sizes are different, and your web design must adjust accordingly to any given screen size.
Here are some helpful tips to make your website responsive and mobile-friendly:
- Use A Responsive Theme
You can change your website’s entire theme for an easy fix, which applies if you have a barely new or a low-traffic site. But, if you already have an established website, then it’s not the best option.
- Simplify Menus
Because mobile screens are smaller than desktop or laptop screens, it’s important to simplify your menus. Avoid extensive menu options that can be complicated to use on smaller screens. Don’t make your visitors zoom the page in and out just to see the navigation options. So, you need to make everything concise to fit into a small screen.
- Eliminate Pop-Ups
Pop-ups are a nuisance on mobile sites. For the most part, many people don’t like seeing pop-ups because they can be difficult to close. It can be very annoying to zoom the pop-up just to tap the ‘X’ button to close it. So, improve user experience by getting rid of all pop-ups on your mobile site.
- Don’t Use Large Blocks Of Text
Large blocks of text can be difficult to read on a small screen. You can minimize the amount of text on the mobile screen by keeping sentences and paragraphs short.
6. Security
An impressive web design is secure. You need to leave a good first impression on your target audience by ensuring that your website has security features set in place to boost your credibility and good reputation. These include the following:
- Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
If you’re planning to sell products on your website, it’s important to have a secure website via SSL or encryption. This way, only authorized people can see sensitive information, and others will only see encrypted messages. Adding HTTPS and SSL certificates to your website gives consumers a sense of security when making payments and doing other online transactions.
- Updated Plugins And Software
Cybersecurity is paramount in any business. So, you need to make sure that all plugins and software programs built into your website are updated. By doing so, you’ll reduce your risk of security breaches that can break your business.
Conclusion
You’ve just learned the best features of an impressive web design. It’s important to ensure that these features are available on your website to help attract more potential customers and attain your business goals. An impressive website is appealing, functional, user-friendly, fast, and SEO-optimized. Once your website has all of these qualities, you can expect more traffic and leads, as well as higher revenues.
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