Website Design Best Practices

As with any industry, website design includes businesses that offer all different levels of quality and creativity. Over time, the best custom website developers have established a catalog of best practices, a long list of the most effective methods, procedures, and choices that serve to maximize the potential of your site. It is important to refer to the many different website design guidelines when outlining your new site or making changes to your old one.

Quality
A website needs to be judged on more than just looks. While a site’s appearance is obviously important, especially for first impressions, even simple websites find that functionality is far more important in the long run.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Having a site that presents a lot of great information and products is wonderful, but it won’t do you much good unless people can actually find it. Maximizing your site’s visibility on search engines is the key to generating productive traffic.

Multi-Dimensional
Static websites are a thing of the past. Or at least they should be. With all the impressive technology available to us today, it simply doesn’t make sense for you not to incorporate the most efficient, innovative software into your site. Why have a glorified scrapbook when you can offer customers an immersive web experience full of multimedia features and social media connectivity?

Innovative
Not every site will require every possible bell and whistle, but it is crucial to understand just how many amazing options are now available in custom website design. Features to improve appearance on mobile devices are vital, fast loading options get people into your site more quickly, trackers allow you to accurately analyze your customers and visitors, and the most up-to-date security enhancements are essential in this day and age of computer hacking.

Progressive web apps load like regular pages but allow users far greater functionality such as push notifications and offline options. Small business websites rely heavily on call-to-action buttons, which are far smoother and more user-friendly than they used to be. Customizing and captioning images should be standard practice by now, progress trackers are extremely effective for certain kinds of sites, and search boxes and algorithms have come a long way from their original incarnations. You want to make sure you have the best new versions. And, believe it or not, artificial intelligence is becoming more accessible all the time. If used appropriately it can push the right type of site from great to incredible. It may sound far-fetched, but only until you take a minute to think about how Siri and Alexa work.

In the end, with all the massive improvements in website design recently it is almost impossible for the average person to be aware of all their options, let alone have the expertise required to implement them on their own. Which is why it is always highly recommended to work with a custom website developer to ensure your small business website, personal blog or popular entertainment site turns out exactly the way you envision it. Or maybe even better.