Web Design Best Practices
A good starting point for any activity is to learn about the best practices that other people are using in the same area as you. They are best practices because a large number of people have found them to work and they’ve become a rule-of-thumb.
But before we look at 5 best practices & ways you can hammer most of your competition, let’s look at what not to do. In the last year I’ve had 2 clients re-develop their websites in-house.
2 Recent, Epic Fails
Website (1)
- No Contact page !?!! This is a big NEGATIVE FACTOR to doing well in Local search results. Also most people tend to look for a contact link at the right of the main menu, so it’s guaranteed to lose them contacts.
- White writing on light-green background. Few people will strain their eyes to try and read it.
- Slider on the home page. This is bad for the reasons listed here … https://krogsgard.com/2013/sliders-suck/
- Replaced an offer that was on the eye-trail of the home page, with a Join our email list form at the bottom. The number of people who want to receive MORE emails these days is very small.
- Removed half of the pages. This is a HUGE red flag to Google, saying that the value of the website has decreased. As well, it resulted in masses of links in search results to now non-existent pages.
Website (2)
- Removed the free download from their website that had brought in over 500 new email names and was still producing new contacts for them before it was taken off.
- Produced a graphic design that looks like a year-6 primary school student has done it, with “Powered by WordPress” still at the bottom, miscellaneous Facebook and Twitter buttons, and their logo stuck-on, in a white box.
- Placed a Useful Links box in top-right, prime marketing real-estate of the home page that’s the hottest place for an offer to get leads.
- Inserted BIG pictures on the pages that will result in people getting sick of waiting for the page to download.
Most businesses specialise in what they do,
but NOT in online marketing or website design.
5 Ways to Get an Edge
[feature_block style=”icon” overall_style=”icon” columns=”1″ icon_style=”icon”][feature title=”Make%20sure%20the%20business%20website%20looks%20professional.” icon=”302.png” upload_icon=”” bg_color=”” href=””]It’s become a lot easier to create your own website compared to 10 years ago, but this has resulted in lots of bad websites. If you’re producing your own website, make sure it’s easy to read – Arial or another sans-serif font on a white background – and that the graphic design looks like it’s been done by a pro.
[/feature] [feature title=”Make%20it%20super-easy%20to%20contact%20you.” icon=”138.png” upload_icon=”” bg_color=”” href=””]Ask new people for the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM information. They don’t know you and don’t trust you yet. If you’re asking for more than a single email address or phone number, then you’re losing most of you potential contacts. Get the rest of the information you want from them afterwards !
[/feature] [feature title=”Offer%20people%20something%20they%20want.” icon=”144.png” upload_icon=”” bg_color=”” href=””]Right where they won’t miss it, on the eye-trail as they skim the website ( which is top-left, across and down the right side ) offer the visitor something in exchange for a contact email address or phone number, or to call you right now ! Don’t ask them to join your newsletter or email list – few people want to join an email list or get another newsletter in their mailbox.
[/feature] [feature title=”10-Times%20your%20promotion%20!” icon=”321.png” upload_icon=”” bg_color=”” href=””]Promote 10-times more than you think is necessary.
Unsuccessful marketing can result from not-knowing how to do it, and it can also be a misjudgment of scale. The amount of promotion that needs to be done is often way underestimated. It takes a VERY large amount of outflow to attract the attention needed to make a business viable.
[/feature] [feature title=”Work%20out%20a%20plan” icon=”139.png” upload_icon=”” bg_color=”” href=””]Don’t do piecemeal job – work out a full online-marketing plan.
A website is only a part of a plan. With no adds or promotion to send people there, it doesn’t get many visitors. With no obvious, winning offer, it doesn’t produce many leads. If the site doesn’t look as the visitors expect it to look for a professional business in it’s niche, they leave fast.
If you’re not sure where to start your planning, you should also read https://spellboundweb.com/top-level-internet-marketing-planning.
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The first 3 points are web design best practices. The last 2 apply to overall online marketing which you can find out more about by reading https://spellboundweb.com/a-simple-digital-marketing-checklist.