What makes a great website in 2022? The Do’s and Don’ts
If you search “great website design,” you’re bound to find articles that give you tips and tricks to make your website stand out from the multitude of other sites on the internet.
Often these posts can be influenced by the author’s personal biases. They may not unpack website design best practices that take into account web accessibility, proper SEO hierarchy, and comprehension rates of color and typographical choices.
Thinking about creating a website for your small business? We recommend that you check out our previous blog post, 7 Reasons Why Every Small Business Needs a Website. This is a very helpful guide to assist you in getting started and explains in detail what to keep in mind.
For businesses that already have a website, there are plenty of things you can do to polish up your existing website and make sure it’s attracting and engaging your potential clients.
Keep reading to learn our do’s and don’ts for revamping the content you already have!
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
-Lucius Annaeus SenecaDO figure out who you want to talk to with your website
It can be tough to market to your potential customers if you don’t know whom you want to sell to. Before you can truly begin to uplevel your website, you need to figure out who the website is for.
Just like your other marketing materials, your website needs clearly elucidate what problems your business solves and the steps your visitor needs to take to engage with you.
So how do you start? You need…
A Clear Purpose
👔 Know who your site is for, and just as importantly, who it’s NOT for. Don’t waste time and resources trying to market yourself to people who aren’t in the market for your product or service!
It’s important that your website can do what your customer expects it to do AND what you need it to do. Define the purpose of your site, what’s its job?
A Defined Audience
💁 Identify your target market: who do you want to come to your website? What kinds of content resonate with that demographic?
For example, at Design Powers, our ideal client is a 1-3 person service-based small business that has been in business for at least two years and wants to use a SaaS platform (software as a service) vs open source. That doesn’t mean that we don’t work with clients that don’t exactly fit that description, but it does delineate who we’re the best fit to work with.
After you know who you’re trying to connect with, test out researched marketing strategies to engage your audience. Struggling to identify who you’re talking to or pivoting your services? Our Power Plan (discovery) will help.
Strong Calls to Action (CTA’s)
🌞 What do you want your visitors to do once they arrive? How would you like them to interact with you? CTA’s tell the visitor what to do, especially when used in a way that speaks to the client’s values and needs.
Some examples of good calls to action are ‘Learn More,’ ‘Subscribe,’ and ‘Try for Free.’ These are simple directional statements. If you can think of a call to action that is specific to your brand and service, that’s even better! The goal is to leave a lasting impression on visitors.
“Customers buy for their reasons, not yours.”
-Orvel Ray WilsonDON'T clutter up your site with too many design choices
Having a simple-to-use website can be the difference between creating a connection with your audience or pushing potential clients away.
A research study conducted by Google found that users don’t like websites with excessive visual complexity, and in most cases, people will decide whether they like or dislike a site’s design in less than a tenth of a second. That means you have literal milliseconds to make a good impression on your audience or risk losing their interest!
Responsive Design
📱 Your website needs to be easily viewable and usable regardless of the device it is being viewed on. The world runs on mobile devices, so your website should too! Read why your website must have responsive web design.
Find Your Unique Style
👘 Your site should be distinctive and have personality, your brand personality, to be specific! You want your choices to create a lasting impression in the minds of your clients. All of the website design projects we build are completely customized to the client’s brand.
Use High-Quality Images
📸 If your photos aren’t great, then your site likely won’t look great either. Avoid stock photos if you can. Include photos of your staff or your ideal clients (or ideally, both)! It gives your site a more personal touch and makes your visitors feel like they know you and what you’re about.
Read about our personal branding photography and what you can expect when you hire a professional fashion stylist, brand photographer, hair stylist and makeup artist.
Choose the Right Typography
🆗 Make sure the fonts you're using are readable and don’t clash with your other stylistic choices. After all, web design typography is a pretty big deal. It’s where content meets design. Bad typography choices will distract people from reading and make them bounce from your website.
