• 31st August 2017

What makes a really great website?

What makes a really great website?

What makes a really great website? 1024 480 79DESIGN Ltd

Different people have different opinion of what makes a really great website.  Ours is a fairly “back to basics” view, but one that is simple and we believe all should adhere to, on all websites.

The design of the website

A design should be easy to understand, uncluttered.  The colours of the website should match the brand, the company’s colours.  It sounds easy and obvious but many sites have a red and blue logo, but the titles, and other areas are just black or other colours.  So it doesn’t all match up.  The same goes for the font used – the text styling.

One cannot always get the same font for the website as used in the logo.  But a clean and easy to read font is very important.  It does of course depend on the feel you want for the website.  Open Sans, Raleway, Roboto, Segoe, Helvetica – these are fonts we tend to work with on our websites.  These work well, are friendly in their design, rounded and easy to read.

The big mistake is to have different fonts all over the website.  Using a different font for buttons, or small titles can work, but generally, we try to use one for for the main site, and one for the logo.

Website navigation that’s super easy to follow

Simple when you think about it, but the navigation of a website is how you lead your customers around your ‘shop front’.  If it is confusing then your customers get confused and may leave.  It’s also important not to have a menu that is row after row of links.  A menu should be ‘ONE LINE’ of links.  If you need more, then the additional links should be within a dropdown ‘sub menu’ of another menu item.  Rows of links is just too complicated.

It also matters that your website is responsive, so that on a mobile, the menu ‘collapses’ into a dropdown, so you can tap that and view the menu and it’s all tappable.  You don’t want to have to ‘zoom in’ to click the links.  That’s just not clever and not pretty.

Good use of images on the right pages

An image tells a story.  Good usage of imagery is very imporant, plus Google and others likes to see images on your page.  But adding an image isn’t enough.  A good designer will ensure it is named correctly.  ie.  Not photo-house-3857383.jpg, but house-frontage-windows.jpg.  That tells search engines what it is.  There is more to it within the code too.

A good designer will program it all correctly.

Many of our websites have full width fullscreen images.  These can give a big wow factor.  If you are selling clothing for example, opening a page will a full screen of people wearing your clothes, can look really amazing.  Moreso that a small pic of the same thing.

Easy Contact Pages to find

Customers want to contact you – so if you have very little information on your contact page, or it’s hidden away, it’s not good.  Make it super easy for them to get in touch.  To coin a phrase – make it “idiot proof”.

Finally – get a good website designer

This is where we step in – we hope!  We have experience of website design going back over 15 years, before this company was first created.  From the very basic early days of websites, through to the amazing stuff out there today.

A good website designer will keep in touch with you.  Respond to your messages promptly, politely and in a friendly manner.  Keeping you in the loop of new developments for your website, and updated as a new site is being made for you.

You will need to provide content for the site, but a good website designer will know the right way to express it on screen, the right ‘programming’ to aid search engines to read it correctly.

Bit like a builder: get one that knows how to build your construction correctly.  The right foundations, the right design, the completion look and feel.

Simple really.

Contact us today about your website

We like to think we are very accessible, and our customers can get hold of us really quick and easy.  Fill out this form to let us know your requirements and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.  Usually within 24 hours.  Sometimes, within just a few hours.

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