7 Elements of Good Web Design

Your website is your business’ storefront on the Internet. To attract potential clients, it must be easy to navigate and visually appealing. Especially considering that these prospects are using a variety of devices to view your website on including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. If your website’s content is not optimized to be viewed on these devices, nearly 80% of users will click away to a website that is. That being said, it is essential for the success of both your business and your website to be mindful of current web design and usability elements.

Here are 7 elements of good web design that will keep your prospects on your website:

1. Good web design is consistent. When it comes to design elements like colors, fonts, and images, less is more. Ideally, you should stick to the elements associated with your brand. Your branding should be consistent throughout the pages of your website to establish your credibility and build trust with visitors to your website.

2. Good web design is intuitive. Everything you put on your website must serve a purpose. For example, buttons and forms must drive your users to a specific action such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading an eBook. In turn, this simplifies your visitors’ interactions with your business and your website making them more likely to become your customers.

3. Good web design is well-organized. By well-organized, we mean that a website is easy to navigate. Visitors to your website are looking for information and want to find it in three clicks or less. Navigation menus should be designed with this in mind by including search boxes and drop-down menus that are clearly marked with the information they contain. If you reference any other location in your website’s copy, you should link to it. Most importantly, a well-organized website retains visitors, as over 60% will to go another website if they don’t find what they’re looking for right away.

4. Good web design is well-written. Your website’s copy tells your brand’s story while educating your readers about your business in a language that they will understand. It should be written in a way that gives readers the information they need without having to scroll through multiple pages. Ideally, you should write about 300 words per page to optimize this content for search engines.

5. Good web design is responsive. Responsive web design adjusts the view of a website to the size of screen that it is being presented on. Considering the variety of screen sizes that people use to access the Internet, over 80% of Internet users say that this element is very important to them. Along with providing a better user experience, responsive websites are also more time and cost-efficient for your business as you will only have one website to maintain rather than having multiple versions of your website to accommodate different devices. We incorporate responsive design into every website we create.

6. Good web design is connected. Once visitors to your website have decided to do business with you, they want to be able to contact you. Including your contact information along with click-to-call buttons and social media icons that link to your profiles make this contact easier. These features also make your website more mobile-friendly as users only need to click a button to be connected to you by phone. 

7. Good web design is findable. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more than just having the right keywords and content to be found on search engines. Search engines also rank websites based on how mobile-friendly they are. To be considered mobile-friendly, your website should use formatting and images that allow it to be easily viewed on mobile devices. If you include images, you should also use alt-tags containing your primary keyword in case the image cannot be loaded on the device on which it is being viewed.

In the end, good web design is user-friendly. By combining all of these elements of good web design, you create a better experience for your website’s users making them more likely to become your customers.