These days, most businesses operate online. In fact, most customers in the 21st century have their first interactions with a business by coming across it online. That’s why it is important for businesses to have a very strong online presence.
Being visible online to your target audiences has a number of perks.
- 1. It makes it easier for potential customers to find you and come to you.
- 2. It helps you stand out from the competition in an over-crowded market.
- 3. It also allows you to showcase all your products and services and tell potential customers what you are all about.
- 4. Having a healthy online presence also gives you an invaluable opportunity to connect and communicate with your existing and potential customers on a more personal level.
- 5. Businesses can also easily market their brands online if they have an effective online presence.
Whether your business is an internationally renowned player, a corporate giant, a startup or a small and local company, maintaining a strong, focused and relevant web presence is crucial.
But, how can you stand apart from your competitors who are attempting to reach the same target audience? By building an awesome website.
How can a professional web design company help you create an effective website?
A well designed and structured website that highlights your professionalism and expertise is the first step in launching your online presence. Infact, 48% of people believe that website design is the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business.
If you cannot provide an exceptional experience for your website visitors, they’ll abandon you and move on to your competitors. Hence, having your website designed by a professional web design company will ensure that all the best practices for web design are followed.
What are the best practices for web design?
1. Consistent branding
The branding should be consistent throughout the website. The brand colors, logos, icons, typography, fonts and language should be the same on every page. Over time, these elements become ingrained in the minds of the consumers, and they’re more likely to remember your brand.
2. Strong CTAs
The website should contain strong CTAs. Whether you want the visitor to subscribe to your blog, register on your website, download your app or set up a consultation, a strong call to action might convince him/her to take the action you want him/her to take. An effective call to action is one that is subtly integrated into the overall design of the website. It should not look forced.
3. Fast Loading Time
Site speed is an important part of any website’s user experience. If the pages of your website load in under 3 to 4 seconds, you’re doing well. If they don’t load within 4 seconds, visitors tend to abandon them. The load time can be cut by optimizing images, clearing cache, implementing a CDN, removing unnecessary plugins, etc. A professional web design company can easily take care of this for you.
4. Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization or SEO is the practice of optimising your website so that it can rank high in search engine results page (SERP). To optimize your website for SERP, various on-page SEO techniques need to be followed. These include keywords in URL, URL length, Meta titles, Meta descriptions, Image Alt Tags, H1, H2 and H3 tags, etc.
5. Mobile Friendly
According to Statista, more than half of the global web traffic comes from mobile devices. That’s why it’s important for any website to be mobile friendly and mobile responsive. If your website is not responsive, it would look extremely cluttered and unorganized on the mobile and tablet. It would result in a bad UX/UI experience for the user which you lead to you losing out on potential leads & revenue.
6. Easy Navigation
The navigation of the website should be simple, intuitive and easy to use. The less time it takes for people to find what they’re looking for, the better. The navigation bar should not contain more than 4 to 6 options. The search bar should be strategically placed on the page. Contact information should be easily visible. It can also have the back-to-top sticky button.
7. Leave plenty of white space between elements
Leaving sufficient amounts of white space in between elements gives them room to “breathe” visually. If too many elements are grouped together, it would make your website look cluttered and spoil the user experience.
8. Use visual elements
Adding eye catching visual elements like graphics and images to your website makes it more interesting to browse. They immediately attract the user’s attention and keep them on your website longer.
9. Check your readability
Always check the readability of the content you post on your website. You might have a lot of great information on your site, but if visitors have trouble reading it, it won’t help you reach your marketing goals. Ensure that there is plenty of contrast between the background colour and text colour. Also, the fonts that you use on the website should be easy to read.
10. Include social media buttons
Incorporate social media buttons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Whatsapp and any other platform you use on your website. This will make it easy for your website visitors to connect with you on social media. If you have blogs on your website, you can also consider adding social sharing buttons.
Final thoughts
It is extremely important for any business – big or small – to have an impactful website. If you cannot provide an exceptional experience to the people who visit your website, they’ll abandon your page and move on to your competitors. This would result in you losing out on potential leads and revenue.
Therefore, building a fast, easy to navigate, responsive and attractive website will go a long way in boosting your web presence.
Since you need to consider multiple aspects while creating a website, it is advisable to employ the services of a professional web design company that can guide you through the entire process and help you in creating an impactful website for your business.