Enhance Your Professional Website With These 7 Tips
Just because you used a few good photos and added a few CSS3 tricks doesn't mean you have a professional website. They're made with design and structure in mind.
The best websites have a consistent and functional theme that users enjoy looking. They also contain compelling content, organized in a sensible and effective way.
It's good to add a few tricks to the code and stand out from the crowd. But just doing that won't get you the traffic you want, and it won't keep people coming back to your website. Instead, you'll just impress a few people as they click away from your website and onto the next.
And there are almost 2 billion websites on the internet that they can click onto after yours. To keep your users on your website, it needs to be sleek and professional. It needs to stand out from the crowd in a way that invites people to use it and doesn't drive anyone away.
To learn how to make a website like that, keep reading below!
1. Responsive Web Design Is Professional Website Design
When you begin dabbling in responsive web design, it may seem like you're just adding new gimmicks to your website. It can seem like text resizing as users scroll through the page or flexible images doesn't add anything to your content. Yet, with responsive web design, the design is a part of the content itself.
It makes users time spent on your website experience, and that can make your content resonate with them more. Google even began favouring responsive web pages in its algorithm, giving them a higher ranking in its search results.
To obtain and keep users, you need to make a responsive web design. It's not enough to make good content - the way you show that content matters too.
2. Minimalism Is The Bare Minimum
One of the longest lasting and most effective design trends ever is minimalism. With minimalism, your website's space is treated as a resource which should be preserved. Instead of filling your website with paragraphs of text and pictures, you should only show the content you absolutely need to.
This way, your website is easier to use and the stuff on it is easier to consume. That means your users will be less discouraged to leave your website. As a result, you should see higher retention rates.
3. Navigate Easily With NavBars, Not Sidebars
Sidebars used to be the preferred way to organize a website's pages. If you would display your web pages to the side of a page, then you would have more room for your content. Yet, that style has gone out of vogue as CSS3 and HTML5 introduced new features to optimize website navigation.
Since you can fix elements to a users screen, and transition your navbar as users scroll, you now have more options to manage your space. Adding a sidebar would use more space than creating a traditional navbar for a landing page. Then, you can transition it to a smaller design to not intrude on users' experiences as they scroll through your website.
4. Go Mobile or Go Home
The Pew Research Center found that 20 percent of people are becoming totally dependent on their smartphones. That means you can expect a fifth of users to be browsing your website on their phones, at least. And that number can only grow as smartphones become the primary device people own.
That means you need to design your website to serve them as well as your desktop users. Otherwise, you risk losing a fifth of your audience simply because they can't use your website.
Mobile optimization is even being taken into account by Google when it ranks websites. If your website isn't mobile-optimized, it will rank lower, and that will cost you traffic.
5. Web Design Doesn't Start Online
The first step you should take when drawing up a professional website is to actually draw it up. Break out the pen and paper and let your ideas flow like the ink you should use. This way, you'll have a rigid guide for the rest of the design process, and you won't get trapped trying to figure out what you want to make.
After you're finished drawing up the website you want to make, post somewhere near your workplace. That way, it will be easy to refer to when you need it and will help facilitate a smoother workflow. To make a professional website, you need to act like a professional, and professionals start on paper.
6. Professional Web Design Includes Professional Content
You could layout the best design and create the stunning responsive pages, and none of it can matter. If the content you post on your website doesn't resonate with users or stand out from the rest, users won't use your website. They aren't after good web design; they want good content.
Professional web design is just a way to display that content well.
So, if you're a photographer make sure to feature only your best pictures. Writers should pick only the best pieces for their portfolio. And the logos and images you choose to complement your main content should also be professionally made.
7. You Just Gotta Go Fast
How long do you usually give a website to load before you leave it for another? If it's longer than 3 seconds, consider yourself a very patient person. Most people won't even give a website 2 seconds to display on their screen before giving up on it.
To maximize the amount of traffic to your website, and keep people on it, you need to make it load fast. To do that, you can invest in quicker servers or load less content per page. Either way, you should also be aware of the kind of user you serve.
People with slower internet connections likely won't be impressed with a professional image if it takes forever to load. However, people with better connections expect more out of you. Know your audience, and adjust your website's speed accordingly.
A Professional Website Is Not Easy to Make
Making a professional website takes dedication, time, and work most of all. Expect to invest a huge chunk of your effort into making it, along with some cash too. Yet, you should also expect all your hard work to pay off in the end.
A professional website can boost traffic and revenue more than any other can. It can help make your overall brand seem more professional and trustworthy, raising your overall business. It can also act as a central point in your overall marketing strategy, helping to organize your strategy.
And to start, you should get a professionally made logo. For that, contact us here. We will work just as hard as you to make sure your logo stands out, and that it's marketed well!