Best Web Design Resolutions To Follow This New Year
A website replicates a brand online, so having one is essential for startups, small businesses, and established brands. But one thing where business owners often go wrong is taking a set-and-forget approach with their websites.
You may develop a great-looking site with all the trending features, to begin with. But designs go out of trend, and features fall short of user expectations down the road.
The only way to win on both fronts is by being open to changes over the years. In fact, you must take stock of what you have and how you can improve every New Year.
You can even take some actionable resolutions to stay a step ahead of trends and expectations.
7 Top Web Design Resolutions
Here are the best web design resolutions to follow this New Year.
1. Create an improvement plan
The best way to begin the New Year is by creating an improvement plan for your website. Accept that even the best web designs have a scope for improvement, so you must not go complacent with them.
Consider working your way backward to pick flaws and create a plan for tackling them. Mapping your customer journey is the first step because it enables you to create a conversion roadmap and identify the bottlenecks.
Think like an average visitor to check whether the look, feel, content, and navigation of the website are good enough. Understanding these elements can help you fine-tune your site to nurture leads through the conversion funnel.
2. Remove visual distractions
A good website design is about minimal visual distractions, so removing them should be on top of your checklist this New Year. Anything that draws the attention away from the next step of the conversion funnel may be a distraction.
For example, extra-long content, unnatural images, extra buttons, and complicated animations are common culprits. Eliminating them is easy once you focus on consistency.
You can do it by following the brand guidelines on colors, font styles, logo usage, imagery, and iconography. Avoiding on-page interactions also cut down the distraction load on users.
3. Implement organized navigation
Checking your website’s navigation is another resolution you must make this New Year because it determines the user experience. Navigation is the map displaying the places users can visit to learn more about your brand, services, products, and more.
Intuitive navigation puts them in a better place to reach the end of the checkout process and convert. Conversely, a confusing one will likely turn them off and even give them a reason to bounce away for good.
Experts recommend checking the flow and searching for website designers near me if any anomalies exist in navigation. A seasoned design expert can help you get a grip on them and reset the user flow to drive conversions.
4. Display calls-to-action
If your website does not have enough calls to action, it is time to display them this New Year. CTAs are perhaps the most crucial elements of navigation as they encourage the user to move to the next step of the journey.
For example, you can use them to land the visitor on the product page to explore it and move them down the conversion funnel. You can even use CTAs to take the user to your blog section to hook the audience with content and prove your niche expertise.
Remember that CTAs should be visible at the right places to grab attention and drive action. Additionally, they should show the intention so that the user knows what they actually achieve by clicking the button.
5. Add social proof
Social proof can be a game-changer when it comes to selling your brand and products online. Ensure that your website has enough of it this New Year to take your sales and follow a notch higher.
User-generated content such as reviews and testimonials are the best ways to gather social proof for your brand. They add immense value because potential buyers are more likely to trust existing consumers instead of brand promotions.
Encourage buyers to share reviews and place them strategically on your website to ensure visibility for the visitors. Think beyond textual content because video testimonials can have a better impact.
You can even add a dedicated testimonial page on the website besides showcasing a few on the home page.
6. Use plenty of white space
The New Year is about purging your living space and mind by eliminating redundant stuff. You can also invest in a decluttering spree for your website by creating plenty of white space in its design. White space is the blank area around the elements on a web page.
It enhances aesthetics and increases readability by breaking up the page. More white space gives comfort to the eye, so there are better chances of visitors sticking to the end.
They can also recognize different segments and understand their purposes. Assess your website to check if it has enough white space separating elements and presenting them in a better way.
7. Check speed and mobile optimization
Although website speed and mobile optimization do not seem to have much to do with the design, they can go a long way with UX.
Slow loading speed repels users as they do not have the patience and time to wait for the site to load. A lack of mobile responsiveness is even worse because it can deprive you of the massive mobile user base.
Moreover, both factors can affect your SEO rankings, which can be a huge setback for your business. Working on these factors should be your top priority this New Year and beyond.
The New Year is the right time to rework your web design, so you must definitely pay attention to these factors to set things right.
Addressing these factors can help your brand in more than one way, from getting your site on top of SEO rankings to making the visitors stick and driving conversions.
You can also retain customers for the long haul if they are happy with the user experience. Making these resolutions this year can definitely set your business on the right track.
