Get ready to learn top-secret design tips and tricks from Orange County Website Design!

Looking to make a killer website? One sure to wow your customers? Maybe you've looked at different website design templates, but feel lost with all the options. How are you supposed to create the kind of website that will give your business — well — the business it deserves?

No need to worry. Here are some website design tips that will impress your customers and make sure they stay glued to your site, all the way to the purchase button.

1. Trim the Fat

With all the features at your digital fingertips, it's easy to lost in the sea of options. But remember: customers come to see a product, not an over-designed website. An overabundance of design elements might end up being more distracting than helpful. So if your bevy of colors and font taken from the Elizabethan era aren't doing your product any favors, it's best to leave them out.

Instead:

• Stick to what works: Looking for that effortlessly polished look of some websites? The name of the game is consistency. Choose 2-4 flattering colors and 1-2 clean fonts and coordinate their use throughout your website. Use other decorations sparingly.
• Use white space: No, it's not just a trending style. White space gives much-needed breathing room to your web page and draws commanding attention to areas of interest.
• Take advantage of hierarchy principles: Ask yourself what's important (calls to action; crucial features; and of course, the product itself), and use your fonts and colors in conjunction to guide your visitor to what you want them to see.

2. Lay all Your Facts on the Table

Sure, sidebars, carousel displays, and drop-down accordion designs allow most of your information to reside in nice little compartments, but they also spell out a death sentence for your hidden information. Around 79% of visitors will only interact with your website on a scanning level, which means you're working with a very short attention span.

A Notre Dame University study also proved the inefficiency of the carousel, showing that while 84% of click-throughs were made on the first slide, less than 1% of clicks were made on the subsequent ones. The short version of all this? If your content requires extra effort (i.e., clicks) to see, it's likely going to go ignored.

Instead:

• Stack your information: A Crazy Egg study revealed that having a longer website homepage with product information and features in plain, scrollable view boosted customer engagement by 30%. So, the more time you spend explaining your product and answering your customers' potential questions, the more likely they'll hang around to the final sale.
• Use an anchored menu: Again, this goes back to the principle of stacking. Sidebars, while convenient, distract from the main content and do little to increase conversion rates. Instead, place your sidebar information into your homepage and use an anchored menu for a more user-friendly design.

3. Think Visually

The data has spoken. People (and search engines) prefer visuals over words. Add a picture with some text and you up memory retention by 55%. Add a video, and you're looking at a 53 times higher likelihood to rank on Google's first page. As the demand for good visuals continues to grow, the benefits are too high to ignore. So even if you feel like your inner poet is fully capable of captivating your audience, don't rely on just your words do the talking.

Instead:

• Get creative: "Visual" doesn't just translate to the photo/video. If you have strong stats, infographics are a great way to show your data. If your website has a cheeky sense of humor, a GIF might be the perfect way to grab attention. Use whatever you have at your disposal.
• Choose authenticity over polish: Say no to stock images of office strangers smiling in color-coordinated dress shirts. Your customers look at your photos to get an idea of your company and staff — to know whom they're potentially getting involved with. If a photo seems perfectly posed and manufactured to you, it will to them as well. Invest in quality camerawork that features real company people for an authentic image your customers can trust.
• Give your visuals prime real estate: Strong visuals are like an Ace of Spades in Spades or a wild card in Uno (whichever metaphor works for you). They're only valuable when played in the right context. No matter how great your photo is, if you don't give it the location it needs, you're wasting the potential of your winning card. So by making sure you work your text and other features around your power players, you set up your visuals to truly command attention.

Conclusion

A good website sets the standard of what your customer can expect from your company. While a clean site conveys professionalism, a cluttered one begs a user to close the page. Ensuring your website is in tip-top shape ensures that your business has the resources necessary to nail the sale. So go ahead; implement these tips and create a website that's not just appealing, but absolutely addictive.