Simple Yet Essential Elements For Web Design
You must have came across some websites that repulsed you and you could not stay there for even a few seconds. Well, you were either repulsed by the web design or other elements that you found ugly or not too user-friendly. It is easy to understand how effective a website can be in attracting visitors by judging from your personal experience of surfing the net.
A small business website design should have different elements such as customer testimonials and contact information as these are essential for effective interaction with your clients. Here are some of the important things every website should have for a good ROI:
A clear business description
Your audience should clearly understand who you are without doing any kind of investigation when they stumble on your website. Your web designer should therefore help ensure that your homepage clearly shows your business name alongside the products and services you offer. People will likely stay longer if they understand what your website is all about.
A simple web address
Don’t make your domain name too complicated. It is like your brand. Users should find it easy to remember and type your web address whenever the need arises. A good web designer will advise you whether to use a .com, .org or .biz domain based on your branding purposes. Having different versions could also help in case the users type one by mistake. Avoid using numbers and dashes as these could confuse the users and cause SEO headaches.
Have a sitemap that is easy to navigate
The most important pages should have clear links to guide users to the most important information they are looking for. This should clearly be captured out during the web design and it is recommended to have dropdowns for the navigation menu. The navigation should make it very easy for users to find what they are looking for without wasting time. If they can’t find it fast and easily, they will walk away. This is the blueprint of your website and should be planned well before designing.
Customer testimonials build trust
Words can be magical when it comes to business. It is good to have honest testimonials from previous users as this helps market your products and services as suitable for meeting the visitor’s needs. Customer testimonials can help build trust especially with new customers and you should consider this during your website design process. That’s why sites like hungrygowhere or Yelp are used often by so many users. The main reason is because testimonials are not written by the company, so they will stand out as unbiased reviews of how your product or service works.
Secure hosting platform & up-to-date CMS
A secure web or cloud hosting platform helps guarantee safety for your information, keeping it from potential hijackers. A good hosting company should be updating and maintaining their servers regularly and alert the end users whenever there is a malicious script. Your content management system (CMS) should also be up-to-date to further enhance security at all times as most of the malicious scripts hide in the CMS.
Easy-to-use shopping cart
A shopping cart is very important for your business if you are planning to make sales directly from your website. During the web design process, your designer should make sure that you have an effective yet simple checkout process so that your customers are not confused. Once they are confused, they will not proceed to finish the checkout process as they are afraid that the payment will go no where. Hence, try not to be too ambitious and reinvent the wheel for the checkout process.