Your website is one of the first interactions potential clients and customers will have with your brand. It is an asset of your business that is open and available to use 24/7, so if your website isn’t working for you, it’s time to re-evaluate its design and turn it into a platform that entices your visitors to take a closer look, reach out to you and buy into your brand. Here are our 10 website design must haves that will help you do just that.
1. Mobile Friendly Design
According to Statista, over 50% of website traffic worldwide is driven via mobile phones. That is why it’s so important to have a mobile version which is functional and looks great on smartphones – that means no pinching and zooming to be able to read content.
2. Clear Explanation of Who You Are
No matter which page visitors land on when coming to your website, they should have a clear indication of who you are and what your business is all about. Lack of clarity could create confusion and encourage them to press the ‘back’ button instead.
3. Quality Content
You’ve probably heard many times that content is king. But it’s also just as important to strike a good balance between quality and quantity. Your content should bring value to your users; whether in the form of entertainment, helpful advice or a special offer. If you’re creating content “just because” without any real thought behind it, it’s not going to engage your visitors. Having said that, regular content does help you rank higher on search engines, so make sure you find a healthy middle ground and stay consistent.
4. Functionality
You may have created a fancy looking website but your visitors are likely to leave the site if it is too confusing to use. One of the trending website must haves in 2020 is user experience (UX) design. This way of creating a platform focuses on building the best possible experience for your typical visitor, maximising engagement and improving their visit.
5. Link Building
As you are designing your website, be sure to add internal and external links in a way that feels natural and authentic to the user. For example; if you’ve written a blog and you have more content on similar topics, be sure to link them as this is likely to keep your visitors on the website for longer and provide them with further information they’re interested in.
6. Call to Action
A must have for website design is a call to action. What do you want your users to do when they visit? Is it to get in touch with you? Buy your products? Share your content? Be sure to include clear calls to action throughout your site.
7. Contact Details
Your contact details should be clearly displayed throughout your site in the header, footer or sidebar. In 2020, users no longer want to search around for how to contact you and are more likely to leave the site and, potentially, go to your competitors instead. We would also recommend adding a live chat or direct message feature – whether this is a bot, a real person or simply an option for users to send you a message so you can respond later on. This way they can contact you straight from the site, making it more convenient and therefore increase the likelihood of the user making contact.
8. Social Media Integration
Social media is a great way to showcase more of your business, so it’s integration within your site is one of the key must haves for website design. You can add social media icons to your website or go even further by integrating your feed, so site visitors can instantly see your posts.
9. Consistent Branding
Take some time to develop your branding and then consistently apply that throughout your website and social media. Select your colour palette, logo and fonts that truly represent your business. Cohesive branding will make it easy for website visitors and customers to immediately recognise your content.
10. Good Looking Visuals
Last but by no means least, your website should be visually pleasing to look at. Make sure to break up large amounts of text with cohesive visuals. Don’t use low quality, pixelated photos and videos – it may even be worth getting a professional photo and video shoot done so your brand has the representation it deserves. As consumer demand increases for high quality content, high definition visuals are no longer desirable, they are important website design “must haves”.
