An August 2017 study found there were 1.24 billion websites on the Internet, and that number has only risen since then. It is no longer a competitive advantage to simply have a website. Every business has a website – the question is what makes a good website design? Before you can understand and apply website design best practices, you have to understand some common myths people believe about website design.
Website Design Myths
The world of web design is constantly changing. Techniques that worked a few years ago can now hurt your website. One benefit of working with an SEO company is their designers understand the truth behind the website design myths below.
Myth #1 – More Features Means a Better Website
The problem with how most digital marketing agencies price their services is the more features they cram into a website, the more money they make. All of their marketing content is geared towards convincing business owners they need more features to have a better website. These types of agencies also want to make websites complex so you can’t edit them yourself.
The reality is too many features distract visitors from what’s important. It’s better to focus on creating a simple and clean website that is easy for visitors to use.
Myth #2 – Good Website Design Solves All Problems
Good website design addresses technical search engine optimization issues, such as site hierarchy and load times, but it doesn’t solve everything. A well-designed site is useless if the content on your site doesn’t meet user needs.
Understand your website design is only the first step in optimizing your website for business success.
Myth #3 – Good Website Design Leads to Overnight Success
Just because you have a good website design doesn’t mean you will automatically rank higher than companies with average websites. Here is where keyword research, SEO writing, and content marketing come into the mix.
Remember that design is mostly for users. Search engines can only analyze text, so you need to write and post good content on a consistent basis to rank well.
Myth #4 – Bold and Bright are the Only Ways to Attract Attention
Many business owners think they need flashy colors and big, bold text to engage visitors. The fact is many of these strategies have fallen out of favor with regular users.
Good website design focuses on drawing attention to only the most important features of the site, with the end-purpose of driving more conversions.
Myth #5 – Mobile Design is an Afterthought
According to Hubspot, mobile devices account for 2 out of every three moments of internet usage. If anything, how your website appears on a mobile device has become more important than how it appears on desktop.
Make sure the agency you hire practices responsive website design and doesn’t charge you extra.
Now that you understand some of the common myths surrounding good website design let’s go deeper into what makes a website successful.
What Makes a Website Successful?
Design fads don’t make a website successful. What makes a website successful are certain design principles all successful websites incorporate.
One such principle is purpose. What is the purpose of your website? As a business, the purpose of your website is to gain more customers. The design of each page has to serve this purpose. Only features that help move visitors through your marketing funnel are important.
Balance is another design principle embraced by the most successful websites. The grid-based layout is favored by designers because it sections off the page into defined areas. It allows for clean designs that place important information within the “F” pattern our brain uses to scan a web page.
Efficiency is the next aspect of good website design. In the age of shrinking attention spans, how fast your site loads has a huge impact on your business. A study by KissMetrics shows a 7 percent reduction in conversions for each second it takes your page to load. Site navigation also falls under efficiency. Users must be able to easily get around your site, and your site needs to work on mobile devices without sacrificing functionality.
What Makes a Good Business Website?
Besides the design principles we just covered, there are other strategies required to build a good business website. One such strategy is to make every decision with your ideal customer in mind. If you don’t already have aanideal customer persona, create one now. What are their needs and problems, and how can you solve them with your website?
The more detailed your persona is, the easier it is to create valuable content. Content that meets the needs of the target audience is the most important factor of a good business website. When you provide valuable information for free, you establish trust, which eventually converts to a purchase.
Establishing trust requires strong copywriting skills. The ultimate purpose of your website and its content is to sell your products or services, and good copywriters know how to do this without relying on pushy sales copy.
Finally, a good business website is optimized to perform well in search engines. Good copywriters use SEO copywriting techniques to create content based on a targeted keyword strategy. SEO experts know how to use on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO best practices to make sure your content gets discovered by the right customers.
A digital marketing agency has designers, copywriters, and SEO experts who do nothing but help business owners like yourself handle their marketing workload. Check out our process if you want to learn more about how we work before booking your consultation.
