From the aesthetics to functionality, there is a lot to think about when launching a new website. You want it to serve as an informational resource for consumers and generate more leads. If your company is building a website for the first time or is considering a redesign, our experts have compiled a list of their top web design recommendations
Our web design agency toronto team will investigate your brand, goals, and target demographic extensively during the Discovery and Planning stage of the project lay the groundwork for developing an effective design strategy by conducting extensive research and discovering valuable insights. We align our vision with your goals by immersing ourselves in your brand’s essence craft a plan that guarantees a design strategy that is fine-tuned to enthrall and engage by analyzing your USPs and learning about your target audience’s needs. This first stage is crucial because it establishes the framework that will be used to guide our web design process moving forward.
One Important Thing to Keep in Mind When Designing a Website Is That It Represents Your Brand.
You should decide on your brand’s colors, images, and messaging before making a new website. Your company’s social media accounts, for example, should reflect the same style and tone as the rest of your online presence, so it’s important to follow brand guidelines.
Before you worry about web design, make sure you have a logo and brand guidelines if you’re just starting out. When planning a new website, branding should be high on your list of priorities because it will make your company more memorable to visitors. In addition, you should be confident in your style and its ability to connect with your audience before launching your website so that you won’t have to redesign it soon after.
Things to Do and Avoid in Branding and Web Design
marked as complete. A brand guide should be followed since it specifies the colors, graphics, and style of your brand.
x. Stay true to your brand’s aesthetic and avoid using distracting colors and images.
marked as complete. Do your best to maintain a consistent tone and message throughout your website’s content and callouts so that they support your brand’s objectives and captivate visitors.
x. Avoid: Writing about things that don’t matter, are too technical, or won’t interest your target audience.
marked as complete. Do: Keep your website’s overall style and appearance professional and consistent.
x. Don’t: Don’t use stock photos or anything that doesn’t pertain to your brand.
Websites shouldn’t divert users’ attention from their objectives.
Tip #2 for Web Designers: Make Your Design Simple and Organized for Maximum Performance
We advise clients to always bear in mind the end goal—increasing profits—when designing any landing page. Impactful writing and prominent action points throughout the site are two major considerations for a new website that can help you earn more purchases and conversions. There are a few must-have components for a homepage, and you should direct visitors to take the desired next step by highlighting one or two prominent calls to action (CTAs).
Homepage copy should be succinct and convincing. Give them the lowdown on how to contact you and why you’re the one they need. People often make the mistake of trying to convince potential buyers by going into detail about their product or service when, in fact, this isn’t necessary for someone just starting to consider making a purchase. They may be discouraged from contacting you if you provide them with an excessive amount of information at the beginning.
Websites that are well-designed and easy to navigate should not send users on a treasure hunt but rather directly to the information they are looking for. Make sure your calls to action are crystal clear so that users can independently complete the required action (such as making a purchase, scheduling an appointment, or contacting you for more information). You can increase your lead generation by making it easier for site visitors to convert by placing a noticeable button, form, or image on the page.
Web Design Best Practices for Achieving Your Goals: How to Increase Your Lead Generation
marked as complete. Do: Make sure the primary navigation is structured to highlight your company’s key offerings.
x. Don’t: Put every single one of your service options in the navigation; doing so might cause the user to become overwhelmed.
marked as complete. It is recommended to organize your content into subfolders under related areas of the website to create areas of focus and a sense of hierarchy.
x. Don’t: Try to cram too much information and content onto your pages.
marked as complete. Do: Make it simple for people to contact you or take action by explaining why you’re the best choice.
x. In other words, you shouldn’t be shy about asking for the sale or making it hard for clients to reach out or proceed.
marked as complete. Do: Set priorities and make sure the user has multiple chances to convert.
x. Having too many call-to-action options might make the user’s journey more complicated, so avoid doing that. Conversely, you shouldn’t depend on storing your key conversions in a single location either.
Thirdly, when designing a website, remember to prioritize your audience’s interests and the user experience.
