Creating a Functional, Attractive Website: Design Tips for Beginners

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There are many reasons why having a well-designed website for your business is important. First, it adds an air of professionalism to your business as a whole; an unattractive or barely functional site puts the wrong impression into potential customers’ heads as to who you are and what you do. In addition, a good website allows visitors the opportunity to find what they need quickly and easily, which makes them more likely to then buy a service or a product from you. If you are designing a site for the first time, or if you are interested in redesigning an existing site, the following tips will come in handy.

Keep things simple. As you work on each page, think about what your core message is. If you are too wordy, or if you put in too many “extras,” most visitors are not going to take the time to try and decipher what it is that you want them to understand. Also, if you want to be ranked highly by the search engines, it is important to put different topics on different pages; they know that most users prefer this, so they place more importance on it.

Make a plan for a newsletter and put a form on your site where visitors can sign up for it. Sending out a newsletter via email will not cost you any money, and it does not place a strain on the environment. It does, however, allow you to maintain communication with people that are interested in your site and your products. You can advertise discounts or deals that you are running, impart relevant and useful information and much more.

Initially, make sure to focus on your homepage. Obviously, this is the first thing that your visitors will see. If they don’t like it, they will leave. That means that you have to make a good impression right away. Don’t clutter the page, use a color scheme that is pleasing to the eye and make sure you include information about your business and what you can do for your customers.

Understand what keywords are important for your particular niche. If you aren’t sure, research it on the Internet; there are a number of tools that can help you. Select a few words and phrases and put them in your page titles and content. It is important, however, to make sure that whatever you include makes senses. If someone is able to identify the keyword right off the bat, you have done something wrong. It turns off potential customers if your content is shoddily written and does not make sense.

Don’t use too many colors. In general, three is enough; you should have at least two but no more than four. Remember that color can be a tool. It allows you to highlight important information and helps you draw a visitor’s eye to content or images that you think are important.

A professional-looking website has a huge impact on the success of your business. Use the tips above to get yours off the ground or to redesign one that you are not currently happy with.