A good website is important for any business as it helps establish credibility and gives a positive impression to your company. It should be professional, mobile friendly and responsive to attract visitors. Online presence nowadays is very important, so your website design attributes should result in a good user experience.
It’s important to know what makes a great website to move you ahead of the competition. You can work with companies that offer web design services to help you create a professional website that offers a good first impression. The goal is to make your website reflect your brand effectively.
10 Characteristics of a well-designed website:
1 User-friendly
User Experience (UX) is important in helping visitors understand your website. Make sure there’s clear navigation and consistent layouts to maintain functionality across your site. People tend to have negative perceptions about companies with poorly designed websites. They would rather visit the competitor’s website than figure out how yours works.
Some factors to consider in improving your website’s usability are speed, content and image. Your website should take less than 2 seconds to load to avoid losing a visitor, and your content should be easy to navigate and strategically planned. For the appearance, it should be constantly updated and organised.
2 Optimised for search engines
Your website should not only be attractive and easy to use. It should also earn traffic because all efforts in design and UX will be futile if your site isn’t optimised. A higher ranking will help promote your brand’s visibility, providing more opportunities to convert your visitors into customers.
One of the most effective SEO practices is optimising content to align with keywords. For example, ZipZipe’s expert team conducted extensive keyword research for H&H Australia so their new website would rank high on Google search results in Australia and Asia.
As a result, they had a 6,000% web traffic increase in 6 months, 30 times increase in customer leads and their brand gained exposure in 30 countries.
3 Sleek design
It’s important for your website to look appealing and professional as it reflects your company and brand. Avoid too much clutter, low-quality images and confusing navigation to let your message reach your target audience. Remember that users will judge your products or services based on the quality of your website.
Proofread your website and conduct regular tests to check for speed or functionality problems. Each page should be fast because one broken page can break a customer’s impression. They’ll be frustrated and will opt to leave instead if there are slow areas.
Seven Smart Auto is an example of a business with a well-designed website. The graphics and layout are designed to look like a luxurious car. Combined with informative copy, this website makeover resulted in 300 times sales increase in over 12 months and 180% increase in daily sales enquiries.
4 Mobile responsive
Nowadays, your website should work well on any platform. Most people use their mobile devices so it’s important to optimise your website for mobile and tablet to improve your visitors’ experience. This process will affect the design of your website so make sure that they still achieve optimal experience.
One way to start mobile optimisation is choosing a responsive design. It involves lighter images, good button sizes and minimised need for pinching or scrolling. This will make your site attractive and easy to navigate for your visitors, which is a good start toward improving your conversion rates on mobile.
5 Has compelling content
Your content should be new and interesting. Explain your subject thoroughly and avoid jargons and acronyms. Poorly written website content can sometimes be exaggerated and that can lose your credibility or bore your audience. If they spend less time reading your content, they’re less likely to turn into paying customers.
High-quality content is well structured and aimed at your target audience. Make sure you highlight what they need instead of your accomplishments, and your copy contains appropriate keywords to deliver the right message. Remember that customers come to your site because they’re looking for solutions to their problems.
6 Has an accessible contact page
Provide various points of contact to your customers like email, phone, social media or a contact form. Avoid confusing them with irrelevant fields, bad interface or complicated filters for support departments. Make sure your page is trustworthy by showing details of your customer support people or some customer testimonials.
A contact page doesn’t require an entire page. A good contact section that’s easy to understand is good enough, especially if the customers feel welcome on your page. Keep it simple, offer clear instructions, add different channels and only ask relevant information that you really need to know.
7 Clear calls to action
The call to action is a very important part of marketing and sales – it should be strong, clear and specific. If your CTAs aren’t converting, you might be overdoing it by providing customers with too many calls to action, placing them too far down or covered with text and graphics.
You should provoke enthusiasm through your CTAs and make them stand out. Grab the customer’s attention by opting for a clear button with an eye-catching colour. Create persuasive copy that creates a sense of urgency and encourages them to perform an action.
8 Memorable domain name
Be creative in choosing your domain name. Getting it right can be difficult, but once you do, it’s definitely worth it. Avoid domains that are too long, hard to type or have words with various spelling. A good web address will establish your credibility, promote your brand identity and your business.
9 Fast loading speed
Users tend to leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. They prefer to switch to other sites than wait and lose their patience. Site speed is important for user experience that’s why you have to improve your site by reducing redirects, optimising images and enabling compression.
10 Integrated with social media
Build your digital community by connecting with social media channels. This is vital for your online success, so it’s important to have links to these channels on your website and make sure they’re clearly visible.
Work with a Trusted Web Design Agency
ZipZipe’s expert team is committed to create a website that will attract visitors and increase your conversions. Promote your brand in an effective website that’s secure, user-friendly and fast loading.Let’s strategise. Call us today at (02) 9746-8983 or fill out our online form.
