When you’re looking for a good or service, what’s the first thing you do? You look it up online. These 9 important elements of quality web development can help grow your business, which is one of the most important aspects of establishing your brand.
Creating a website for your business is critical in the modern era of the internet. Customers believe companies with their own websites are more professional and credible than companies that don’t have a site or only have social media profiles.
A website presents your place in your industry. Even if your competitors are not online they soon will be. A website can show how your company differs from what they have to offer.
But even if your company already has a website, remember visitors are likely to see your site before setting foot in your store or interacting with members of your team. The website is what sets the first impression of your company. You don’t want something that is old or outdated, or blank and empty, or cluttered and messy. Having a bad website can be even worse than not having a site at all so it is important that your company’s website be well designed and regularly updated.
Here are the 9 important elements of quality web design:
1. Easily Located by Search Engines
Even if you are content with your current number of customers, every business has turnover and you will need to find new clients. Nowadays people find everything online. It is simply what your customers expect of a business. Consider your own search habits. How do you find a product, a local service, a restaurant, or find a vacation? 81% of shoppers conduct online research before buying. Utilizing SEO best practices will allow potential clients and customers to find you even easier.
Read this quick guide on SEO to learn more about how that works.
2. Credibility, Authority, and Personality
A website can establish your credibility as a real professional company. Include testimonials, reviews, links to articles written about your company provide social proof that you are who you say you are and that customers have used your products. An About US page humanizes you and creates a connection and trust and greatly increases the likelihood they will buy from you.
The website can work both to educate your clients about you, as well as give you a tool to learn more about your clients. Include a call to action. Make contact information easily available to potential customers. Encourage your customers to make contact with you. Ask for their email for your mailing lists, so you can notify them about your new products. This can help you learn your customer’s preferences so you can tailor your products to them.
Check out our article on crafting the perfect About Us page for more information.
3. Appealing and Functional
It is not enough to simply have a website but to have a well-designed one. It should contain graphics, easy-to-read fonts, aesthetically pleasing colors, and a clean landing page. The whole site should be well-polished and color, format, and typography, should be consistent in design across the whole site with no spelling and grammatical errors.
4. Relevant Domain Name
The first step for a visitor to find your website is the domain name. The website address is the entry point to your site and it is important that it be memorable, concise, and generally, a name that gives some sense of what your company does.
It is important to prominently display upfront what your business is so your website visitor is not confused or worse, clicks away because they misinterpreted what your business is.
Read more about choosing a domain name that suits your business.
5. Smart Navigation
No one likes a site where it is hard to move from page to page, or can’t find a particular piece of information, or have to dig through pages and pages just to locate the one product they wanted. Users’ attention spans are short a well-designed navigation system to allow customers to find the information they want quickly. Keep navigation simple and self-explanatory with broad headings to encompass many topics.
6. Fast Loading Speeds
Compress and optimize your graphics to ensure the fast loading of images. The speed of your website is important. Most people will not wait more than three seconds for a page to load and search engines will penalize your rankings if your site is slow.
One common issue with slow sites is the web hosting service they’re using. Check out this article on different types of hosting for more information.
7. Mobile, Tablet, and Desktop Responsive
A high-quality website must function and look good across multiple browsers and mobile devices. Many people browse the internet exclusively on mobile, and optimizing your site for all platforms will help functionality for a larger number of users.
8. High-Quality Images
Customers want to see your products. They want a clear idea of what they are buying. Use high-quality photos to showcase your products.
9. Representative of Your Company
Your online presence can display the theme or feel of your company. How the website looks tells searchers a lot about what the company, and the people who run it, are like. If you have a location-centric business, such as a restaurant or bar, your site is an extension of that location.
These 9 important elements of quality web development are how the X(US) Hosting team can build your website and increase your brand awareness.
