As a professional digital agency and web design Surrey based team, Thunderbolt offer expert services including digital design, web development, hosting, content creation, social media marketing and more. Thunderbolt Digital are well aware of the importance of web design, and how it has the power to make or break your online business. User experience (UX) dominates all, and an easy to use site is a must, but practicality must always be balanced with more aesthetic elements of design – unattractive websites can drive customers away almost as surely as a crashing site can! We thought we’d spread a little new year’s cheer and give out a few insider tips about key things to consider about your site, including whether it…
Is Mobile Optimised?
Our web design Surrey team at Thunderbolt talk a lot about this, but optimising your site so that it can be viewed easily on smartphones and tablets is essential; not only are most Google searches performed on mobile devices (as opposed to computers) but the search engine giant actually lowers your search result rankings if your site isn’t mobile optimised (see mobilegeddon)! Even if this wasn’t the case, the huge number of tablet and smartphone internet users in itself makes mobile optimisation a vital process, as any potential customer who can’t view or use your site properly may just go to a competitor rather than wait to gain access to a computer to visit your site!
Is Aesthetically Pleasing?
Perhaps we’re stating the obvious here, but there are still a fair number of SMEs with outdated and even downright ugly websites! Some people just don’t seem to realise exactly how important a good-looking site is! Yes, functionality is key, but appearance shouldn’t be ignored when consumers are, by nature, very aesthetically driven! Make sure your developers pay attention to their use of colour; many social networks are blue because the colour is meant to be calming, but your site doesn’t necessarily need to have any hidden meaning to the colours, as long as they look good and work well together. Another thing to consider is that if consumers have the option to purchase goods from your site then you should ensure that good quality photos are used on the product page – think about what looks appealing when shopping on sites like eBay versus what puts you off.
Has Efficient Navigation?
Try and design your site so that customers can select products or services easily and check out in as few clicks as possible. Many online baskets are left hanging because users will just up and leave if they find the payment transaction process too long or frustrating. People shop online to try and make things easier for themselves – if you forget this key factor, you may just end up driving away customers! Work with them, cater to them, not against!