Imagine your website as a novel, one that tells a story you want to share. The cover of the book is the landing pages or homepage. Unfortunately, contrary to what your mother might have told you, this book will be judged by the cover. In this digital age, where website users are the majority, first impressions do matter.
It is more difficult than people think to create a functional and simple website for your business. Web designers often have different ideas on design and aesthetics. This can clash with the approach of your business.
We’ll discuss them below.
Grab Their Attention
It cannot be overemphasized. Some people say you have missed the chance if your website does not grab your viewers’ attention within 4 seconds of landing. You can grab the attention of your viewers in many ways, but the best way to do so is by clearly explaining what your website has to offer.
It is important that you keep your most important pages of your site easily accessible. You can rely on the fact that your visitors may be on your website because they think you might have what they’re looking for. Avoid cluttering up your homepage with a lot of information. Choose a direct and clean message that is complemented by beautiful graphics.
But don’t blind them!
You may be surprised to learn that you can still stand out by using flashing text, animations, and brightly colored text. Your website is a pain to open. In the early days, when geocities were popular, users of websites were drawn by cheap animations. Today, however, we live in a digitally mature world. Just don’t.
Keep a Cohesive Designs
People prefer familiarity. Look at the website of any established brand. Across all sections of the website, you will notice that they maintain the same colour scheme and visual theme. It is important to make your website familiar for users. It is also easier for users to connect with your brand when they see your logo anywhere.
Maintain a Clean Information Hierarchy
It is much less common to see templates, but it still exists for some business owners. You need to make sure that people can easily find what you’re trying to say.
In a book, the contents page is used. The pages that accompany that contents page are usually the ones that will lead you to the right place. However, some web designers still do the same mistake and arrange their navigation menus in a haphazard, nonsensical way.
Please, for the sake of bandwidth, make sure that the information on your website is organized and presented in a manner in which you think your users can understand it. Otherwise, they won’t want to visit your site.
Do not rest on your laurels if you have a good homepage
As user “improvement” becomes more popular, webmasters start to notice that their visitors are no longer navigating to their homepages. Instead, they rely on navigational features of the website to get them where they need to be. Users may have saved the page that they want to return to, or they might find your website through a link provided by someone else. However, this does not guarantee they will be on your homepage once they arrive on your site.
It is therefore essential to treat all important pages of your website as landing page, which will be the first impression that users have of your website. After you have created your landing pages, it is important to use a clear hierarchy of information and avoid a cluttered layout. This will help create a website that is both usable and attractive.
Beware of Fakes
You will find hundreds, if you don’t thousands, of websites that offer to build you an attractive website, for free. They expect you to believe them. If you want a website that will be successful and attractive, then you need to hire an web designer.
