When planning your website, there are many things to consider. You may have certain things you want to include that your customers will appreciate and that will increase the functionality of your website.
But before you start planning, it helps to turn to Google first to see what their view is on what makes good website.
The World According to Google
Google owns more web property than virtually anyone online. Therefore, they have a lot of power in setting the standards for what makes good design. Google has made many changes over the past few years regarding what they consider to be “best practices” in design. Here are some of the most important elements of web design, according to Google.
- Engaging, high-quality content– Google views high quality content as number one in importance these days in your web design. So this means that you need to look beyond design and see your website as a work of art, a contribution to the world. Don’t overuse keywords. Keep it natural. Make your content interesting and engaging to people, not just search engines.
- Ethical web practices– Gone are the days when people could get away with keyword stuffing (the practice of inserting key words as often as possible) to pick up searches on the search engines. This practice is now considering unethical, and Google will drop rank on sites that practice such.
- Relevance in searches– Google has always been strong on the importance of relevance. As a web developer and business owner, you should think about it from the searcher’s view. If you are looking for gardening tips, you don’t want to put in the term “gardening tips” that turns up a search for rice farming. People who want gardening tips are likely looking for specific tips for smaller gardens. When the search takes them to rice farming, it’s a completely different thing. So be careful what tags and keyword you use in your content to keep it real with the searches.
- Usability and Versatility– Your website should also be user-friendly and easy to use for your visitors. It should offer something people want and keep them coming back. It should be versatile and address different needs and increase engagement.
- Mobile-friendliness– Your site should also be mobile-friendly. Google puts this as one of their top priorities as of the algorithm updates in April of 2015. There are so many mobile users these days that you simply cannot ignore that many potential customers. You also must keep in mind all of the different platforms and types of mobile devices. That’s not easy.
When you look at this list of requirements from Google, as well as consider what you want to include on your website, it’s a tall order.
How do you incorporate all of the requirements that Google wants, while implementing the important components of good design that users want?
7 Elements to Consider When Planning Your Site
Here are seven elements to consider when you are planning your design:
1. Follow Google’s guidelines – As mentioned above, you will need to refer to these basic tenets of Google to ensure that you adhere to their guidelines. Google has such power over the web and the ranking of websites that you just cannot afford to be penalized by them.
2. Have a great design – Your design should be attractive to users, user-friendly, and easily navigable. If your site is an e-commerce site, you will want to make sure your shopping cart is easy to find and to use. Check for bugs and glitches in the payment processing component. You don’t want there to be any glitches in your payment processing.
3. Integrate your social media – Social media is one of the most important aspects of your web development. Make sure to tie in your social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, so that users can find your social media pages. This is one way you can increase your followers and leads.
4. Shoot for high web responsiveness – Web responsiveness is the ability of a website to engage users on any platform, mobile devices, or another system from which they enter. You do not know how users are going to come into your site, so you have to be skilled in working out the kinks to make your website responsive.
5. Include video and animation – This is an often overlooked perk that you should consider when planning your website. People love the video, and they have a preference to an animated video. By incorporating animated explainer videos into your web design, you will attract up to 65% or more customers than if you did not include this feature.
6. Infographic design – Want to add a cool infographic on your site? It’s a good idea, according to web experts. Infographics give people a quick look at important information that is relevant to their searches. This increases your engagement and lowers your bounce rate.
7. UX and UI – These are two terms that are rarely used by anyone other than those directly involved in product development and design. App developers and web designers are very familiar with it. UX refers to the user experience, and UI is the user-interface. Your interface and platform are important when planning your web design because it will determine how users can interact with your site. UX is the total experience users have while on your website. It should be the best you can make it by including important elements that visitors want.
These are seven important factors that you should consider when planning your website. There are many more. You must think about how you will create the content, whether or not you’ll have a blog, and what kind of video content you will feature on your site.
You need to have a system that will work out the bugs when they occur (and they will) and a high-level security system that will protect your site from hackers. If you are a business, you have customers who entrust their sensitive data to you. So you must be careful to guard your site for third party intrusions at all time.
Purpose of Your Site
Finally, you must consider what the main purpose of your site is. This will determine how successful your site is, and it will keep you focused on reaching your goals. Do you want to increase traffic and gain leads? Increase your revenue? Get customers to interact with you? Think about what is most important to you as a business and focus on that in your design.
Remember that web design is about more than design. That’s important. But it must be seamlessly integrated into your web content. In the end, web design is about people, not design. The design is just the vehicle that brings people to your site. Think of your site as you on center stage. You must get an audience there to see you perform. Once you have them, what will they see? Will they enjoy the show?
At WebdesignTeam.com, we understand the importance of a good design. We understand that it’s about people. You need to increase your engagement. You need to delight and engage customers. You need to gain leads by getting people to sign up for your services and newsletter.
We can help you design your perfect website with all of the essential elements we’ve discussed in this post.
Contact us for more information on how we can help you create your virtual property on the web that everyone will want to visit.