Five Web Design Tips for Beginners

As a new entrepreneur or small business owner, you need to know who you are. More important, you need to share who you are and what makes your products and/or services unique with your audience. And while some people will say engaging your audience with social media is the most important thing for small businesses to do in today’s digital landscape, the truth is, nothing compares to building your online presence with a powerful, well-designed website that generates leads and revenue.

1. Think organization. Your website should have a seemingly ubiquitous flow. Select color scheme, background, text and graphics accordingly. Carefully place white spaces—this will give the reader’s eyes a break and the opportunity to absorb your message.

2. Be consistent. Just as you would format a newsletter or brochure, your website should also be symmetrical. Make your headings, footers, and navigation consistent and complementary of one another.

3. Less is more approach. A simpler design leaves more room for subtleties. A splash of color here or bolded text there is more appealing to the naked eye than overwhelming flash media and oversized graphics.

4. Easy to navigate. Ideally, you want visitors to find exactly what they are looking for in 3 clicks or less. Therefore, it’s important that hyperlinks are visible and working properly. Also, your contact information should be easily accessibly.

5. Keep SEO in mind. Search engine optimization can save you a lot of money in marketing and advertising dollars. Use words that have high search engine rankings with free tools like the Google Keyword Tool. Try to incorporate these words in your content 5-7 times.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll have more time to spend running your business. If you can think like your customers—make them care about you, your business, and your products and services with a website design that is interesting and engaging—the possibilities for what you can achieve will be limitless.