Websites are one of the most powerful tools for doing business today. Websites with great web design combine visual design, functionality and usability to orchestrate a seamless journey for the user to engage with their brand online. Ultimately, the goal of great website design is to solve prove problems, effectively communicate your message and drive beneficial user behaviour. In this article we will share with you the nine Noosa website design rules for developing a great website for your business. By applying some of these tried-and-true design principles, you can increase your website’s appeal and encourage visitors to stay for longer.
Rule 1: Space
Space, when used generously gives the content on the page room to breathe. When you surround an understated design element or snippet of text with ample white space, you automatically draw attention to it. Remember, the attention of your visitor comes at a premium. With some thought, you can use space within your design to direct the user’s attention to important elements, making it easier for them to focus on the reason they’re on your page. By keeping things visually uncluttered, you reduce distraction and simplify the user’s experience when navigating your website.
Rule 2: Optimal Word Count for Noosa SEO Rankings
Great content is the driving force behind any successful SEO strategy. When designing a website be mindful to create useful content for each page that is optimised for search and includes desired keywords, as this will help improve your website’s overall ranking. Current SEO best practices dictate an optimal word count that ranges between 300-1000 words per web page. One of the most important factors that determine how well you rank on search engines is how quickly your website loads. Content should get straight to the point as huge chunks of text slow things down and can make your site less responsive.
Rule 3: Keep Copy Customer-Focussed
Good copy is informative, compelling and engaging. Great copy advances action. Every single line of copy on your website should help your visitors learn something or motivate them into taking action. While it might sound harsh, the fact of the matter is that people don’t really care about your business- they care about how your business solves their problems. When developing web copy, keep the following in mind:
- Emphasise benefits over features
- Develop a consistent brand voice and style
- Write from the perspective of the customer- focus on user intent
- Make sure your copy is free of typos and grammatically correct as this damage can the professional image you are trying to build
Rule 4: Call To Action Buttons
Think of your website as gateway to a specific action that you want to direct the user to. One of the first things users should see when they visit your website is a strong and obvious call to action (CTA). Today, the digital space is dominated by those websites that take this into account when developing their web design. Call to action buttons should be thoughtfully designed with the skilful use of colour, contrast, size and placement. Great web design showcases your CTA as a selling point that drives engagement.
Rule 5: Internal Links
Great web design uses internal linking to help visitors to better navigate their site. Internal linking also makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site which influences how well you rank. Search engines use links to find out what content on your site is related and the value of that content. This gives them an idea of the structure of your website. If you’re trying to boost your SEO efforts, understanding the use of internal linking and how pages on your website can contribute value and authority to new pages is extremely important.
Rule 6: Professional Imagery in Noosa
Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than it does text. Great web design capitalizes on the power of professional imagery. After all, it is believed that 93% of all human communication is visual. Be mindful of your choice of images as they should be in alignment with the tone of your website and help communicate a consistent brand identity.
Rule 7: Optimisation of Images
Maximise the impact and reach of your images by optimising them for search and reducing the file size as much as possible without sacrificing quality, so that your page load times remain low. Image optimisation boost SEO ranking, improve loading speed and enhance user experience.
Rule 8: Responsive Design
Offer visitors to your site the best user experience no matter what device they use. This doesn’t only mean making sure that your website’s design fits different screen size. A website needs to be intuitive to use, whether it’s the navigation or the page layout. Responsive design ensures that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for and take the desired actions in the most efficient way.
Rule 9: Automatic Backups
Automatic backups of your website are essential. Not only does it keep your web content safe and secure, it provides you with the single greatest insurance plan any website owner can use to prevent disaster. Getting hacked is a grim reality all business owners face online. Cyber-attacks happen all too often these days. Automating the backup process of your website ensures that you never lose the valuable content you’ve worked hard to create if anything unfortunate occurs.