At Phoenix Online Media, we have helped design all sorts of impressive websites and generate increased levels of traffic and sales for our clients. As a result, we know what makes a great website, and in this article, we take a look at three of the things your site needs but may not have.
Bear in mind that web design alone causes 94 percent of people to trust or mistrust your website, and you have on average less than 10 seconds to make an impression on prospective online customers. Considering how quick and easy it is to lose prospects, can you afford not to read on?
Responsive Web Design
This is the practice of making the same design features work across different screen resolutions. In other words, it is a web design technique that allows your website to be viewed properly regardless of whether visitors use a tablet, smartphone, desktop computer, or laptop. Today 80 percent of Internet users own a smartphone, so if you don’t use responsive web design, your website will not load properly or look well-designed when mobile visitors come looking for you.
The result is lost customers and a reputation for being behind the times. Add in the fact that new devices like smart watches, smart TVs, and smart armbands are being used to browse the Internet and responsive web design becomes more important than ever. At Phoenix Online Media, we know that style filters (CSS media queries), fluid images, and fluid grids are the main responsive web design principles, and this is one of the reasons why we produce such great work for our clients.
Usability
Your website has to be easy to read, understand, and navigate. As well as creating compelling content, you must also ensure your site is simple to use and well organized. Fast-loading pages are essential, because 40 percent of visitors leave if a page takes more than three seconds to load. You must also use a consistent layout on all pages and do your utmost to ensure minimal scrolling; this is especially important on the landing page. No one wants to scroll down, up, or across to get the information they need.
Functionality
By this we mean that every facet of your website should work correctly and quickly. If there are any broken or poorly constructed components, your company’s reputation will be tarnished, and in an era of social media and the lightning-fast spread of information, this is the last thing you need.
Everything must work as expected, including hyperlinks, event registration, site search, etc. Your website will (hopefully) get a lot of exposure, so the onus is on you to double-check everything; this means getting your facts right and ensuring spelling and grammar mistakes are minimized.
Of course, we have barely scratched the surface of what makes a great website, but you can learn more on our blog. In the meantime, however, you should follow the above guidelines for success, or better yet, get in touch with Phoenix Online Media and our website design crew will do all the heavy lifting for you!
Sources: