What makes a good website?
have evolved a lot over the years. It wasn’t until the past few years that the study of user experience design came along. Understanding your website from the mind of the customer is always recommended when designing a website. We will take a look at some important features website should have to better the user experience.
1. Color Scheme, Typography, & Readability
The first thing a visitor sees when they go to a website is the color scheme, typography, and the website’s readability. One of the many ways of guiding the visitor through your site is by using contrasting colors and big bold typography. When a visitor looks at a website for the first time, the first thing you want them to see is a big colorful main title. As they skim through the website you want to make sure that other parts of the website is prominent as well. You can use big bold titles in order to do this.
You can find a good color scheme on a few different generator websites. I recommend Adobe Color Wheel to help you generate a color scheme for your website. Most color schemes consist of 5 corresponding colors. Some colors are used as a highlight while others are used as a base color. It is always recommended to get a feel for the website color scheme from the colors in the logo. This will help with overall feel of the branding.
Using good typography along with a good color scheme can make the website feel more professional and provide a higher chance that the visitor will purchase your product or service. There is many good fonts on the internet. I would recommend using Google Fonts. They have hundreds of fonts that can be embedded onto your website.
Font size and spacing are really important. Website readability is a measure of how easy it is for visitors to read and understand online text. Readability depends on both a text’s presentation (e.g., the choice of fonts, spacing, colors, etc.) and its context (i.e., the actual words and sentences that are written on the page). It is important to insure that your websites readability is good and that you choose a good color/font combination.
2. Intuitive Navigation
The ability to easily navigate around a website is of the up-most importance when it comes to designing a website. Navigation is important because your readers don’t want to have to figure out how to get to the pages they are looking for. Good navigation will allow visitors to search your site for longer, giving them confidence in where they are, and what they can receive from your website. Navigation should allow visitors to search with ease.
Having an intuitive navigation is critical to the user experience of your website. There are several types of navigation you can have. Although you can have a mega menu with tons of links to other pages, I suggest to keep your navigation as small as possible making it easy for people to navigate your site whether they are navigating it on computer or mobile device.
3. Above the Fold Value Proposition
This feature is probably one of the most important features a website can have. When we say “Above the Fold”, we are referring to the screen real estate visible on a web page before the visitor has to scroll down. The main section of a home page or landing page should contain a promotion of your service or product.
You want to make sure this is above the page fold because many visitors who get to your website will see this value proposition and they have to make the decision if they are going to follow through to the rest of your website or click the back button and continue searching. This is called the “bounce-rate”. If you have a good value proposition with good website navigation then you can lessen the bounce rate and get more sales or leads.
4. Relevant Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
I always says go with the “BFB” strategy which means “Big Freaking Buttons”. Website navigation is very important. It is very important to keep the website clean and use big buttons to help the user navigate through the website. These “Call-to-action” buttons are usually big in size and are of a contrasting color than their background. You should have very few but prominent call to action buttons on your website. You would not want to confuse your visitor by having to many options to click. Every site should be somewhat of a funnel when getting customer to navigate through your website.
5. Mobile Responsive
Every website nowadays should be mobile responsive and work on all kinds of devices. With the advancement of CSS and website building frameworks such as Twitter Bootstrap, website can now be designed to look different based on the screen resolution. Search engines also look at this quality when determining how to rank a website. You can see if your website is mobile friendly according to search engines by visiting https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
6. Easy-To-Use-Forms
Another very important feature a website should have is an easy-to-use contact form. If you are looking to capture a lead or collect contact information about one of your customers, you will need an online web form. If you would like to learn more about lead generation forms you can read our post Advantages of Adding a Lead Generation Form to Your Website. There are many kinds of forms you can add to your website. The most common form that every website needs is a contact form which goes on your contact us page. This form will collect visitor information and send you the information in an email. These forms usually create a potential sales lead.
7. HTTPS Encryption
Every website nowwadays needs to be protected behind HTTPS encryption. When you go to a website that starts with https://, that means that the connection between the visitors web browser and the website’s server is secure. To get https:// working on your website, you will need to purchase an SSL certificate. You can find some SSL Certificate company here: SSL Comparison
It is important to have and SSL certificate installed and your website secured when someone is purchasing a product or submitting their contact information through your website. Search engines also look at server security when deciding how to rank sites. It is always recommended to redirect an user to HTTPS on your website.
8. Easy to Find Contact Information
It is important to have your contact information available to the customer. It is recommended to try to put your phone number somewhere inside the navigation. This will provide an easy way for people to know how to call you. It is also recommended to create a contact us page on your website. On this page you can provide the visitor with your phone number, address, and offer a contact form. The contact form will ask your visitor for their contact information and the information will be sent to you in an email. This in turn can create a possible sales lead.
9. Great Content
Content is king! The better content you can create on your website the more possibility you have of search engines indexing you for specific keywords. Content is also very important in the sales process. Its vital to have a clean and clear message with your content in order to guide the visitor through the page in order to purchase the product or service. Always remember to use big and bold titles within the content to in order to segment the data. This in turn makes it easier for the visitor to find what they are looking for. Content is key to having a good website. Always try your best to use good verbiage and diction to direct the visitor to the right areas.
10. Testimonials
Testimonials are very important in order to build trust with the visitor. If a visitor can see the reviews from previous customers then they may be more inclined to purchase your product or service. You will want to make sure that the testimonial are relevant to the service or product they are looking for. Customer testimonials can be very beneficial to your website and could help generate more sales.
Black Tiger Creative
If you are looking to have a good website designed for you that turns your visitors into customers then look no further. Black Tiger Creative can design you a website with all the above features included. You can find more information on our website design page.