Webpage design and branding are the two most important tools for online businesses that are starting out or reworking their image. However, there are many things to avoid when designing a new site or revamping and old one. Here are a few great tips that will help your site create more viewer interest.
Consistency
Being consistent with your design and brand is of utmost importance. Keep one branded design for all pages – including your blogs. Changing a brand look from page to page, can damage a company’s marketing strategy and confuse surfers. The idea is to keep everything consistent so that surfers create a memory of your company’s image. This means don’t change colors or branding images. If you have navigation buttons at the top of your homepage then keep them at the top for all the inside pages. You want everything on your homepage and inside pages to be clear, easy to use and consistent. Do not move around your navigation buttons from top to left or remove them from any inside page. This will confuse surfers and push them away from your site. To keep them searching your content, all links should be placed in the same order and in the same position on each page. If you have a lot of pages and want to more than six or seven navigation buttons, drop-down panels can be very effective and help to keep your site organized.
Simplicity
There is beauty in simplicity. That’s why millions of people vacate out of stressful and busy city life to areas with a more natural and calm feel. The same goes for a website. People do not respond well to flashy tricks, funky doo-dads, and swirling objects. Stay away from the unnecessary. Remember, content is what people will be looking for, not flare and moving images. This is not to say you can’t have video or audio on your site, which can help drive traffic, rather to keep your site as simple and stress-free as possible. Take Google for example. Its use of white space is what made it on of the lead search engine sites. Google users also have the option to personalize their Google for an easy to use experience. The simpler your site, the more likely surfers will stay.
With these two factors in mind, you can build a fresh website with consistent and simple formatting and well-branded content. The way to attract visitors and to keep them coming back for more is to create a positive company image. Surfers will remember your brand as long as you stay consistent and keep it simple.