Seven Simple Website Design Tips

Your website is your number one marketing tool, and your website design is one of your core opportunities to convey your company’s image.

When visitors come to your website, they’ll sum it up in a flash based on what they see. Content is important, but aesthetics are a close second.

Whether you’re designing your own website or hiring someone to design one for you, you should have a solid idea of how you want to portray your business. If you have already started establishing your identity with a logo and marketing plan, then you’ve got the foundation you need for your website design.

However, there are still many considerations to keep in mind, and throughout the process of designing a new website (or redesigning an existing one), you will need to make choices about how your site will look and feel so that it represents your business appropriately.

Here are seven website design tips that cover the core components every website needs in order to succeed. These tips will help you make smart design choices so that your site captures visitors’ attention while maintaining the integrity of your company’s identity.

Website Design Tips

1. Build Your Brand with a Logo

Design is an excellent tool for brand building. If you have a logo, it should be prominently displayed on your home page and all subsequent pages as well. If you don’t have a logo, you should get one immediately. If you’re an independent entrepreneur using your name to do business, consider developing a signature-style logo, using a particular font and possibly your photo, or some other simple visual emblem. Logos help to build familiarity, association, and reputation, and they are the essential in developing your brand.

2. Color Choices

Often the color choices you’ve made for your logo will drive the design of your website. However, simple logos, or brand designs that are flexible enough to adapt to a broader color scheme may lend themselves to a wider variety of designs. You should already know the objective of your site, so choose colors accordingly. There are an unlimited number of color combinations that can work; a good way to determine what direction you want to take is to spend some time surfing around the web looking at sites that target the same audience you are going after, and make note of designs that strike your fancy. Keep in mind that selecting two or three different colors in varying shades will generate a better design.

3. Font and Text

There are so many exciting fonts out there, but don’t be tempted! You can use fancy fonts for your title, logo, and headings, but use a very simple, easy-to-read font for the bulk of your content, and remember that fonts are stored on visitors’ computers locally, so if you’re using a font that’s not web-friendly, turn it into an image. For your content, make sure that you use dark text on a light background for better readability. Too many people get overly excited about all the font and color choices, and go to great lengths to make their site look extraordinary, but if you make the text difficult to read, visitors will click off to some other site that puts less stress on their eyesight. Lastly, make sure your font size is not too small… or too big.

4. Header

The header is located at the top of a web page, and it’s usually the area where you’ll find the title or site name. This should be prominent, clear, and easy to read. The title can be text or an image but it should provide the name of your site, and give some clue as to what your site is all about. You can always use a tagline in the header to broadcast your site’s purpose. Also, if you do have a logo (and you should), it should be in the header. Bonus tip: Your header should be clickable and should always take visitors back to the home page.

5. Images

The more images you have on any web page, the longer it takes to load. Generally, web surfers will wait just a few short seconds for a page to load before they go off in search of speedier delivery. Ensure that your images are optimized for the web, and that you don’t clutter your page with them. Keep in mind that videos and slideshows take even longer to load than regular images. However, you should have at least a few images on each page. Images break up long strings of text, and create spatial interest, which is attractive to the eye. Of course sites geared toward art, photography, film, etc. are exceptions to this rule!

6. Layout & Content Planning

Before you design a site, you should have a good idea of what its content will be. This is achieved through thoughtful web content development. Determine the content for your site, and then you, or your designer, can start to establish a formidable layout and website design. Always develop a plan for content before you start working on design. There’s nothing worse than putting a site together only to discover there’s not enough room in your navigation menu for all the content you want to include.

7. Navigation

Your main menu or navigation bar will act as your site’s table of contents. It is here that you want to display simple links to key pages within your site. There are a few pillar pages that almost every website should have, which include Home, About, and Contact. Most business sites will also include Products or Services pages as well. Take a look at other sites within your niche to establish other key pages that warrant a link on the navigation menu.

Moving Forward

Website design projects can be stressful but can also be a lot of fun. It’s exciting to see the whole thing come together, especially for the first time. Even redesigns will help breathe new life into a business, and will often help to ramp up sales, even in a down economy.

A few final website design tips:

• Keep your design flexible enough so that you can add and change content later on.
• Include a plan for website maintenance and regular updates.
• Make sure the site is thoroughly tested on various operating systems and browsers to ensure full functionality.

Scribizzy offers website design services for small businesses. All projects are tailored to your business needs and specifications. Start your website project today by getting a quote online!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to get more practical tips for doing business online!