It is interesting that after twenty some years of website design and development evolution, companies and individuals still launch websites that are not created and designed with quality, detail, and proper elements to get the job done. Websites have to convert to succeed! Regardless of industry, quality website design makes a difference in business.
If the website is selling a service, solution, or products and the purpose is to gain website traffic, get visitors to shop, sign-up, submit their information, request quotes and so on, it has to be properly designed to get the results. Quality website design makes a difference when it comes to how effective the website will be.
What constitutes a quality website design?
There are several factors that constitute a quality design for websites. It is not at all what some might think. Pretty pictures or graphics on a website. When talking about website design, it is more a comprehensive discussion than a single thing. Website design involves the technology being used, the proper setup and customization of it, the layout of key pages such as the home page, colors used, conversion tools, navigation, call to action elements, and so much more.
Quality website design constitutes an array of details that either will make a website results oriented or perform poorly. Poor performing websites can put a business out of business. Just ask any e-commerce website owner or really any company that relies on getting business through their website.
What are the most important elements of website design?
For a website to be effective and results oriented, the website design has to be strategic to achieve the desired results. There are several elements of a website design that are important to “get the job done”.
Technology Applications Used
For a website to be competitive and also achieve marketing results, the proper technology applications must be utilized and deployed. Technology applications are important since many offer or NOT certain key features, functions, ability for customizations, and much more. For e-commerce websites this is especially important, since adding commerce functions increases the complexity of a website. Technology applications can be Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress or more specific plugins and add-to softwares to enhance the features of a website, as well as e-commerce applications such as Magento for online stores and purchasing abilities.
Website Navigation
The way a website is architected with the navigation is critical to the performance of the website and the effectiveness. The navigation can be created in so many different ways, as well as positioned in many different areas. Furthermore, the navigation can be layered in many different ways, such as primary, secondary, third level, and so on. For a website design to be effective, the navigation needs to make sense, be clear, and results oriented.
Website Layout
The website layout is critical to the success of a website. This is especially true for key pages such as the home page, landing pages, or store pages with e-commerce websites. The website layout is key to the experience of a site visitor and the ability to produce desired results. Experienced website designers know exactly what type of conversion tools and call to actions are necessary, as well as where to position them within the layout. To achieve the desired results with a website, the layout has to be intelligently structured and visually appealing.
Conversion Tools
Conversion is the process of getting a website visitor to become a customer or contact the website owner, submit their information and so on. It is the process of achieving the desired result. Conversion tools are elements to support this. Conversion tools are a combination of offers and incentives, visually displayed to achieve a specific result such as an online purchase, a sign-up, or submitting a contact form online. Quality website design incorporates properly these tools on key pages such as the home page.
Marketing Friendly
A website design that does not incorporate the ability for marketing will be less effective. Quality website design involves developing websites that are marketing friendly. To grow a business online, a website must be marketed. To get better results, websites must be marketing friendly. Use proper technology, have the right URL structures, pages optimized for search engines, clean code, internal linking, and much more. Quality website design is not just what you see; it is also in technology, coding, customization and setup.
There are several more elements that can be discussed that would be part of quality website design, but the above are the most important. For best results, companies, organizations, and individuals should hire a professional website designer with plenty of years of experience, and the right design skills for the industry. Conduct the proper due diligence on vendors and website design in general. The more knowledge a business has about it, the better the decision will be with their website.
A business can also hire a technology and web development consultant. Consulting services are a great way to gain the proper knowledge prior to spending a significant amount of money on a project such as a website.
