How to Make the Right Web Design Choices
One of the hardest things to do when setting up a new website is to decide on your overall design. While it’s certainly important that you create quality content for your new website, you must also devote adequate time to deciding upon your website’s design; specifically its structure and appearance.
But before you start thinking about your web design, you need to have a good handle on your business goals and the identity you want to create for your website. Simply saying that you want “to be successful” isn’t enough – every business has that goal.
Instead, ask yourself what it is about your business that is going to convert visitors to your website into paying customers. Are you going to be the lowest priced provider of the type of product or service you’re selling? Are you going to be approaching your industry from a particular perspective (such as targeting the “work at home mom” market)? Do you want your business to convey a sense of professional expertise, or have a warmer, more “homey” experience?
Once you’ve answered those questions, you can use the information to make the various design choices about your new website. It’s important to let your business goals be a significant driver of your website design. If your content is geared towards a certain type of customer, but your website design gives a different (or even contradictory) message, then your business will have unnecessary roadblocks keeping it from success.
Though there aren’t really any hard and fast rules for web design, there are a few things that you might want to avoid. First, avoid having music automatically play on your website. Even if your business is music-related, many website visitors are going to be put off by having music play unless they’ve clicked a “play” button. Many web surfers leave their computer speakers set at a moderate or high volume because very few websites play music or sounds automatically. Any website that actually does play music is likely to be startling and unpleasant.
Second, be judicious in how many advertisements you put on your website and how your advertisements are displayed. It’s easy to let things get a little out of hand, especially if you build your website on a framework like WordPress. WordPress makes it easy to add advertising spaces on nearly any area of your website, so there’s always a temptation to add “just one more” advertising area on your site in an effort to make a little more money. It’s also bad form to have advertisements pop-ups on your website. Pop-ups can distract your visitors and make a fair percentage of them leave your website.
Finally, don’t be lured into using the latest and greatest web technologies of the day unless you have a good reason to do so. There are many different web browsers and browser versions in use, and each has a different level of support for these various web technologies. It’s usually better to make sure that everyone can view your website than it is to try to be dazzling.
Simply by focusing on your customers, and their experiences with your website, you’re more likely to make the right web design choices.
