A good business website should play an integral role in your overall marketing strategy. Your website is your online base of operations – where customers can find information, shop for products, get a quote for your services, and more.
Making sure that your site looks good, and functions properly is essential for it to be useful and actually draw in customers. Here are a few tips to help you achieve this.
Use Professional Design Tools
First of all, you need to make sure you’re using professional design tools so that your website looks professional and properly set up.
This doesn’t mean your web design needs to cost you an arm and a leg, though. You can even do a free banner design online, and make use of other free features available to you. There are also many affordable website builders that you can use for your company if you don’t want to hire a pro.
Keep it Minimalistic
Avoid clutter on your website, especially on the homepage. A minimalistic design is not only trendy nowadays, but a good way to maintain your audience’s focus.
When you use a simple and minimal design, the elements and text you use are far more striking and eye-catching, and this makes your website easier to read and navigate too.
Place Content Strategically
Where you place your text, visuals, menus, etc. on your website is almost as important as how they look and function.
Content should be placed strategically so that the most important information is immediately visible, and so that your audience can quickly and easily navigate their way around the website to find what they’re looking for.
Add Visuals
Visual appeal is everything, and you’ll want to add some images or other visual design elements to your website. Of course, this will include your logo and some visual elements that align with your brand image – a botanical store might include some botanical sketches.
You could even use stock photos to liven up your website if you’re not sure what other visuals to include, or don’t have an eye to design your own.
Work Carefully with Colour
Web pages can easily become overly busy if you aren’t careful with your use of colour. You don’t want your page to be too dark, too bright or too colourful (unless that aligns with your brand image).
Pick a neutral palette and include your brand colours in various design elements – and stick with these! Getting carried away with other colours can make things look messy.
Make it Reader-Friendly
Finally, remember to spend some time thinking about your written content too. Your website will need various pieces of written content, such as an ‘About Us’ page, an FAQ section, and more.
Make sure that your written content is easy to read and matches the tone you want to set. For example, a legal website might choose a more formal style of writing, whereas a fast food business would probably choose a friendlier tone.