Orange County businesses that handle their website design sometimes neglect certain aspects of the process that more experienced designers are sure to remember. If you’re new to web design, then there is no shame in this. It’s bound to be a learning process, and the more you work on your site, the better at it you will become.
At the same time, though, you want your Orange County business to thrive, and that means you need to shore up any deficiencies in your site design. These are the website design aspects that are most commonly glossed over by newbies.
You Need Designs that are Flexible and Easily Maintained
When you first design your site, if you’ve never done something like this before then you’re probably happy if everything seems to be functioning more or less as it should. But just because you’ve got the site off the ground without any major disasters doesn’t mean that the job is done.
The best websites for Orange County businesses are those that can be easily updated and maintained. That means that the code should be as simple as possible and there should not be any elements that are going to give you headaches later when you try to modify them. Separate style from the structure and make your work as modular as possible.
It helps to remember that web design is a relatively young industry. Because things can change in a short amount of time, web designs that are as flexible as possible are very much to your benefit.
How Does Your Site Interact with Various Browsers?
As you set up your Orange County business website, be aware of browser quirks. Every browser has them; they are finicky at best and unpredictable at worst.
Your website design should not work in one or two browsers but in as many as possible. There are tools like Browsershots that can help you test your design in multiple browsers. Correct as many flaws and deficiencies as possible before your site goes live, but also be sure to run regular checks as you engage in updates and add new pages.
Know That People are Impatient
This is advice that every Orange County business should take to heart when they are engaging in website design. There are some obvious things for you to do that can help with this problem, like formatting your images and other visual content so that your pages will load quickly.
However, you should also know to put the most vital aspects of every page at the top, since many individuals who visit your site will not bother to scroll down. You need what is above the crease to grab and hold their attention. At the same time, though, you can’t overcrowd the top of the page. The best web designers know how to strike a balance between these two concerns. It’s going to take some practice for you to get to that level.
Think of the top half of your page as a selling point, and look at it with the eye of a salesperson before your site goes live. Is there anything that needs to be there that you aren’t seeing? Is there anything about the design that is unappealing and will be a turn-off for the first-time site visitor?
Don’t Forget About SEO
The job of a website designer in Orange County and an SEO specialist are not the same, and yet one has to do with the other. Can website design exist without SEO? Of course, it can, but if you want to get the best results for your site, meaning engagement, more visitors, and ultimately conversions, then search engine optimization is something that needs to happen.
It’s possible that you don’t know enough about SEO to do both that and the actual site design work, or it could be that you know plenty about SEO, but it’s too time-consuming for you to dedicate too many of your spare moments to it.
If either of those scenarios is accurate, then you must employ an agency to do the work or else hire a permanent optimization specialist who can tune up your site as it grows. If you’re doing social media at all, then your SEO specialist can probably help you out in that regard as well.
Intent-Based Web Design
The last item that we wanted to touch on for Orange County businesses is that your web design should be intent-based. That means you should brainstorm before you start constructing your site and you should make a list of everything that needs to be on there, while at the same time you should be mindful of what does not.
There’s this urge sometimes for new web designers that you want to put something on a site just to show that you know how to do it. You might know how to get a particular visual effect, and you feel like you have to find somewhere on your landing page to fit it in.
But the best sites are often the simplest ones, at least when it comes to straightforward sales goals. Getting too fancy or shoehorning in some unneeded elements isn’t likely to help your cause, and it could very well hurt it.
Try to stick yourself in the mindset of the person who is visiting your site for the first time. Is there any element of what you see that could seem confusing rather than helpful? If so, eliminate it, and your site will be stronger for it.
Website design can be a gratifying experience if it’s done correctly. There is a sense of pride that fills you when you look at your first website, and you successfully interact with all of the various components for which you are responsible. You may get the urge not just to maintain and add to your site but to create some other new ones as well. Web design can be an artistic endeavor as much as a practical one, and it could even turn out to be your new hobby, Orange County residents.