• Navigation Bar
How easy is it for a visitor to navigate around your website? Can somebody quickly find your contact information or purchase your product with only one click? If the answer to these questions is no, then you need to revamp your design. A great website is built around a clean and straightforward navigation bar. Don’t make your visitors spend time on a distant, non-canonical link. Get rid of any unnecessary sub-pages or redundant links.
• Keywords / Search Engine Optimisation
Most people think of website design as a primarily visual exercise. The truth is that websites are increasingly ranked as much by their content as the images they display. SEO, or search engine optimisation, is one of the most important aspects of website design. Therefore, when you design your own website, ask yourself: What are the keywords that best describe your site? It’s important that you think about the words people would likely use to find your site when they use a search engine. If you have a site that sells hand knit sweaters, for example, you’ll need to make sure that you use keywords that describe all the types of sweaters you sell. You’ll also need to make sure that all the “content” on your website uses these keywords frequently enough that search engines will pick up on them, but not so frequently that your content becomes unreadable. Make sure that each of your major subject headings either reflects or integrates these keywords.
• Loading Time
How quickly does your website load? If your website takes over four seconds to load, you will likely lose a significant amount of potential web traffic. People get frustrated by slow load times and simply click back to the first page of search results. Resizing all the images on the site and making sure that all the appropriate files are properly uploaded to the server can significantly reduce load times. Missing images, outdated links and oversized files can clog your load time. Luckily, saving large pictures as JPEGS or even PNG files can significantly reduce your total load time without eroding the quality of your images.
• Mobile Website Development
In the era of smart phones and tablet computing, traditional website design is no longer enough. When you design your own website, you’ll want to be sure to also design a mobile version for smart phones and tablets. A mobile version can have the exact same content as your traditional website, but it should be geared to display at different sizes and incorporate “apps” or other smart phone utilities into its basic functionality. If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. Mobile website design is basically just like traditional web design, except in a different sized frame.
• Personality
Whatever design you choose, have fun. Don’t be afraid to express your personality. Websites can easily be edited with a few clicks of your mouse.