What Makes It A Professional Website Design?
by Josette Millar
A website provides a point of introduction for your business, and as such can be one of the strongest tools in your marketing arsenal. A good, professional website design can generate plenty of sales leads without any additional work and can lead to greatly increased revenues. A poorly designed website can be worse than having no website at all, leading to loss of consumer confidence and reduced revenues. Knowing the difference between a good website and bad website is vital so let’s look at some aspects that make a professional website design that stands out from the crowd.
Appearance
A professional website design should look polished and professional. The website reflects your products and services and will be the first impression that the customer will see, so it’s worthwhile to make that impression a positive one. An attractive site is one that has longer retention times, meaning that customers will spend more time on the site and will have more time to get the information that they need. A couple of aspects of appearance that should always be kept in mind include:
- Colors should be used sparingly and to good effect. Many websites use two or three primary colors to create a proper mood and these colors tend to be in the background where they don’t detract from the written content.
- The font chosen for the text is easily read and is appropriately sized. Headings and important information is generally presented in a larger text while paragraphs are kept smaller.
- Graphics are used to add visual variety and appeal. Accents add meaning or context to the written content. Images must be high quality, especially if you are selling a product.
Usability
Usability is defined by how easy the average user finds it to read, navigate and understand your website. A professional website design will keep the following elements in mind when ensuring the website is usable:
- Simplicity means that users don’t get confused by trying to find their way through endless menus and buttons to find the information they want. A simple website is one that is well-organized and has no unnecessary elements that can complicate the design.
- Links have long descriptive text that make it easier for visitors to know where the link will lead, and are great for SEO optimization. Back links are also found on every page to give users a sense of direction and an easy way to return to the main page if they mis-click a link. Also, there should be no dead links (links that lead to dead pages) at all.
- Pages should load quickly, as people will lose interest if a page takes more than 20 seconds to load.
Content
Once you’ve engaged your users with your easy to use and attractive website, it’s time to get to the meat of the site, the content. Any content on the website should be informative and relevant, and should instill a sense of confidence in your company’s knowledge and competence. Content should adhere to the following guidelines:
- Short copy where topics are clearly labeled and the text is broken up into small paragraphs. Content has to be concise and compelling and not visually overwhelming.
- Content has to be updated regularly to ensure that customers keep coming back to read the latest news.
Conclusion
A professional website design is one that takes all aspects of the design into account to create a holistic website that presents your products and services to potential customers, turning users into leads consistently.