As a London web design service provider we know exactly what makes a good website. Firstly you have to run through how you are defining “good”. Are you looking to gain more clients through a website? Do you need the website to be able to portray you as being very established? Do you need your website to portray you in a more cost-efficient way? Firstly we need to find out what your purpose is with the website. Once we know what your purpose is we can go about custom building the structure so you’re able to achieve your aspirations. So say, for example, you need a more professional and credible looking website. So now we will go through the stages in which we will create something just to your liking and more importantly your customer’s liking. We will first establish what colours should be used throughout the website. Do we need to portray a corporate image and therefore we would use dark blue? Do we need to show that the company is very environmentally friendly and therefore we would use green colours? These are often thought that goes through your head when we’re creating a good colour scheme for the website. Obviously we will look at competitors and see other websites in the industry and see what are industry norms and how others are leveraging colour combinations. Once we’ve calculated all of these different angles we will set the colour scheme for the website. Now it’s very important when we’re using the colours that we use them tastefully and carefully so we always keep the customer’s attention on what most important. For example when you’re creating a good user experience (UI) you want to make it as easy as possible for the customer to perform the action that you want them to aka call you, contact you or buy your product. So, for example, let’s say you have a target where you want your customers to call you. Therefore accessible on your front page you should create it in a way so it’s very easy for a customer to be able to call you. How we would do this is we would have a button with a contrasting colour on the homepage and in clear plain sight as soon as a customer lands on your website. The area of the website that you see when you first land on the page and before you scroll is called “above the fold”. The “above the fold” area is incredibly important in creating positive user experiences. Is an incredibly important Factor in making a website good. So how can we make this area clean and simple enough that the customer has taken down the user pathway that you want? This is weird colour coordination is very important and the layout of how you structure your content. For example, if you just had a huge block of text with no colours and no images this is going to provide a pretty boring and unengaging experience for the consumer. Here are some tips on what you should be insuring you have in this area. You want to have a clear navigation area where uses can easily find and click on the pages that are going to be most useful to them. Typically this is in the top right-hand corner. You should be able to easily see the navigation links, therefore, you should use a contrasting colour to what your background is. A general rule of thumb is not to make your web pages too dark unless this is an industry-standard. Secondly, you should try and use imagery you service and you’re offering. For example, if your digital marketing company you should be showcasing digital marketing techniques or strategies or interfaces somewhere above the fold. Because these images are going to communicate to the user potentially before they even read your text. As we can process images so much faster than we can process text. So once you’ve gained relevance with your imagery you should also gain relevance with your text. The text above the fold that you should be adding it should be directly related to what you believe the customer’s mindset is in. For example, has the customer found you online when they are looking for a specific service, your text should echo that specific service they’re looking for. Being very relevant to what the customer is looking for enables you to reduce bounce rates and boost conversion rates. Obviously you should also be showing the customer your logo, typically this would be in the left-hand top corner. It’s important that you’re using high-quality images for your logo and the relevant service images that you will be using throughout your page. Find that if you can use authentic and not stock photos this builds Trust with the customer and make them believe that you are really the credible company that you’re saying you are on your website.
Authenticity is key in making a good website
This authenticity should be continued throughout your entire site. Wherever you can, you should try and show the customer is your real personality and Company core values. For example, show pictures of your team and have a very personalised about us page. This allows your customer to get to know you and once they know you they can start and begin to trust you. Because if they never trust you the most likely never to do business with you. So ensure that you have a very authentic about us, team, and contact page that makes it easy for the customer to get comfortable with you. Lastly, you want as much social proof as you can on your website. Social proof can refer to testimonials, displaying accreditations, showing company partners and much more. The reasons we want testimonials on there it’s because users can see what the expected was the result is going to look like. If I haven’t done business with you already they are in a space of unknown.
Therefore showing them real customers that have actually been serviced by you takes them out of the Unknown space and makes them start to believe you. So whether you want to include a whole testimonial page or trying strategically use them to ensure that the customer sees them. Therefore adding them to the homepage or in some cases, we’ve managed to add them in a not so invasive area above the fold. Wherever you put them need to be somewhere within your website. You should also definitely included accreditations that your business has and maybe the companies your associated with. This allows you to build on the back to their reputation. If they see brands that they recognise and know off the start to associate that reputation with you. That’s why it’s so brilliant to be out of use these accreditations to your advantage. We also like to sometimes use this on the home page to ensure the customer starts associating us with those credible brands. So you may have noticed that I haven’t gone to specific or design orientated with my suggestions. This is because most websites can be very simple but as long as they have these essential areas they can be very successful. So I would ensure if you’re about to embark on trying to make your website better make certain that you include these areas and these thought processes when putting together the final product. If you do need a web design agency to do this for you reach out to us today and we’ll be happy to help.