With the rising competition for top spots on search engines, having a high-quality web design is not an option, but a necessity. It’s therefore crucial for website owners to ensure that their sites are responsive, easy to navigate with quick load times, browser consistency and appealing visuals.

This article highlights 5 essential web design tips for professional sites:

Fast Load Times

According to scientists, the smartphone age has seen the attention of humans drop from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, which is less than the notoriously ill-focused goldfish, that’s known to have the shortest attention span of 9 seconds. What this means is that if a site takes longer to load, it’s highly likely that the users will quickly get off to the next one. On that note, a website should load within 4 to 6 seconds. Widgets like social media, and website tracking, as well as third-party website plugins, are some of the factors that affect the speed of a site, and it’s best to limit their use.

Responsive design

People use different types of devices to access the internet; they may use a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, tablet or even iPad. For this reason, it’s vital to have a website that’s compatible with all these devices; otherwise, it will be difficult for clients to use the platform, and they’ll, therefore, bounce off to competitor sites that are compatible with their devices. Those with existing website can check how their platform appears on mobile. If it doesn’t fit the screen, then it is unresponsive.

Easy Navigation

This is a vital aspect of website usability. Simple JavaScript and HTML menus tend to appear consistent and work best on all platforms and browsers. Users want to smoothly move from one page to the next and back to the homepage. If the navigation is full of clutter, it makes it difficult to achieve that. Web design now integrates advanced tools like Ajax and Mootools for even better navigation systems.

In addition to the navigation menu, some other important aspects to bear in mind include:

• Informative footer and header
• Custom 404 page
• Good internal linking
• Good search feature
• Multiple ways of exploring content, such as most popular, top 10, etc.

Browser consistency

This is often overlooked. Surprisingly, even some of the most reputable companies suffer from the browser compatibility issue due to neglect. Unfortunately, its bad for branding because it negatively impacts the site’s usability. While today’s browsers are advanced more efficient, there are still some inconsistencies in how different browsers interpret platforms. Therefore, one should make sure their website behaves and appears consistently across the major browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and Opera. These are things that differentiate a professionally done website from the others.

Visuals

With the reduced attention span, site owners want to hold people for as long as they can. One of the best ways they do this is by using eye-catching things. If a website is old-fashioned and unattractive, users will quickly leave assuming it doesn’t offer better solutions or services. A good idea would be to look at the competitor’s website for inspiration. Another important aspect is to use professionally done pictures that reflect the kinds of solutions on offer. Huge images can slow down the site, so the best bet should be to upload the pictures in JPG or PNG formats.