web design tips to produce great websiteFor many businesses, outsourcing web design services can feel intimidating. There are many tips on the internet about how to make a website look appealing, but the truth is looks are very subjective. What is beautiful to one person could look very boring or ugly to another. However, good web design is essential for the success of your website, so you need to understand the essential guidelines about how to make the best impression on visitors. Here are ten design tips proven by research that will enable you to produce a great website.

1. Less Is More

This old saying is often overlooked by people who lack design experience. A busy, complex design tends to look less appealing to most people. Use of white space to create simplicity and draw more focus to key elements is just as important as color schemes and other elements of design.

2. One Page Is Preferable

Research has shown that people would rather scroll down a single page to find content than click through multiple slides, tabs or pages. You might feel like you need to have multiple pages in order to have a more complete website, but single pages with more content have been shown to produce higher conversion rates.

3. Site Speed Is Paramount

If you haven’t considered page load speed in your web design, it’s time to change your approach. Large image files and non-optimized code will slow down your page. People are not willing to wait for pages to load, so speed is absolutely essential to keep people from clicking away. Page speed is a key factor in SEO that can make or break how your page ranks in search engines and with conversion rates.

4. Don’t Get Too Fancy

Web owners love advanced features like sliders, accordions and other flashy elements, but users don’t love them so much. Again, this plays into the reluctance of users to click to find more information. They would rather absorb everything on the same slide or page than click through slide presentations.

5. Use Visual Cues to Guide Users

In order to guide people on your website, there are various ways to focus their attention on specific elements. One trick is to have a person look or point at a piece of content rather than looking straight ahead.

6. Use Images of People

Having a person’s image on a web page makes visitors feel more connected. A landing page with a large photo of a person has been shown to vastly improve conversion rates.

7. Make Good Use of the First Landing Pages

Research shows that people tend to gather the majority of their information from the first page of a website, so use these pages to their fullest potential to inform your visitors.

8. Give More Choices for Purchases

Studies have shown that people are more likely to buy a product when there is a wide variety of options and choices provided. This makes them feel like they are able to select the option that is most preferable to them.

9. Understand List Order

When given a list of items, people tend to remember the first and last items more than the ones in the middle. Put the most important items at the beginning and at the end.

10. The Concept of Social Proof

People gain a sense of legitimacy by seeing other people accept or approve of the thing in question. When you show other people buying your product or having a positive reaction to your brand, people will be more inclined to believe it is valuable. High ranking on Google is another form of social proof. It shows that a website was selected as the best by a search engine. Combine that with social media interaction and consumers will think positively about a brand.