Good design is a key factor in the success of your website. It can greatly affect your conversions and the impression your audience has of your brand. Design not only pertains to how your pages look but more importantly, how your website works. Good website design means a good user experience and a well-structured page performs better and improves your chance of ranking well in Google.

So, what makes a good website design? There are a lot of things to consider so we broke it down for you.

Good Website Design Speaks to Your Target Audience

The first step in the process of creating a good website design is asking the question, ”Who is my target audience?” Internet marketing gives you the opportunity to reach everybody who has access to the internet. But this is not a good idea unless you have a very big budget. While it’s true that millions of people use the internet, not everybody will be interested in what you’re offering. Knowing your target audience is super important so that you can focus your marketing efforts on the right audience.

Once you’ve defined your target market, the next step is to create a design that appeals to them. To do this, you need to know your audiences’ needs, pain points and expectations of your products or services.

A good website design that is tailored to the target audience will result in:

• Better user experience (UX)
• Increased Engagement and Conversions
• Higher search rankings

Designing your website for your target audience means creating content and functionality that will interest and help them. After all your efforts in advertising and marketing campaigns, your website is where you will close the deal with your customer. If your website doesn’t communicate properly with your audience, it may leave a negative impression that will ultimately affect your business.

What is Good Website Design

Obviously, a good website design is a must. Why? For one, it can literally dictate the success or failure of your business. And website design as we stated earlier is not all about the visual design or the “look” of your website. Another factor to consider is the functionality and usability of your website.

In fact, a simple looking website with great usability will rank higher in Google than a clever or overly-creative website with confusing navigation and poor user experience.

Here are the important elements of a good website design:

• Simple and clean layout. With website design, simple and clean is best. A cluttered website with too many features may be distracting to your audience. It can also make navigation more difficult. Make sure that the Call to Action (CTA) and your products get the most attention. Design your website layout with plenty of white space. This will make your pages cleaner and easier to read.
• Easy-use navigation. To make navigation easier, the menu should be accessible on all pages. This will ensure that your visitors can access any page they need. Always remember the “three-click-rule”. This means your customers should be able to get the information they need within three clicks maximum. In fact, the fewer the better.
• Interesting and quality content. Interesting content is the best way to keep your visitors engaged. The longer they stay on your site the better. Invest in a good copywriter to bring out key messages.  It is important to take time developing compelling and informative content such as blog posts, website copy and other content that relates to your business. Always make sure to use clear images and try not to use too many stock images. If you use stock images, crop them or add a colour wash or overlay to make them more customised.
• Mobile responsive. Your visitors are more likely to access your website with smartphones and tablets. Mobile responsive websites look great on all devices and help in making sure that visitors can easily navigate to what they are looking for. Having a mobile-friendly website also helps to increase the visibility in search engines that results in more visitors and conversions.
• Branding. Your website represents your brand. That’s why it’s important to have design consistency in your logo, website, social media and other materials such as your brochures, etc. Your visitors should be able to always make a visual connection to all aspects of your business for your website to be memorable and credible.
• Effective Conversion. Not all visitors to your website will be ready to buy your products or services immediately. Therefore a good way to build a relationship with them is by offering them something of value like a free download, free consultations or maybe a coupon to use in your online store.. All of these are great calls to action (CTA) that can be accessed through a click of a button or a simple form to fill out on your website.

A good website design consists of all of these elements. Correct implementation of these will ensure that your website has a higher probability of attracting traffic and converting your leads to customers. If you want to know what a bad design does to your website, check out this fun article from Studio1 Design.

_{Source: amicadigital.com}