The 3 Fundamentals of Web Design
No matter what kind of business you own, how involved you are in the website-building process, or how many people are involved in your website-building team, the fundamentals of website-building remain the same. You need to think of your customers first and foremost by having an Orange County web design that is fully functional, fully accessible, and easy to navigate around so visiting your website is a pleasant experience. Without all of these fundamentals, your website and, thus, your business will never reach greater heights!
In this article, we’ll be talking about those said fundamentals. Your website needs to check all of these so you can get good value for your money—remember, a custom website isn’t cheap.
1. Your Website Needs to Always Be Up and Running
Imagine that you’ve got the best website you could possibly get from top website designers in Orange County. Everything from the navigation to the pictures to the products to the reviews and everything else is picture-perfect. However, nobody can see it because it’s too hard to get into! Maybe the page loading speed is so slow that people give up waiting for it, or maybe it’s just always under construction that customers never actually get to see it in all its glory!
Whatever the case is, there’s no point in having an amazing website if nobody is there to see it. It’s akin to having an awesome interior design at home but no windows or doors to look at it.
When you’re building a house, you don’t want to lay the bricks down willy-nilly—you layer them one by one, ensuring the base is sturdy, before adding the next layer. So, to ensure the stability of your website, you need to make sure you’ve got everything covered, even before the website is built. You need to map out your website by outlining your objectives and sectioning these into smaller pieces, so it’s easier to accomplish.
In addition to that, web development in Orange County is an ongoing process. Things can break at a moment’s notice, so you can’t let your guard down just because your website has been completed already. You always need to look at your web hosting and have a web designer on standby to fix any issues. This way, the website won’t be down for long.
2. Your Website Should Be Accessible to All
Long gone are the days when society does most of its transactions on the ground. These days, mundane things like shopping for items, doing bank transactions, attending classes, chatting with loved ones, and so much more are done on the Internet. And, since society is made up of people from all walks of life, website owners must make things free and accessible for all.
Just like how eyeglasses, ramps, elevators, wheelchairs, and service dogs help people with disabilities in real life, you need things like color contrast, adjustable font sizes, screen readers, and more to help viewers navigate your website properly.
And accessibility doesn’t necessarily have to refer to only physical and mental disabilities. It also means being adaptable to the many devices people use to access the Internet these days too. People not only use laptops and computers, but also cellphones, tablets, smartwatches, and more. You always need to have an Orange County mobile web design to make sure your website looks good from any device.
Making things accessible either way is very important for two reasons.
Firstly, if you don’t make your website accessible to people with disabilities, there are legal ramifications. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, any website owner can get in trouble with the law if their website hinders a disabled person in any way.
Secondly, if you don’t make your website accessible to multiple gadgets, Google will sanction you by having you fall off the rankings. You may even find yourself unsearchable on search engines! That’s because Google actively takes off websites that aren’t mobile-friendly as it ruins the user experience for their searchers. Thus, the lower your rankings, the lower traffic you’ll get, and the lower your conversion rates will be.
3. Your Website Should Be Easy to Navigate
Now that your website is fully functional and accessible to the masses, it needs to be easy to navigate. Your customers should be able to find whatever they need without any trouble.
Start by having a menu. With this, you can categorize everything on your website. You can separate your about us, services provided, creative content, and contact us pages so it’s convenient. You can also further divide these pages into subcategories, like dividing your products into colors, types, sizes, and more.
If you own a particularly large website, you should consider adding a search engine. Your customers need only type in a key phrase to find what they need!
Another good idea is to clearly label everything on your website. Use large header text and an accent color to differentiate it from the rest of the body text. You should also have different designs or images for each page, so they look different from one another. You’ve got a whole website with many pages—don’t just use the same template for every page! Get creative and start experimenting!
To fully understand what your readers will be seeing, we highly recommend hiring a UX expert to help with your site navigation. They’ll be able to put themselves in your reader’s shoes, anticipate their needs and preferences, and more so that everything from the start to the end of your marketing funnel is flawless.
Conclusion
Need help with your Orange County web development? Drive Traffic Media has you covered. Contact us today at (949) 800-6990 or visit our website here to get started on building your functional, accessible, and easy-to-navigate website.