6. Colors
Combine ideas from websites you like and your thoughts how it should feel and look to decide on the background, menu and header colors. Few main tips are (1) use natural colors, (2) make a strong contrast between background and text, (3) select around 3 colors and use them throughout the entire website, and (4) take into account people with visual disabilities. You may find trendiest color palettes in Internet.
7. Photos and images
Many site owners place their promo images as the main focus of their sites. In these situations photos and images should not contradict or disappear in background or elements of the web design. If your focus is not visuals, but text and you do not have any photos, search for some relevant images in Internet with a high-resolution quality. Visuals convey message much better than plain text.
8. Mobile first
Responsive design is already a norm. Your web should look good on desktop, tablet and mobile. It’s worth to remember that most of the Internet surfing now happens in mobile. Your web design and text should show its best in the mobile view because it is the primary medium for visitors.
9. Web-friendly font
There are thousands of fonts to be chosen from. They should fit in the overall web design feel and at the same time serve needs of all devices and browsers. Since people have different fonts installed on their computers, it might be so that some stylish or rear fonts may look ordinary or even bad on some screens. Safe choice is one of the classic fonts, like Ariel, Verdana, Serif, Time New Romans, Courier. Check how your font looks on the most common browsers and operating systems to prevent your visitors from unexpected design “surprises”.
10. Content of your website
Put some main bullets of text after you make a menu of your website. Keep your text short – 2-3 sentences, because people do not like to read long texts. Integrate and remember keywords of each section to add in your SEO (search engine optimization tool). The tone of your text should fit your web design overall feel. Be positive, simple and clear!
11. Add buttons to social networks
Social networks work as a selling point of your website. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and some other is a must when you need to promote or sell your business on a daily basis. Link your website content with social networks and your social network content with the website to attract the most of traffic.
12. Google tools
Easiest part is to make a web design, but the hardest one is to promote it and bring stable and growing number of visitors in it. Provide regular, relevant and engaging content in social networks. Boost your sales, using Google Adwords and Facebook Ads Manager. Don’t forget to have a Google Analytics account to see channels your customers come from, what is their demographics and who are your loyal customers. This is another science to dig deeper, but some basic features might be very useful also for amateurs.
What is the main advice? Start doing. Questions and answers will pop-up themselves.
Author’s bio: Lauris works for Berta.me – an easy web design tool for personal portfolios, company pages and online shops.