First impressions last. This applies to meeting new people, trying something new, or visiting a website. As a business, positive first impressions of our websites are integral for success. Psychologists from Sheffield University conducted a study suggesting 94% of visitors would exit a website based on design alone.
Let’s take a look at the factors that make up a good website.
What Makes a Good Website?
Whether you’re in the SaaS industry or working in the contractor website design niche, the following are fundamental to making a good site:
Consistent Interface
The overall feel of the website should be consistent across all pages. Navigation, color schemes, or typefaces need a consistent theme. Just don’t forget to prioritize usability and ensure all themes or templates you use work as intended.
Make Landing Pages Easy To Scan
According to research from the Nielsen Norman Group, users only read 28% of words on a webpage. Make your website content skimmable with user intent in mind.
Create Easy Navigation For Users
Navigation is fundamental for usability. Good navigation helps users find what they’re looking for faster. As a rule of thumb, have navigation options in the header and the footer.
According to Miller’s Law, the average number of objects humans can store in their short-term memory is around seven. Keep your navigation menu items limited to this number.
Web Design Best Practices to Follow in 2022
Good web designs look good and provide convenient user experiences. Here are the best practices to follow when designing new websites:
Design Clean Websites
Having a clean design helps users focus on what’s important. Too many bright colors, large texts, and images can be distracting. All elements should be placed with a purpose. Using visual hierarchy can help with this.
Optimize Websites for Mobile
More than 54% of global website traffic is from mobile devices. It’s best practice to design your site for mobile devices first, then for desktops.
Monitor Site Speed
Site speed is directly connected to bounce rate (percentage of users exiting a website). Google’s studies show that 90% of users will exit a site if content loads between 1-5 seconds.
Include Intuitive CTAs
CTAs should be clear and stand-out. But before showing them, present your services directly. It could be free trials, premium offers, discounts, and more.
Use Responsive Designs
Websites need to accommodate every screen size on any device. This goes hand-in-hand with mobile optimization.
Design Should Fit Business
Each business can have different goals and brand images to uphold, even if they’re in the same industry. The way you design your website should fit the brand it represents.
Incorporate Visual Elements
Draw users in with visual elements such as relevant photos, graphics, or CTAs. Avoid using stock photos as much as possible. Instead, try using photos of actual staff or work environments to show authenticity.
Add Social Media Buttons
Social media is an integral part of any marketing strategy. You can place them almost in the header, footer, or even between content.
Check Content Readability
Website content should be readable. Background and font colors should contrast. Font selection and size are also important as they can change how users can read information.
Invest in SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) provides a holistic approach to web design. It covers responsive design, using headers, title and meta tags, keywords, and more.
Key Takeaways
You can design your website the way you want it to be. But sticking to tested and proven fundamentals and experimenting from there could take your design game to the next level.
So before investing resources into web design, here are some things to consider:
- Design Accessible Websites – Everyone must be able to use a website regardless of location, language, device, or impairments.
- Human Images Over Animation – Using real photos instead of animation can give a sense of authenticity, especially if they’re not stock photos.
- Use White Spaces Properly – White space helps designs breathe. It makes elements feel clean and less cluttered.
- Follow the Three-click Rule – This rule states that users should take at most three clicks to get to where they want to.
- Compress Images Before Uploading – Compressing images helps load content faster and improves overall site speeds.