Are you currently creating and designing a website? If yes, you are probably would like to know what to keep in mind before getting into the process. Designing a new website can be and will be a challenging thing. With so many different things to incorporate it’s no wonder many websites struggle putting together the right stuff. With the ever increasing amount of searching the internet for different businesses and information, it’s vital that you design a website that stands out. The following is a guide to the top 10 things you need to keep in mind when creating and designing a website.

What to Incorporate into Your Website

Security

Security is a top area which needs to be incorporated to make your site secure for your visitors. Customers like to know their private information isn’t going to be used for anything else. These days there are many viruses, hackers and Trojans which can play major havoc with computers and websites themselves when security procedures aren’t put into place. These can leave your site with a negative reputation which can overall damage your popularity and search engine rankings. Always use trusted security programs when building a website.

The look and feel

The way your website looks is also important to how successful it’s going to be. If you notice top ranking websites, they tend to feature a nice website structure and a graphic layout which is appealing to the eye. Although your graphics shouldn’t be overwhelming when a visitor comes to your website. Try to use beautiful and simple graphic elements, fonts and make the most of the white space to help your visitors able to concentrate on the most important parts of you page and feel good about your site. You should also use unique and quality images with colors matching to your website’s name and brand. If you’re using moving graphics, make sure the website can handle the loading speed as sometimes these images can make the page freeze or take forever to load. This in turn will cause your visitors to find another website that will load faster.

Related article: 5 Web Design Trends You Will Continue To See In 2016

Structure and Navigation

The structure of your website also needs to be taken into consideration. The navigation of a website is like a tree with its branches. When you click through certain areas it needs to redirect you to the right pages that are relevant to your search. Poor navigation will leave your visitors frustrated and will generally increase your website’s overall bounce rate. Try to make the structure as simple as possible. Remember you only have a short amount of time to impress your visitors. The wrong first impression can impact your website’s reputation greatly and not in a good way.

Quality Content

The content of your website needs to be of good quality and written in good English or your preferred language. Messy content which has poor grammar and spelling tends to give the impression of an unprofessional website. This can lead to higher bounce rate as well and can cause your website to drop lower in search engine rankings. Always write quality and useful content that helps your visitors. It also needs to be search engine optimized to help improve the website overall rankings in Google, Bing or Yahoo. Google Keyword Planner is a great tool for finding your targeted keywords. If you can’t write it yourself, why not look into hiring a professional content writer, freelance writer, or a professional digital marketing agency for assistance.

Mobile Friendly Website

With the increase in mobile phone use for internet browsing, it’s important to make your website mobile friendly for your visitors who use their phones and tablets and not just computer screens. Mobile friendly websites will readjust the image of the website to the screen size of the device. Sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices will be the same size as what you would see on a computer screen.

Contact Details

While it may seem like an obvious thing to add to a website design, it’s unbelievable how many people don’t add their contact details. Websites which don’t have contact details make it hard for potential visitors or customers to get in touch with you. Always make sure there’s a clearly visible place for your contact details somewhere at the bottom of your homepage or your contact page.

Call To Actions

Call to actions are designed to make people take action in proceeding with a purchase or a download. General call to actions include click here, sign up now, and call us today. However more unique call to actions can promote an increase in response from visitors. Some unique call to actions include: Join An Exclusive Club Now, Be Awesome, and Jump Into Your Future.

Trust Indicators

Trust indicators are designed to show that a website is trustworthy. These can include guarantees, testimonials, reviews and awards. These show your customers that you are a trustworthy business and website, and you won’t take advantage of them. The more trust you build with a website, the more conversions and sales you will have.

Testing Your Website

While creating your website it’s important to know whether there’s any issues. Testing your website through different website testing tools such as DebugMe is a great way of finding bugs within your system during the development process and gaining feedback on your website design at the same time. Tools such as this will help decrease downtime at a later date and allows you to fix any issues before they even start.

Content Promotion

Last but not least you need to have an area to promote your content including videos, downloads, and articles. Blogs are a great way to share with your visitor’s information about areas of your business that you are skilled in. It allows your visitors to see you as a professional in your field. This can go a long way to building trust.

Conclusion

When it comes to creating a website there are many different things that you need to take into consideration to make sure your website is a success. By incorporating these things, you can easily make your website user friendly for your visitors. So how is your website design going?

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