Your website is your public face to the world. If it's been a few years since you updated, it's time to give your site a facelift by reinventing your web presence with a new web design. Learn from the experts with the five easy ways to update your image.
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Keep the Focus
Web design has changed tremendously over the past few years. People now expect links to be in text, menus to be simple, and a clear and easy visual esthetic. Design your site to meet these expectations and take the pressure off the user. People don't want to spend all their time figuring out how to use a website, but want this to come naturally and unconsciously. Capitalize on your customers conditioned responses, to take the focus off of using the web and put it onto your product.
Become Responsive
You've probably heard about responsive design, and it is a bit of a buzz word. This is important though, because responsive design is what makes you mobile friendly. Most modern consumers do at least part of their Internet browsing via phone or tablet. If your website is unviewable on these devices, so is your product. Adapting to multiple devices is key in keeping up with the modern consumer.
SEO Still Matters
SEO refers to search engine optimization. In some areas, often referred to as "black hat" this has gotten a bad reputation, due to spamming and unethical marketing practices. Proper SEO optimization has nothing to do with these shady ideas, but simply refers to properly presenting your web site to Google and other search engines. Good SEO can help reinvent your web design, but increasing visibility to customers. Best practices include URLs, titles, and descriptions that are accurate representations of your brand and product.
Good Design isn't Always Pretty
A beautiful website is always an asset, but that won't drive conversions if you don't have the basic information architecture to support your media. In short, a new coat of paint won't fix a house with a faulty foundation. When choosing what matters in your web design, the safest bet is to follow standard practices that begin with outlining your business goals and audience needs. Create a strong foundation to reach your users and then add the images and media to support it, not the other way around.
Find a Friendly Platform
Unless you are a web guru yourself, you will want to find an expert to set up your website for you. Even so, there are many platforms out now that will allow you to make small changes on your own like Squarespace and WordPress. The ability to make changes quickly and easily will keep your content more dynamic. In addition, this will help keep your online presence in sync with your in person brand, preventing issues such as wrong menus or discontinued services.
With these five steps, you are on your way to web design stardom.