Are you planning to create a website design for your Tulsa business? There are many factors, styles, and directions that go into creating a Google-friendly SEO website that will generate leads and traffic to your business.
Also, during web development, you need to ensure that your website is functional and easy to navigate so that users can have a great experience on your site. For instance, your new website visitors need to be able to instantly tell what your website is about the minute they land on your home page or landing page.
We have prepared a thorough guide below about website design and some web development tips to create an outstanding website.
What is Website Design?
Web design refers to a web development method used to create a website. The process focuses on various aesthetic factors e.g. user interface, visual imagery, and layout, to make the site appealing and interesting to visitors. If you want to achieve the best website design, keep your target audience in mind. What kind of website layout would appeal to your target audience? Which kind of user experience would your ideal client require from your website to make a sale? What is the purpose of your website? If you want to run a successful business online through your website, then you need to keep your ideal audience in mind and create a website that suits them.
Web development tips to get you started
When creating your website, there are several web development strategies that you need to consider to achieve a traffic-worthy site. Check out the tips to creating a great website design below:
The homepage should be clutter-free
As we mentioned earlier, your home page needs to communicate to your visitors what your website is about. Your audience does not have the time to go through every single word on your site. Therefore, ensure that the intention of your website is obvious at a glance. Your website needs to have keywords, images, and sentences that communicate your message clearly to your website visitors.
Additionally, if you want more conversions from your home page, ensure that you use words that appeal to the emotions of your audience. This will help you connect better with potential clients because people prefer to buy from websites that feel right and relatable to them.
Also, keep the content on the homepage direct, short, and intentional. Too many words and images may make your website appear disorganized or compact, which will repel many potential clients. The less people have to read, remember, or click on your website, the easier they will understand your content and follow through with the call to action.
Here are a few website design tips to keep your home page clutter free. They include:
Add more white space
Make certain that you space out the content by leaving more space between the elements. Leaving some areas blank makes your website design appear spacious, legible, and balanced. Additionally, break up the content into shorter paragraphs to make the text more readable. Long continuous paragraphs are monotonous and your audience may get bored easily if they have to go through large blocks of texts on your site.
Use more images
If you want your brand to stand out to your audience and generate more leads, then you need to add high quality images to your website. The images will make your website more appealing and attract more traffic, which will lead to more conversions for your website.
Websites with images are visually appealing and better optimized for search engines like Google. Google takes into account many factors e.g. user experience when ranking websites in search results. If your website has great content and good quality media features like vector art, icons, or appealing photographs, then it will perform better on search engine result pages and attract more traffic.
Add a call to action
Your homepage needs to have a visible and clear call to action that lets website visitors know what you need from them. Whether you need your audience to make a purchase or to sign up for newsletters, let them know your intention right away. We recommend adding a call to action button to your site during the web development stage.
Focus on visual hierarchy
Another item you need to keep in mind during web development is the visual hierarchy of your website. Visual hierarchy is a design principle that displays your website content in an effective manner to your audience. Using the right hierarchy will allow you to draw the attention of potential customers to certain elements on your page, in order of their priority.
The main website design elements of visual hierarchy include:
Weight and size
Ensure that you highlight the top assets of your business e.g. your logo and business name by making them more prominent and larger than the rest of the content. Did you know that readers are usually drawn to bold large titles first before they move to the rest of the content?
Make sure that your visitors can easily identify the name of your business and its logo as they go through your website. This will help you build better brand identity because your audience will familiarize themselves with your brand each time they go through your content.
Placement of elements
During the web development process, ensure that you use the best web layout for your business. For instance, if you want people to purchase from your website, you need to lead their eyes in the right direction.
Place a visible bold call to action button at the center of the page so that your audience can spot it easily. If you are building brand awareness, position the logo of your business at the header so that it can be easily visible and attract the right amount of attention.
When you use the right hierarchy of information during web development, your website visitors will follow the trail of information you have laid out for them. Website design elements that can help you achieve a powerful visual hierarchy include:
- Spacing
- Contrast
- Color
- Grid layouts
- Strips
Ensure that your content is easy to read
If you want a functional website that can attract leads for your business, then you need to ensure your website content is easy to read. For instance, do not use technical jargon in your content even if you want to establish yourself as a though leader in your niche. Create easy to read and simple to understand content that anyone new to your niche can understand.
