It’s very difficult for any business’ website to stand out in today’s Internet. The market is far too saturated for it to be even feasible for most; there are billions of websites out there, all competing for the same precious few clicks and purchases. However, it’s still possible to make your website look and work great when compared to its peers, which is probably more important than standing out in the overall landscape. After all, it’s much more worth it to spend a little time making sure your website beats out your direct competitors’ than worrying about how it compares to Amazon for years. So with that in mind, here’s how you can make your new website pop and work better for you and your company:
Make a Clear Plan
Once you’ve got your domain brokerage situation figured out, the next step is to make a plan for what the website needs to do; after all, different kinds of websites have different needs. If your new site is an image-hosting platform, for example, do you need to spend hours on fonts? No. Your game plan will inform the whole rest of the process, so it’s important to write it down first before really jumping into the design of your website.
Planning is also the phase where you can start thinking about the design of your site. Design is obviously very important for websites, as it’s typically what draws people into your site and makes them interested in what you have to offer. However, it’s a mistake to focus too heavily on the visuals of the design at the expense of user experience. Therefore, it’s best to…
Focus on Streamlined Design
Web design is constantly evolving, with everyone and their mother contributing new ideas and creating new design trends constantly. While grabbing onto these trends blindly, thinking that a website that looks hip and modern will do the trick, is generally not a good idea, there are some web design tips that transcend the fads and are near-essential for a website to work well.
The most important thing to think about when designing a website is that people don’t tend to want to spend much time on the sites themselves. Websites are tools that people use to do what they actually want to do, whether that be purchase something, learn something new, or just browse some fun content. The website is like the canvas that the user wants to paint on; they don’t care that much about how it looks, but they care that they don’t have to spend too much time learning how it works because they want to get to the point. So emphasize ease of navigation and quickness over aesthetic trends; not all good websites look good, but they all do work quickly and easily.
Care About Your Copy
Too many websites today get too sucked into the pull of web design as the end-all-be-all of what makes a website work. Ultimately, people are coming to your website to look at whatever content you have, so put a big emphasis on making sure your content is excellent. If you’re starting an online business, that means that all of the writing you have about your products, all of those little blurbs that tell people what they’re buying, has to be not only accurate but readable and human.
Blogs obviously require a lot of effort on this front, as people are going to come to the website specifically to read, but many blogs don’t even worry about this too much; this leaves you with a website that brings people in, but doesn’t keep them around at all. Getting views and clicks once is good and all, but the coveted return customer is rare online, and these people often are what make or break a website. Basically, you’ll know that you’ve created something effective when people eagerly come back to your website, and clean, readable copy is the best way to ensure this happens.
Make Your Website SEO Friendly
Making your website SEO-friendly is crucial for attracting potential clients and improving your online visibility. According to Exults, a law firm marketing agency, “Implementing proper SEO strategies begins with optimizing your website’s technical foundation. This includes ensuring fast page load speeds, mobile responsiveness, and a clear site structure that search engines can easily crawl and index”.
Beyond technical optimization, content remains king in the SEO landscape. Creating high-quality, relevant content that addresses your target audience’s specific needs and questions is essential. This means incorporating relevant keywords naturally throughout your site’s content, maintaining a consistent blogging schedule, and ensuring all meta descriptions and title tags accurately reflect each page’s content. Additionally, building quality backlinks from reputable sources within your industry can significantly boost your site’s authority and search engine rankings.
Conclusion
Websites are plentiful, and for many website designers and business owners, creating a website that attracts new viewers and retains old ones is their white whale. While it’s nearly impossible to get it just right on the first try, you can create a website that works really well for you without too much of a headache; you just have to make sure your priorities are in order ahead of time. Making sure that you set out with a clear plan with your website, creating a design that is intuitive and navigable, and creating clean and interesting content for your website is the perfect recipe for a site that people will enjoy using, and will come back to with frequency.