Pick a Color Palette
🎨 A perfect color combination attracts users, while a poor combination can lead to distraction and confusion. If you’re struggling with picking a good color palette try looking at Pinterest, use a color generator to give you some ideas, or hire a professional designer.
Debating if you should DIY your website or hire a professional? Read this list of pros and cons to DIYing and hiring a website designer to decide what to do.
Use the right words
💬 Your site can look great, but if your copy doesn’t make sense, then the design won’t save it. Although a lot of this blog post focuses on the way things look, feel, and operate, never forget that content is king!
Messaging on your site always should always come before design. Have you tried writing your own content & don’t know where to start? Cut the stress and hire a professional content writer to do it for you. Read our 4 reasons why.
“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”
-Ralf SpethDO make your site easy to navigate
A confusing website is the easiest way to push away your potential clients and ensure that they won’t visit your site again.
After all, who wants to spend precious time trying to figure out what you offer when they can just go back to Google and find someone else who is speaking to their pain points more effectively?
Have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate in Place
🔐A secure website is a must-have. In order to keep your users’ data secure, verify your ownership of the website, prevent attackers from creating a fake version of your site, and keep the trust of your users, you’ll need an SSL certificate.
We use Squarespace which has this built into the platform but if you’re using an open-source platform like WordPress, you’ll need to be sure your web hosting provider has this installed. Some hosts charge extra.
Straightforward Navigation
➡️ Make sure it’s easy for people to get around your site. Limit your navigation to 5 items or less. Nobody wants to wander around searching when they know exactly what they want to find.
Only put the most important page links in the primary navigation. Put everything else in the footer. A working search bar also allows your audience to locate content on your site with ease.
Load Time
⏳ How is your page speed performing? Is it fast or does it drag along? Having a fast website is essential for maintaining a healthy amount of page views and ensuring customer satisfaction. The goal is to provide the best possible user experience to your website visitors. You can improve your website performance by choosing the right image file format and optimizing them for the web.
See what your website's load time is by conducting a site speed test. Sometimes these tests are inaccurate for websites built on SaaS platforms like Squarespace. Feel free to peruse some more helpful tips for improving your website's speed.
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”
-Tom FishburneDON’T isolate yourself from your audience
In the age of Google Reviews, it is now easier than ever to see how other people feel about your services. When people visit your site, they want to see proof that other people have tried out your business and had a good experience.
They also want to feel like they know who you are and what you’re about after visiting your site. Reviews are a wonderful way to communicate that sort of information. You can only promote yourself so much; sometimes you have to let satisfied customers do the promoting for you!
Testimonials and Reviews
🗣 Photos, videos, and quotes from real people are very effective selling mechanisms. Potential customers will want to know that your claims can be backed up by other clients who have been through the process.
After every website build, we ask our clients for honest reviews and we’re almost at 50 5-star reviews!
Make it easy for people to review your business. Share your review link with your clients and ask for a quick review. You can even give your client a few talking points and provide them with an image to post with their written review. This will save them time and increase the likelihood of posing a review for you.
To make asking for reviews pain-free, add a review link to your email signature. Or dedicate a page on your website to leave reviews or link to your third-party review platform and add a CTA to review you.
Social Media Links
🔗 Check your links to make sure they work and correspond to the correct social profiles. This gives people the ability to view you outside of your website and connect on social (more marketing channels!). We post on LinkedIn and Instagram – come say hi!
Share Valuable Content with Your Audience
👑 Blogs are good for creating fresh content, connecting with your audience, and boosting your SEO. Don’t be afraid to get a little personal. People want to see what kind of person you are outside of your business too.
Blogging is one of the best organic SEO strategies. Learn what it takes to improve your SEO & how to get to the top of Google.
In Conclusion
Designing and launching a website that effectively communicates your vision might seem like a daunting task, but by taking it one step at a time (and following super helpful guides like this one) you’ll be surprised how achievable a goal it really is.
By using the right tools and maintaining your vision as the highest priority, you’ll have a site worth being proud of in no time! Need some help? We’re here for you. Schedule a call.
