Top 10 Web Design Tips for Your Business Website

I get this question asked all the time: “What do you think of my super duper galactic ninja in action business site?” I dislike this question because I expect to say, “Wow, great site, nice design, and great layout.”

Don’t get me wrong, I give honest praises for the design and creativity, especially if the person creating the site doesn’t know much about web design.

The person usually hears the hesitation in my voice and asks, “Well, what’s wrong with it?” I reply, “I look at your website and have no idea what you do, who you are, or how to contact you.”

Your website is the new resume. The World Wide Web is a recent digital newspaper.

Here is an interesting fact: 83% of all recruiters Google their applicants, and 43% discard applicants based on what they see. If your website suffers, you suffer.

Here are some of my personal 10 Design Tips for a Business Website

Avoid your visitors guessing what you do and who you are:

1. Before the design begins, you should have a good outline of content on the site for its launch. How many pages, what those pages will be, navigation order, color scheme, etc.
2. Content should include:
   A full, complete description of your services or product. Your content should answer those basic questions mentioned above: Who are you, what do you do, and how do you contact you?
   A way for people to contact you – email address, contact information page, or a contact form.
   Post comments or feedback from customers who have bought your product or used your service.
   Images related to the content. It could be as simple as a stock photo or, more preferably, a photo of your product or services. In other words, your images should reflect who you are and the services that you represent and should have appropriate ALT tags.
   Post a page of other businesses you have worked with—link to their site. Ask to get a link back to your website.
   Add a search function if your site is large with lots of content. Some search engines like Google will give you a free web search and the code you can plug into your site.
3. Avoid overloading your pages. Web pages a visitor must scroll down more than two times should be broken into separate sections. Visitors just won’t read that much.
4. All pages should contain meta keywords, descriptions, and descriptive page titles. Meta tags are included in the HTML code. Go to Wikipedia for examples and how-to’s.
5. Avoid overdoing the design. Keep it Simple. Don’t mix and match colors. Use a design wheel to organize your color scheme.
6. Avoid gizmos, widgets, and gadgets. Just because you know how to make text blink or scroll on your home page doesn’t mean it is a good gimmick.
7. Avoid using Flash intro pages. I might be going against the grain here, but Flash intros are a distraction and a detractor from your website. Visitors want to see and read about what you do, not a flashy advertisement.
8. Write and post articles relevant to your products or services. This will fill out your website, keep visitors interested, and keep visitors returning.
9. Don’t let your site get stale. Keep adding to it in an organized way. Introduce new articles, press releases, new training, etc. A website needs to be continually updated.
10. Use spell check and grammar tools in Word or other editors before you post your content.