Finding your niche and honing in on a certain subset of your most devoted customers is one of our web design suggestions that often catches clients off guard. If you’re planning a redesign of your website, you should solely focus on these people. Why? Websites can’t make everyone happy, so focus on the visitors most likely to make a purchase.
You can improve the user experience and strengthen your brand’s integrity by adopting a customer-centric mindset and putting your audience first. Everything about your new website should be designed with the customer’s journey in mind, taking into account the product or service you offer. If your home service, like pest control or HVAC, requires immediate attention, you should reassure the customer that you are trustworthy and well-qualified for the task. Nobody likes dealing with pests or a malfunctioning air conditioner, so it’s crucial to have a clear call to action (CTA) that allows users to get in touch with you or set up an appointment promptly. More accessible touchpoints on the website let the customer learn more about your business, reassure them that you’re qualified for the job, and give them the chance to reach out when they’re ready, which is especially important for services like website building or home buying that have a longer consideration period.
In order to make sure that all of these factors are considered when creating your new website, Blue Compass conducts a user experience audit. By conducting user experience research, or UX, you can create a website that is tailored to your customers’ needs and wants, allowing you to provide better service.
Things to Do and Not to Do in Web Design to Improve the User Experience
marked as complete. Do: When you’re designing your new website, think about your most loyal and best customers.
x. Avoid: Making an effort to appeal to everyone when designing a website; doing so is unlikely to pique anyone’s interest.
marked as complete. Make sure to describe your services in a manner that helps the user solve a real problem.
x. Avoid: Being overly preoccupied with selling or becoming overly technical and engrossed in your procedures.
marked as complete. Get the user to do what you want them to do by showing them the way or giving them encouragement.
x. If you want a new user to have no trouble navigating your site, you shouldn’t assume anything.
Rule No. 4 of Web Design: Mobile Usability Must Prevail.
Every device should be able to view your website with ease. You should prioritize mobile usability when choosing a web design and development company to collaborate with. We promise that the extra work put into developing your site’s layouts to work across a variety of devices, as well as the time and effort spent on quality assurance testing prior to launch, will be well worth it in the end. The majority of internet traffic now originates from mobile devices; consequently, if your website isn’t responsive and easy to use on these devices, customers will go elsewhere to satisfy their needs. Make your website mobile-friendly by implementing our suggestions for web design.
Rules for Responsive Web Design
marked as complete. When designing for mobile devices, keep in mind that you won’t have as much real estate to work with, so make sure that the most important details and calls to action are front and center.
x. It’s a bad idea to presume that the user’s journey is the same on all devices and that they can navigate to their needs without your assistance.
marked as complete. To do: Make the interactive parts smaller and more user-friendly for devices with less screen real estate, like reducing the size of buttons or incorporating a hamburger menu.
x. Do not: Accept a layout that does not adapt to different screen sizes or that provides a bad mobile experience.
The fifth piece of advice for web designers is to take measures to increase your site’s visibility in search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is something we strongly advise clients to think about when developing new designs for their websites. One of the most prevalent redesign blunders we see is a lack of search engine optimization, which makes the website hard to discover online. After spending so much on a new website’s design, you’ll naturally want as many people as possible to view it.
Our website advises against ignoring search engine optimization (SEO) just because some companies cannot afford to hire a professional to do it. Useful keywords, an internal linking plan, and interesting content are a few search engine optimization (SEO) considerations for your new site that can improve its ranking chances. Using these simple SEO best practices, your company’s visibility in search engine results can be enhanced.
