Design tips for an engaging website

Good design should be at the forefront of your online strategy but so many businesses either ignore it or try to do too much

Engaging websites are few and far between. Here are five tips to make your site shine.

Design is the currency of doing business online. Most people won’t even click through to your website if it isn’t at the top of Google’s search results. And if it has a bad design, you can kiss your sale goodbye.

For many businesses, designing an engaging website isn’t necessarily their strong suit, so here are some tips to get you started:

1. Prioritise organisation      

For users to actually interact with your site it needs to be set up properly. A clear navigation system – one that has no more options than absolutely necessary – goes a long way to achieving that. You want to direct users to the places where they’ll feel they’re getting the most information, and are not overwhelmed with useless clicks.

2. Make sure it’s compatible with mobile

An engaging site has to be mobile-friendly, otherwise you’re missing out on a huge amount of traffic. And for that matter, your site needs to be designed for tablets, too.

3. Avoid waffle

Keep your descriptions, about page and other information short and to the point. You don’t want to waffle on too much as people might get bored and leave. That includes making sure you use basic writing structure, including paragraphs and proper grammar.

4. Embrace imagery

There’s a reason people tend to share content online that includes pictures and videos more than just text. Images are engaging and they stimulate the senses. Use quality imagery as much as possible in order to make sure you’re engaging your audience with something they might actually want to pass on.

5. Invite participation as much as possible

An engaging website should always be calling attention to the opportunities for user interaction. Whether it’s comments, reviews or sharing through social media plugins, look at the opportunities where you can have customers interact on the page itself – not just through social media.