Tips & Tricks from the Designer's Desk

The greatest mistake most business owners make in planning a website is to assume it will work by itself. Websites need the same thought and constant attention as any ongoing marketing venture. A website enhances a business' online presence and spreads awareness of its brand. It is critical to continually improve the website and correct issues that dissuade customers from staying on it. Here are a few web design tips to help website owners:

Make text readable

A web page that needs customers to zoom in to be read is a sure sale killer. The size of text is an important factor in website design. Well spaced words with the right font size make the content legible to customers, encouraging them to read to the end. Using dark colored text on a light background is good web design practice recommended and followed by most good website designers.

Make navigation easy

No customer will spend time on a website that cannot be navigated easily. Links, buttons, tabs and graphics should be clearly displayed and made accessible. The choice of design elements incorporated in the website should match the expertise and skill of the target audience. A newfangled design element that confuses customers will not win the business any prizes. Verify the look of the website across common internet browsers to ensure design elements appear as they should.

Display contact information

A website that includes contact information and highlights it on the website wins the customer's trust. By including telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses or fax numbers, a business underlines its credibility and proclaims to the customer "This is not a scam."

Promote the website

Customers will not start visiting the website simply on the merits of its existence. Businesses should promote the website using various channels such as:

* email advertisements
* direct mail
* newsletters
* newspaper and magazine advertisements (online and printed)
* social media networks
* search engine marketing
* PPC advertisements
* website registration in directory services
* billboards
* other websites

Maintaining a consistent look

The importance of consistent theme, colors, content, font size, and images across website pages is often underestimated by website owners. Consistency keeps customers engaged while sudden changes distract their attention. And you don't want that happening if they are clicking towards a sale. Avoid using too many colors on the website as this creates confusion. Good web design suggests sticking to a maximum of four colors throughout the website.

Improving website search indexing

Search engines use software agents called spiders that crawl through millions of website pages and index them for search results. A website that does not load quickly, has broken links, is difficult to navigate or has not been updated recently loses marks. Use graphics, animations and images sparingly; only where needed to support text. Slow performing websites are not crawled deeply or as frequently by bots. Do not let this happen to your website.

As you can see, developing and launching a website involves extensive planning and effort. Assuredly, your hard work will show high returns as customers are sure to revisit and recommend a website that is sophisticated, usable and perfectly suited to their needs.

About the Author:

Daljeet Sidhu. Read website design and SEO link building blog. Compare web designers.

Article Marketing

7 people like this article