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Read MoreWhat is web design best practice? (and how to get it right)
Use website design best practice to convert visitors into customers with these expert tips.
Your business website is your online shopfront. It’s the place where potential customers arrive to learn about your offerings, find out more about your business and — hopefully — make a purchase.
Website design plays a pivotal role in helping your visitors take action.
How can you ensure you stand out from your competitors and grab the attention of your target audience? Keep reading for our web design best practice tips.
Web design best practice tips
1. Align your web design to your business goals
Before any design concepts are mocked up, wireframes are presented or a sitemap is created, it’s important to get clear on the needs of your website.
The purpose of your website will dictate your design choices, from which CMS platform you use to the content that you add to it and the calls to action you have on each page.
This is where a digital strategy comes into play, which will help you define specific goals for your website and measurable objectives to achieve them.
2. Embrace user-centric design
Although your website is a showcase of your business, it’s actually not about you. Web design best practice puts the visitor first. Knowing your audience and understanding their needs is key to website design that converts.
Customer journey mapping is an important part of designing a website. This process helps you understand how people will interact with your website and the steps they’ll take to engage with you along their path to purchase.
The process of mapping your customer journey considers questions like:
- Who’ll be visiting my website and why?
- What information are they looking for?
- What steps do they take before buying a product or service?
- What are the touchpoints where they interact with my business?
- Are there any gaps along the way?
Is your website actually built to convert visitors into customers?
Great design is only part of the picture. Our web design service combines strategy, UX, and performance to build websites that work hard for your business.
- Mobile-first, fast-loading websites
- User experience designed around your customer journey
- Conversion rate optimisation built in from the start
- Aligned to your digital strategy and business goals
3. Focus on simple but strategic design
There’s probably a lot of information you want to get across to your website visitors. However, it’s important not to overwhelm them with too much upfront. Consider the most important messages you want to communicate and keep your website focussed around those.
Then, things like ensuring the navigation menu are intuitive, making calls to action clear and creating a clean page layout will all make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for, boosting your conversion rates in the process.
What’s not on the page is just as important as what’s on there. The adage ‘less is more’ definitely applies to web design, as it makes your core messages stand out. Keep text and imagery to a minimum so that what is there really gets across.
4. Test your website on different devices
Making your website function across different devices is an absolute must. Some of your customers will be browsing your site using their desktop computers at home, while others may be scrolling through it on their phones on their way to work or on their lunch break. It’s important that all of them have a positive experience.
All the pages and features of your website should be tested to ensure they look good and function properly. When testing on a desktop, make sure you look at different web browsers. Don’t just test your contact forms on iPhones, but on Android phones as well.
Giving all your visitors a positive and consistent experience, no matter how they interact with you, will maximise the chances they become paying customers.
Start building your website today
Our award-winning, user-focused web design helps you outperform the competition.
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