There is more to web design than its appearance. A company’s website design involves user-experience and functionality among other things. However, if you’re a small business, it’s unlikely that you’ll know what an effective website design for a company in Sydney should look like. This can lead to companies accepting mediocre websites or not being aware of their current website’s ineffectiveness – a dangerous issue to have in an almost purely digital world.

A website is one of the most important tools for a business, especially with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has the power to instantly interest prospective customers and clients, convert them, promote one’s brand, position it effectively and overall, market your company. For these reasons, a company should never accept a poor web design. It can cost them awareness, customers and profit.

So what separates an excellent website from a poor one? We’ve outlined 6 qualities that every website should have.

5 elements of an effective web design

1 – Navigation

A website with a confusing list of pages will not entice visitors on your page. Your website design should be easy to understand and simple to determine what page one would like to visit according to the information that they are seeking. The viewer should always understand where they are on the website and how they got there as well as how to revisit that page or move on to another.

While this may sound simple and obvious, you may be surprised at how many websites do not have a navigable website which ultimately, leads prospective customers to click off onto a more simple web page.

2 – Visual design

It’s no surprise that humans appreciate imagery or views that are nice to look at. This is no different from a web design, although it has more to do with its graphic design. Ensuring that the company you hire has a dedicated graphic designer is the first step to ensuring that your website is well designed. 

Websites should be restrained but effective and memorable to users. Too many ‘bells and whistles’ on a page can scare customers just as much as an uninteresting and lacklustre website. The trick is to ensure that your web design reflects your brand’s personality and is attractive to your target audience.

3 – Content

Content is what users will read on your website, so it is an obvious crucial element. However, in addition to striking the right brand tone, content on a website plays an arguably more important role – search engine optimisation (SEO). The content on a website should be created with specific SEO guidelines and keywords in mind to ensure that the website ranks high on search engines. This ensures that your website comes up as a possible solution to a problem searched for by a potential customer.

In a similar vein, web designers should understand how to use meta tags, alt tags, page titles and other SEO guidelines on your website to ensure an optimal ranking.

4 – User interaction

A user-centric site will engage users from the get-go and ensure that their attention is held throughout their time on the site, regardless of the page that they visit. This is crucial for preventing users from clicking off your website and visiting a competitor’s website. Ultimately, it achieves what is your company’s overall goal in all of its marketing – to convert a lead to a customer. There is a fine line between grabbing and keeping a user’s attention and appearing ‘gimmicky’ (this also changes according to the nature of your business/company) so your web designer should be careful when developing it.

5 – Branding

Lastly, your website should reflect your business, and not be a completely separate brand entity. When a user visits your website, they should be able to immediately make a connection between your website and your brand (whether it be through marketing material or your business’ physical location). This does not only increase your brand’s awareness, but it also adds to the memorability of your brand and adds to the credibility of your business.

If you are not sure of the effectiveness of your website, then contact Adcreators. A member of our team will gladly go over your website with you, discuss the goals of your business and how it can be improved. As we mentioned before, your website is one of the most important elements of your company and certainly one of the top 3 investments that you should make.

If you’d like more information on our website development and design services, have a chat with Ava, our friendly assistant, or give us a call on 1300 670 998.