Business websites have to have high quality content to be successful, but when you make the effort to design a visually engaging site, you’ll make that content more enjoyable, capture new visitors’ attention, and keep them around longer.
Visiting your business website should be an enjoyable experience.
A beautiful, engaging website is more likely to be bookmarked or attract return visitors, and the ultimate result is a healthier bottom line for your business. Here are some ways to make your business website more engaging for your visitors.
Navigation Should Be Clear and Concise
A certain amount of basic navigation is necessary. For example, you don’t want visitors to have to poke around page after page to find your contact information. But there is such a thing as too many navigation options, and they can turn visitors off. When designing your navigation scheme, know what step you want your visitor to take after visiting your homepage. Keep navigation links to the minimum required for the visitor to learn more about your company.
Consider Responsive Web Design or a Mobile App
More web traffic than ever before comes from mobile devices, with 55% of internet usage in the US coming from mobile devices in January 2014. Responsive web design ensures your site looks great on a PC, laptop, phone, or tablet, and the best web design company will be well-versed in responsive web design. Some companies choose to develop a mobile app that’s separate from their regular site, but if that’s not in your plans (or budget), responsive web design is the way to go.
Use Images and Color Sensibly
Images can add greatly to a site’s engagement level, but it’s possible to overuse them. If you can’t decide among multiple images, you can use techniques like automatic image sliders that change the main image every few seconds and display relevant text alongside. Your images may or may not depict actual products, but they should always reflect your company’s brand. Your site’s color scheme should reflect the colors you already use in your logos and advertising collateral, to reinforce the visual look associated with your company.
No Walls of Text
The “wall of text” is notorious for causing site visitors to click away.
The best website design firm will tell you that even the most avid reader is instantly overwhelmed by an unbroken wall of text. Text on every page of your site, including your blog and resource pages with more in-depth information, should be broken up into “bite-sized” chunks with brief paragraphs, headings, and lists. People tend to skim the sections of your text to learn the main points before deciding to dig deeper.
Make It Shareable and Social Media Friendly
Your email, phone number, and other contact information is as important as ever, but you should also make content easy to share on social media like Twitter, Facebook, and other sites. In strongly visual businesses like clothing, home décor, or design, making content easily shareable on Pinterest is smart too. Social media sharing buttons are easy to add and don’t have to take up a lot of valuable web page real estate.
There’s No Substitute for High Quality Content
A beautiful site with mediocre content may draw initial interest, but won’t keep it. Just as importantly, all major search engines are designed to reward businesses with higher search engine rankings when their websites have fresh, original, high quality content. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all make it clear that quality content is rewarded by their search algorithms, so don’t skimp on content quality.
Conclusion
Pay attention to web design trends (as opposed to fads), and ensure your website is not only beautiful, but concise, easy to navigate, and filled with original, fresh, high quality content. And don’t forget about mobile users, because they make up an increasing share of web traffic. Making your website content easy to share on social media is great for extending your reach at low cost, so don’t forget to add those share buttons.
Maxburst is a Long Island web design and development company that creates beautiful, engaging, custom web designs fit for your specific needs and goals. When you work with Maxburst on your web design and roll-out, you can be assured of engaging design that works across all platforms and assists with your search engine optimization strategy. The result is not only a better website, but better business.
