8 Web Design Do's and Don'ts

Your Tampa web design can impact how people perceive your brand. It can either spark interest and get them to know more about what you have to offer or scare them away. A professionally designed website is a valuable investment that can boost the success of your digital marketing strategy.

That's why it's essential to adhere to the best practices for web design, ease of use, and SEO.

This article will discuss the do's and don'ts in web design to guide you in building a site bound to convert!

Do Determine What the Purpose of Your Website Is

The first step to creating a Tampa web design fit for your business' needs is to determine your website's purpose and the goals you want to achieve with it. Your site could have all-round functions with many different website goals, or it could have one single purpose and one single objective.

For example, your main priority right now is to establish authority in your niche. To achieve this, you want to use your website to build trust among your audience by educating and providing valuable information your audience can't get anywhere else. So, your website goal should be to become an authoritative resource by publishing value-rich content regularly.

Based on this information, you can choose design elements and color schemes commonly associated with feelings of trust, reliability, and authority.

Do Understand Your Customer Journey First

Once you've determined your website's purpose, the next thing you're going to do is map out a customer journey. Doing this will give you an insight into how your prospects go through the sales process and how they feel during their time there. Having this information will allow you to develop a site meant to make each step of the buying experience more enjoyable and more straightforward for your potential leads. Streamlining processes can boost user experience and motivate your prospects to take action.

You want your website to please visitors and make them want to do business with you again.

Do Put Calls-to-Action on Every Page Strategically

It's crucial to place many calls-to-action on every page of your site strategically. It will encourage your visitors to take action without badgering them. There are two types of CTAs. The first is the primary call-to-action, which stimulates the most coveted activity you want visitors to do. The second is called the secondary call-to-action, which provides an option for those prospects who aren't interested in the primary CTA.

Here are some tips on how to create the best CTAs to boost your conversions:

• Your primary CTAs should assert urgency. Use phrases like "Available for a limited time only. Buy now!"
• Use words that trigger excitement or enthusiasm. Use phrases like "Book now and get 30% off!".
• Give your visitors a reason to convert. In other words, what can they get from doing the desired action? A good example would be "Book your flight with us today to get a free dinner at the Marriot Hotel."
• FOMO – fear of missing out - is a very effective motivator because people fear that they might lose out on an opportunity that might not come again if they don’t grab it now. So, you want to capitalize on this by provoking fear or fear of missing out in your CTA

Do Optimize Your Site for Speed

Make sure your web design will not slow down your site speed. Nowadays, having a fast site speed is essential because people will not wait for more than five seconds for your site to load. And they will certainly not come back to websites that take forever to load.

Here’s how you can boost your page speed:

• Resize and compress images
• Limit your add-on scripts
• Only use three different types of fonts
• Improve server response time
• Optimize images

Your site speed can also impact your SEO ranking. A web design company in Tampa can help you develop a website that will load in three seconds or less!

Do Optimize Your Site for SEO

It’s crucial to optimize your site for SEO to boost your ranking in SERPs. Increasing your online visibility is the only way to drive more organic traffic to your site. Remember, 75% of web users never browse past page one of the search results. So, always aim to be a part of the page one results. To secure a competitive ranking, here’s what you need to do with your site:

• Do keyword research
• Publish long, relevant content consistently
• Optimize for on-site SEO
• Optimize for off-site SEO
• Build quality backlinks

Don't Give Visitors too Many Options in Your Primary Navigation

Putting too many options in your primary navigation can give your visitors decision fatigue. So, to avoid overwhelming them, limit the navigation links in your header to about five. You don't want visitors on your site to have a hard time figuring out where to go after landing on your page to find the information they need. A good web design is simple and easy to use.

Don’t Use Too Much Text

Long-forms of quality content is great. People love them; search engine bots love them. However, too much text can be overwhelming to look at. 65% of humans are visual creatures. So, it’s just reasonable to add images, videos, infographics, and other visuals in your site and its content. They can help keep your visitors entertained and stay on your page a while longer.

If you have too much text, make sure to format it to make it readable and scannable. Here are some tips on how to effectively format long texts:

• Break down long paragraphs into mini paragraphs containing one to three sentences. Doing this will make your content easier to understand
• Use headers to point out the thought of each paragraph
• Limit the width of your text to make it easier to scan through

Don’t Choose Fonts that Are Difficult to Read

You don’t want to give your visitors a hard time trying to figure out your site is saying. Please keep it simple by using readable fonts so that they can scan through your site and its content with ease.

Here are some tips on how to choose fonts for your site:

• Avoid using script fronts. Use them as an accent only
• Only use display fonts for headers. Never use them as a body font
• Before deciding on a font, test them out first. Open up a Word document and place different font styles side by side. See which one is easier on the eyes

Your font size also impacts the readability of your text. Not everyone has a 20/20 vision, so make sure to choose a readable font size.

Looking for a Website Design Company in Tampa?

A web design company in Tampa can help you develop a useful and beautiful website that’s bound to help you succeed! At Digital Resource, our award-winning team of web developers and designers can make your visions for your website a reality. Contact us for inquiries!