03 Feb 2021

8 Traits of an Effective Website Design

The world of internet is said to be hosting nearly 400 million active websites; currently. Now, when someone comes up with a new business plan, one of the first things to consider for them is to create an effective website for their business. 

But, with so many websites already existing on the World Wide Web, how can someone ensure their website stands out from the rest?

Yes! The answer is website design.

Creating a unique website design is a very critical step that, especially, every small business owner must work towards.

So, today, we are going to discuss some of the main and highlighting characteristics of a website design that defines its effectiveness.

Design Simplicity

With the ever-changing trends, it is understandable that business owners would want to adapt to the latest trends in website designing.

However, this increases the possibility and the risk of creating a website that doesn’t really look any different from 100 others.

The trick that most new business owners miss out on is that the simpler a website’s design is, the more effective it gets.

Not only does keeping the web design simple helps in communicating with the audience better but, also make your website stand out from the rest.

It is important to understand that the more you try to “fill” your webpages with fancy illustrations, animations, and other aesthetic elements, the more you are delaying the time it takes for the user to reach the end goal.

So, keep only the important and useful elements and information on your website.

This also provides a sizeable amount of whitespace throughout your website which is, of course, a great advantage to the overall UI of your website.  

Appropriate Use of Images

“A picture is worth a thousand words!” and, this applies to website design very much.

A relevant image used on your website can easily convey a lot more information; much quicker than large blocks of text.

But, what makes these images more effective is their placement on the page.

A strong characteristic of an effective website design is the strategic placement of appropriate images that can help guide the users to where you want them to go.

They can act as arrows pointing towards conversion points like “Shop Now” and “Contact Us” buttons.

Infographics are a great example of this.

Commonly, a user skims a website rather than reading it in full detail. Infographics, in this case, can really help in conveying information more effectively than standard paragraphs.

All Essential Business Information

The main purpose of creating a business website is to provide a virtual tour of your company to the target audience.

You would want your website visitors to know and understand everything about your company. Starting from who you are? What do you do? And, most importantly, how can you help?

Therefore, it is important that when you are designing your website, it is ensured that all the important and critical information is available easily to the visitors.

It includes your contact information, product images/service details, trust elements, etc.

SEO Optimized

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a very, VERY, critical part of your website design. No amount of effort will be useful if your website is not searchable in the first place.

From interlinking of your different pages to, adding Alt-text in all the images used on your website; you need to ensure that your website is very well optimized for all major search engines.

Adding link buttons for your social media pages is also a part of this process and is necessary for improving your online footprint as well as building an audience.

Make sure you are promoting your social profiles and have easy to find social share buttons for all product pages and blog content.

Responsive in Nature

Creating a mobile-friendly website design is a must for any business today. So, this point is a no brainer!

With more than half of the world’s internet population accessing the websites from their smartphones and tabs, it is a given that a website design is effective only when it is responsive and adaptive in nature.

Check out this article to understand thedifference between a responsive and adaptive website design.

Today, optimizing for mobile is a reflection of your professionalism.

Your target audience would expect to get the same kind of accessibility and experience of your website on their mobile phones as they would on desktops or laptops.

Additionally, adaptive and responsive designs are necessary to maximize conversions as well.

Consistent All The Way

Consistency is another very important part of an effective website design, for a very simple reason that it creates a sense of trust for your brand.

Be it your site navigation, the menu bar on top of each page, color scheme, or typeface, everything needs to be consistent throughout all the pages of your website.

Of course, you can play around with the layout of different pages to match their relevancy but, they still should reflect the similarity in patterns.

You definitely don’t want users clicking onto a new page only to wonder if they’ve clicked onto a new website entirely!

This consistency in the website design applies directly to all your off-page marketing activities as well; such as your banner ad designs andlanding page designs.

Keeps UX/UI in Center

Of course! The UI/UX is the core of the entire design process of your website.

Usability and Functionality are two factors on which the success (or failure) of your website relies entirely.

Therefore, when you plan to design your own website, always keep the users in mind and align with their needs.

A good UI/UX for an effective website design is defined through;

-Simple navigation

-Proper (and logical) page hierarchy

-Clickable buttons (CTAs)

The first point is directly related to what we discussed earlier in this article under “Simplicity”.

Users have a very short attention span and, therefore, it is required that they find all the information that they are looking for in the shortest span of time; else they’d leave in no time.

With regard to the hierarchy on your website, it should be such that visitors naturally gravitate towards the most important elements first.

This can be done through the use of placements, sizes, and colors.

For example, if you have a lead form on your website, you want every box on the form to appear above the fold and the “submit” button should be large, bright, and easy to find at the end of the form.

In short, an aesthetically designed website means nothing if it doesn’t have an effective user experience.

Quicker to Load

Remember discussing the short attention span of users in our previous point? Well, this applies very much to the entire loading speed of your website.

The users will run out of patience when they see that each and every page of your website is taking a considerable amount of time to open.

Industry standards have kept 4 seconds as the maximum threshold for a website page to load. If your website pages are taking more than that to open, the users won’t stick.

One of the most recommended ways to ensure shorter page load time is image optimization.

The use of heavy image files and othermulti-media content on your website, to make it look fancy, increases this load time substantially.

To conclude…

While the importance of having a business website is known to most business owners, it is equally important to understand the value of creating unique website designs.

In order to get the desired results from a website, it’s important for it to be as effective as it can be by making sure all the key elements are included in the website design.

Looking to redesign your website or get a new, custom website design for your business? We can help!

Get in touch with your requirements at support@graphicszoo.com