Web design is the typical description of the artistic and scientific process relating to the design of a website, including its writing markup. In practical terms, the design slightly overlaps the web engineering in developing the site to make it functional.
The many areas of the design (graphics, interface, authoring which includes the codes and proprietary software, user experience design and search engine optimization) are covered by the designers of different skills and disciplines to come with a viable, professional website.
Importance
For businessmen, the design of your business-related Internet site is your means of connecting with your audience who are your potential customers. The site is the first impression they get of your brand and you must make sure the images and content are all right to get the utmost business benefits.
Your site is the face of your business online, and the right design is crucial. These days, businesses typically hire the services of highly qualified web designers in order to be sure that the business image on the web shall be the perfect tool to put your business message across.
Web development
Aside from the design, there is also the web development of your business website that needs the improvements and strengthening of your brand and makes it stand out from competition. Your site is then optimized to be able to sell your products convincingly to your customers.
Various methods and techniques are used to create and combine words, fonts, colors, graphics, and images to communicate your message to your relevant audience, all of which are potential customers.
All of these can be possible if executed along the guidelines set by previous designs of today’s most successful websites online. They can help in getting more value out of your web presence.
Functional appeal
Your site reflects your company, your producers, your services and your brand. Its importance cannot be overemphasized by way of its visual appeal, polish and professional look.
You need to allow white space, uncluttered layouts and quality visuals and graphics to let your message shine through.
Equally important is how the site should work quickly, correctly, and intuitively for the visitor. Proofread rigorously and regularly test for speed and functionality. Broken, slow, or poorly constructed areas will frustrate your visitors and they will leave.
Ease of use
Site visitors are always in a hurry. Never make them work for the information they want. User Experience (UX) plays a key role in helping visitors use, understand and stay on your website. Put in an obvious navigation with clear directions.
Consistent layouts and visual cues for functionality are a must. Your site should satisfy your searchers (searching for something specific) and browsers (just looking). You can keep them engaged with related content and minimizing dead ends.
Mobile optimization
Today’s sites have no excuses but to look great and work well on any platform. The exponential growth of smart mobiles and tablets makes it imperative not to expect what your next visitor will be using.
Optimizing your site for mobiles is utilizing a very big communications carrier that is setting the current standards today. It can help improve both the experience of your visitors and your SEO rankings.
Quality content
Be new and interesting and succinct by using language that makes sense to your audience. Corporate speak, acronyms, jargons can confuse your visitors. They have short attention spans and you need to be accurate and relevant by updating regularly.
Blogs and social media updates are great ways to add fresh content. They keep visitors returning and help your SEO strategy. These are a bit of an investment which you cannot avoid.
Contact info / call to action
Your audience seldom chases you down. Make it easy for them to engage by offering multiple points of contact: phones, email, social media, and sometimes an easy-to-use contact form. Make sure this information is readily available. (Some put them in their every page.)
If your site asks nothing of visitors, they will surely do nothing. Make the purpose of your site very clear to your visitor. Even informational sites want visitors to read and share articles, follow the company on social media, download toolkits, join mailing lists or learn more about them.
You may even include an “ask” on every page.
Search / social web
It’s not enough to build a nice looking website that’s easy to use. It needs to earn traffic. Otherwise, all that effort in design, UX and content development is wasted.
There are hundreds of rules and guidelines for effective search engine optimization. One of them is using page titles and Meta tags on every page and alt tags on all images.
Advice list
The other one advices the optimization of the content on the site to align with words real people search for. This includes the use of keywords appropriately in the content and in the links.
The use of CSS (cascading style sheet) for the layout and making the HTML code clutter-free are already standard executions by experienced site designers and developers. The other pointers tell of making it easy for visitors to share your content.
There is also the reminder that social media can drive large volumes of traffic and can positively impact your search rankings. Another good point is to remember the sharing of links.
Getting all these pointers can help you establish your site that has all the strong points of the ideal and the best store front of your online products and services. Here are a couple of very important benefits you can get.
Credibility
Building a site for your business gives you the opportunity of telling your consumers why they should trust you, plus the testimonials and the facts to back those opportunities.
People search the Internet for a product or service before the purchase. They want to check your credibility first. Providing good service or product, the positive word-of-mouth about your business is likely to spread. This, in turn, delivers more repeat (and new) business.
Accessibility
With a site, your site and your social media accounts are accessible 24/7 all year round. In real brick stores, everyone had that frustrating experience of finding the store closed after all the hassles of going there.
People will easily jump off to your competition’s site should this happens to their visits to your site. Since your website is around the clock, your customers can easily access your site for your services and/or products.