A functional website with leads provides value to its audience through educative interesting content delivered in a simple easy to understand format.
When the readability of your website is high, your website visitors will be able to effortlessly skim or scan your content. How do you achieve high website readability? Below are the key items to work on to improve the readability of your site. They include:
Contrast
The color of the text and the color of the background of your content is what will make your website stand out. Although the color scheme of your website should match your brand colors, there needs to be a sufficient amount of contrast between the text and the background. Contrasting elements will make your website more attractive and your content easy to read.
Online contrast tools like Contrast Checker will help you come up with compelling contrast schemes during web development.
Font size
Another element that will make your website content easy to read is the size of the fonts. During website design, keep in mind that most people struggle to read content with small fonts. A good rule of thumb for web development is to ensure that the size of your website content is 16pt or more. Therefore, make sure that you use visible, large, legible fonts for your website.
Font type
In addition to increasing the size of your website text, ensure that you use the right type of font for your business. There are a lot of stylish artsy fonts out there which are attractive but not suitable for your website content.
For instance, if you have a health blog, curvy illegible fonts may not represent your brand very well. A health blog provides people with valuable information about their health and lifestyle. Therefore, the brand personality of a health blog is usually friendly and professional, which means that professional fonts e.g. Serifs or Sans Serifs are used.
If you want your audience to take in your content more easily and keep coming back for more, then professional fonts will leave a lasting effect on their minds.
Number of fonts
Do you want your website content to appear professional and neat to your audience? Limit the number of typefaces to three on your website. This is because too many font combinations will make your website appear disorganized, distracting, and cluttered, which will repel your audience. Just pick three or less fonts and use them throughout your website to build the identity of your brand.
Don’t forget text themes
Another thing to keep in mind during web development is to ensure the website content varies in weight and size. The titles on your website should be large in size while the subheadings should be smaller in size. Also, the paragraph texts below the subheadings should be smaller in size than the subheadings. This website design structure will make your site appear organized and provide an easy user experience to your audience.
Your website should be easy to navigate
One of the most important factors to consider during web development is the user experience of your audience. Can your readers move from one part of your website to another easily without requesting for customer service assistance? A great website design allows site visitors to find the information they need easily.
For example, if a potential customer wants to buy your product, they need to find the “add to cart’’ button so that they can select the item and complete the purchasing process. If a new user wants to leave a review on your website, they need to spot the ‘’leave a review’’ button on your website.
Otherwise, if your website feels too complex to navigate, potential customers would rather find similar websites on the internet that are easy to navigate than spend minutes or hours trying to decipher your website’s navigation.
Additionally, if your website is easy to navigate, search engines like Google will index your content and rank it highly in search results because they expect online users to have a great user experience on your website.
Below are tips to improve the user experience of your website design. They include:
Ensure the logo is linked to your homepage
This web development tip will make it easy for potential customers to identify your brand. Besides, new visitors will learn all they need to know about your business on the home page. Therefore, linking the logo to the homepage will allow users to get a better look at your brand and understand the personality and objective of your brand.
Keep a prominent menu
The menu is one of the most preferred navigation tools for websites. Make sure that your website menu is visible and easy to find so that new users can get a good look at other parts of your website through the menu. Additionally, we recommend having a structured menu e.g. hamburger or horizontal list to make your website appear professional and organized.
Add a website footer
Although the website footer is the last part of your website that your audience will notice, it is a great place to link important information about your business e.g. contact details, social media platforms, business licenses, and any other important information that your visitors might need.
Add vertical navigation buttons
If your website structure is the long scrolling type, then you need to add an anchor menu for your visitors. By clicking the anchor menu, your website visitors will be able to navigate to any section on the website. This particularly works for one-page websites. You can also add a “back to top” button that will allow users to get back to the top of your website with the tap of a button.
Are you ready to create the best website for your Tulsa business and attract sales worthy leads? These website design and web development strategies will help you build a good SEO website that will rank highly in search engine result pages and get more sales for your business.