A Few SEO-Related Web Design Dos and Don’ts
marked as complete. A lot of people believe they know the exact words and phrases their ideal customers use to find them online. But doing keyword research can reveal some surprising results. So, here’s what you should do: find out how people search for your business.
x. Avoid: Ignoring the keywords and related subjects that would benefit your audience when creating content without a strategic approach.
marked as complete. Do your best to give your website visitors valuable, in-depth content in the form of long articles.
x. Search engines typically favor pages with 500 words or more of content, so avoid having pages with very little information or irrelevant content.
marked as complete. To improve your search engine rankings, it is recommended to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) if you can afford it. SEO best practices are constantly evolving, so it’s wise to rely on experts to conduct keyword research and create high-quality content and schema.
x. Don’t: Disregard Google’s SEO suggestions that may raise your site’s visibility in search engine results.
Sixth Piece of Advice for Web Designers: Learn Your Users by Making Use of Data Tracking Features
With digital, you can monitor the performance of your new design—among many other things! We recommend utilizing Analytics and Google Tag Manager (GTM) to track how well your website is doing after launch and to see how visitors are navigating and interacting with the design. This is a must-have for any successful website, but it’s not always easy to accomplish by yourself. In order to ensure that you are collecting accurate and useful data. It may be necessary to have experts set up conversion tracking in GTM and verify that your website’s codes are functioning properly.
After you set up tracking for your website, there are a lot of metrics you can watch to see how people use it and what parts of your design and digital marketing are working. Better site optimization, audience-specific content optimization, and user experience creation are all possible outcomes of increased knowledge.
Web Design Dos and Don’ts Uncovered by Data Tracking
marked as complete. Following launch, install Google Tag Manager and Analytics on your site. If you’re employing experts, verify that they can distinguish between spam and traffic from employees.
x. Don’t: Pass up the chance to collect useful information about your site’s user experience.
marked as complete. To keep an eye out for patterns and popular pages, it’s a good idea to check your website’s metrics on a regular basis.
x. No, you shouldn’t just set it and leave it for later.
Consider Hiring Experts as a Web Designer #7.
You should consider the benefits and drawbacks of building your website on your own vs hiring experts, even though there are resources available to help you do it.
The additional costs of plugins, updates, and unneeded hassles associated with DIY web builders can make creating your own an expensive proposition in the long run. Although it may be expensive up front, investing in a seasoned team can help you avoid costly mistakes and achieve long-term success. To increase the number of people who see your site. It is recommended that you collaborate with a team that can improve your search engine optimization and set up tracking elements. We advise against using the do-it-yourself templates. If you want your website to look expert and give visitors an experience they won’t soon forget.
Inquire about the process and make sure your expectations are clear before choosing a web design and development team. Make sure to address the following points in addition to the obvious ones, like the timeline and budget: the level of involvement you would like to have in the website process. Who will be responsible for providing content and integrating the subject into the CMS; what information will they require from you; and more. Hiring a team with whom you can work well together and communicate openly is essential, as finding the right fit can be a lengthy process.
Keep in touch with your web design and development company even after the site goes live. Your website should evolve with your company, taking into account factors such as user data, feedback from customers, new technology, and other factors. Website owners can rest easy knowing that Blue Compass takes the initiative to keep them apprised of any development updates or best practices; our clients are never left to fend for themselves when it comes to technical matters.
Things to Do and Avoid When Choosing a Web Designer
marked as complete. To find the best web builder for your needs, do some research and get quotes from different companies.
x. Do not assume that the agency can handle all the necessary arrangements if you have limited flexibility in terms of time and money. Being actively involved in the process may result in greater efficiency.
marked as complete. Do: If you want to build your own website. It’s a good idea to talk to an expert to find out when you might need help.
x. Avoid: Letting the time you put into building your website get in the way of your other company objectives.
marked as complete. Do: Craft a website that embodies your business and makes you proud, or hire a professional to assist you.
x. The key to a successful website is constantly improving it in response to user feedback and data. Don’t let your site sit idle after launch without any updates or improvements.
marked as complete. To Do: Keep an eye on the big picture and make preparations for future content updates. Research and compare the benefits and drawbacks of each content management system (CMS) that will allow you to edit your website after launch.
x. Keep in mind that not all CMSs are created equal. Keeping your site current is a breeze when you’re using an intuitive content management system (CMS).