Web Design is something that applies to all websites. It is essential that anyone who owns a website knows the basics of web design. This web design checklist will give you the basics to making a website that attracts leads.
1. Limit Text
Keeping paragraphs small allows readers to more easily digest information and therefor not be overwhelmed when they see your site. You want to keep text 1-3 sentences per paragraph and keep the sentences short and digestible. If you want to see an example of this you can go to the homepage of this website.
2. Nav Bar
Make sure that your navigation bar has at most 5 links. Some websites need to have drop downs from the navbar, but it is better not to have them. You also want to highlight the text for a certain link in the navbar, such as “buy now”.
3. Optimization
Over 50% of mobile users leave a website if it takes over 3 seconds to load. This shows how important it is to make sure your website loads fast and effectively. Make sure that you don’t have too many images or a lot of Javascript in the background that takes a long time to load. The best websites are those that aren’t over complicated.
4. Copy
It is important to have juicy, interesting copy on your website to keep users interested. This is important for web design an it is also important for marketing and sales. If you have the most bland and boring text on your website, users will go to competitors who have vivid descriptions of their products and services. If you are unable to find the right copy for your website it is definitely worth looking to get it professionally written.
5. Images
Using quality images that match the color scheme of the website is essential to having a well designed website. It is worth getting a subscription to a high quality stock photo site to get the images for your website, because most of the time pictures on google may be low quality. In addition to getting higher quality photos, you want to make sure that the colors in your images match the color scheme of your website. If you would like to see an example of this you can go to the homepage of this website.
6. Favicon
A favicon is the image that appears next to a websites name in the tab at the top of the browser. It is important to have an image here and to not just leave it as the default icon. If users see that there is no favicon uploaded your site will immediately lose credibility with most users, while sites that have their logo as a favicon will be reassuring to users. As you can see we have our orange triangle logo as our favicon, and I would suggest to have a simple favicon like this.
7. Web Hosting
Having stable, reliable web hosting is as important as the foundation of a house. For this website I am using Bluehost, which is the services I would recommend. Even though it may cost a few dollars more a month than other services, it is very reliable and customer support is available. If you have a website that is going down and back up many times, potential clients may not be able to navigate it because it is down. If they then attempt to return to the website later, it will lost credibility because the prospect knows that your website isn’t stable.
Conclusion of Web Design checklist
After reading and following this web design checklist your website should provide a much better experience to users. If you have any questions or need help with this web design checklist feel free to leave a comment. If you would like me to design a website for you (or help you develop your existing website) contact me at aatifdawawala@gmail.com (or you can message me on Instagram @developerofwebsites).