Good web design is important to your website’s success. If the design is effective, it would increase traffic to the site and also increase sales. On the other hand, if the design is poor, it would repel the users even if you have great products and service.

Consider the following dos and don’ts when designing your website to turn it into a profit center for your business:

Top 10 Dos of Website Design

1. Do provide easy search and navigation capabilities. Your website design should facilitate quick and easy search of required information. All pages also need to have the key links to information that would boost the user experience. As a rule of thumb, it should take less than two to three clicks for customers to access desired information. You would ensure repeat visits from your customers if you save them time by providing fast navigation and quick access to information they are looking for.

2. Do keep your website content simple and easy to understand. Develop clear, effective and to-the-point content to capture customer attention and help them comprehend better what you have to offer. Your content should address customer problems and provide efficient solutions for them.

3. Do give your site a consistent look and feel. If you want your site to look professional, it is necessary to be consistent in fonts, colors and layout of pages. This is especially important with regards to the interlinked pages.

4. Do make your site accessible on multiple browsers. Users may visit your website using many different web browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome. Increasingly large number of users are surfing web sites on the mobile phones. It may make sense to test the site for access on mobile web browsers.

5. Do include your contact information on every page.
List your physical address including other contact information like phone and email on the ‘Contact Us’ page. It is also important to list phone and email at the bottom of each page for easy accessibility.

6. Do ensure that each page has the most relevant information at the top of the page so that the user knows exactly what the page is about and if they want to scroll down or not.

7. Do use high-quality graphics and pictures. Images on your website, including your logo, should be of high-quality to draw in the customer and generate interest but should not take too much time to load.

8. Do use bullets, icons, boldface and italicized words, color and headline to draw customer attention to vital segments of your content.

9. Do make sure that your security and privacy policy are easily accessible to customers and stated in clear terms. Take all necessary steps to make your website secure for customers.

10. Do use clear and concise page titles. Customers see web page title in search results and clear effective titles can significantly increase the traffic coming to your website.

Top 10 Don’ts of Website Design

1. Don’t clutter your website. Cluttered web pages are hard to read and navigate. Limit the amount of information you provide on each page. Each page should ideally deal with only one topic, product or category. Any advertisement on the web pages must be non intrusive else the site visitors would leave and most likely not return for a repeat visit.

2. Don’t make unnecessary use of bandwidth consuming audio and video features, such as graphics, animations and photos. These may be slow to download and are annoying if the customer has to wait too long for them.

3. Don’t use text and color combination that makes content hard to read. Also limit the number of distracting visual on the site.

4. Don’t add any information or features to the site that do not serve the expected purpose. Adding content and features on your website that don’t carry any meaning for visitors is a waste of time and bandwidth.

5. Don’t let the content and links on your website become outdated. Frequently refresh the content and update the links to relevant information. Out-of-date links are annoying and can seriously affect your business reputation.

6. Don’t stuff the site with technical terms or jargon unless your website is designed to address the needs of a small segment of technical people. Moreover, do not use conflicting information in your site. In addition to confusing customers, such information gives a highly negative and unprofessional image to your website.

7. Don’t use flashing icons and text as that can distract browsers and could be detrimental to the popularity of your website.

8. Don’t fill up your web pages with advertisements. Also, limit pop-ups as they can irritate prospects.

9. Don’t include introductory advertisements on the first page before your web content is displayed. Such advertisements put customers in a sore mood even before they see your content.

10. Don’t just brag about your company’s achievements. Provide your shoppers easy to digest information and back it up with references and customer success stories to allow them to judge your performance.

Follow the dos and steer clear of the don’ts of website design to create an effective site, and greatly increase the probability of successful web entrepreneurship. Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.