Posted 23.02.2022
By Steven Titchener
Web design doesn’t have to be difficult. You don’t have to have expanded knowledge on web accessibility to make a beautiful and functional website, instead, use these 13 tips to make sure your website works for the people viewing it.
Navigation is an important part of your website, it’s how users find their way to the information they are looking for. Because it will be the most used part of your website, keep it simple, make it easy for users to use.
A top tip for this is to have fewer links, try to keep it to 3 – 5 navigation links. Also don’t use jargon or strange terms for these pages, people know what a blog is and know what to expect, there is no need to call it ‘musings’ or ‘journal’, say what it is.
Keeping with the navigation theme and keeping that as simple to use as possible, people expect it to be at the top right of the page. So put it there, don’t make people have to think when they want to move around your website.
Keep it simple, make it usable.
While we do love a creative website with tons of effects and interesting layouts, it’s not the ideal design for a website.
You want to use the principles of similarity within your design, make it your own, but don’t stray too far from the norm otherwise it can confuse your visitors and lose you a lead.
With content being a big driving force behind your website and attracting visitors to become customers, you need to make sure they can actually read your website easily and quickly.
Make sure you are using proper hierarchy with your text, make headers look like headers and paragraphs look like paragraphs.
Don’t use fancy fonts, while they might look cool, they are only hurting the legibility and readability of your website.
People don’t read a website, they scan it. So make it something that can be scanned, use the strong typography as above and add space between elements and sections so that it is easy to see where one piece of information ends and another begins.
Stock photos are great, they can help brighten up a website when you don’t have any images of your own. But they also look like every other website out there and might not even mean anything.
You should try to use unique images wherever possible to help define a brand style across your website and create more visual interest from your visitors.
After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
While it’s great to try and write content that will satisfy our Google overloads, it’s people reading your website that matter.
Make sure you aren’t using buzzwords and corporate jargon throughout your site that doesn’t mean anything. Instead, write like a human and use language that would interest you.
People don’t trust businesses, we all know they are trying to just make money right?
So when trying to get someone to believe in your business and product, you should use other people. What I mean by this is the good old fashioned social proof of reviews, testimonials, case studies and ‘as featured in’ sections. This is all to prove that what you do is real and it’s amazing.
It’s a small one but something that often is overlooked. Make sure people can easily find a way to get in touch with you, whether that’s phone numbers, emails addresses or straight up addresses.
Doing this is going to help people get in touch and convert on your website. Top tip is to not use forms here, you never expect a reply from a form.
The top SEO tip you can ever have is to just create valuable and interesting content. After all, you are creating content for people and if you make that content interesting and useful to them, guess what’s going to happen?
That’s right! They will read it and share it with others. Ultimately, that’s what Google likes and that’s what people want, so just do that.
Your website isn’t for you. It’s for your users.
Make it easy for them to find the information they are looking for, or to sign up to your product. Don’t make them have to run through 40 pages just to find your delivery policies.
Mobile generally has a 50/50 split of usage on websites, so your website needs to look top notch on these devices. And there is a super easy way to test this, get your mobile out and load up your website.
If it doesn’t look good, address those problems and try again.
Pop-ups are the bane of every web surfer’s life, but they do help with conversions (unfortunately).
So here’s what you do, you make them smaller and more useful. Don’t have the cookie banner that takes up the entire page, don’t have the chatbot, don’t have the ads that come in from the top or sides or bottom of the page.
Just have the minimum needed and make them less intrusive overall. You don’t want someone to have to spend the first minute on your website closing pop-ups.
Now you have all of the tips you need to make sure your website is going to be a hit. So the last thing to do is go out there and launch it!
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