There are many elements that go into optimizing your website, one of which is design. Good website design and attractiveness are crucial to a business’s success. Studies indicate that a site’s visual and practical elements influence consumer trust in a brand, shape their perceptions, affect brand recall, and even drive their buying decisions.
However, many company websites overlook a few basic but crucial design items, causing those brands to lose traction in the online marketplace. That said, a website doesn’t necessarily need a total overhaul to fix these issues. In fact, just making certain simple updates (especially on the homepage) does wonders to improve online appearance, site functionality, and overall customer experience. It also goes a long way in helping to protect your company’s intellectual property and assets.
We’ve identified a few key basic but often overlooked eCommerce web design areas that can make or break your site’s efficacy and undermine your brand’s reputation.
- Home Page Design Optimization
- Responsive Design
- Banner Updates
- Copyright Updates
- Logo Resolution
- Static vs Dynamic
This list is a good primer for making small but impactful changes to your website that will help improve your site’s reach, appeal, professionalism, and overall customer satisfaction.
Optimize the Design of Your Home Page
Is your home page optimized for design? We’re not just talking for SEO (though that is certainly part of it). When someone visits your website, your home page is often their first point of contact. For most companies, it’s the first page a customer sees when interacting with your brand online. They need to know immediately who you are, what you offer, and why it matters to them.
Your home page should be inviting, clutter-free, and easy to navigate, with clear calls to action and fully functioning links. And it should entice them to click through to your company’s interior pages. Sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how often companies miss the mark on their home page.
The following are bare minimums that should be included on any high-performing home page:
- Logo
- Descriptive header
- Brief intro
- Conversion copy
- Navigation menu with helpful and meaningful subheadings
- Multiple calls to action (subscribe, contact)
- Contact point (such as a chatbot or a link to contact page)
- Footer (which includes your copyright – more on that later)
- Keywords
- A visually compelling component (such as a video, graphic, hero image, etc.)
- Testimonials
- Links to social pages
- Site search bar
Of these, one that stands out when it comes to quickly winning over a customer is a good descriptive headline (or header). This is typically the first thing a visitor reads when visiting your site. Shorter than an elevator pitch, but with a similar intention, your descriptive headline should be a clear 8-10-word version of what the company does. Clever is great, but not at the expense of clarity. Leave the quips to the already well-known brands and stick to a headline that quickly and clearly tells the visitor what you offer them. If you really want to hit it out of the park, include your target keyphrase in your descriptive header to do dual duty targeting SEO.
One of the best ways to test out the quality of your descriptive header is to put it through the backyard BBQ test. If someone were to come up to you at a BBQ, asked you what your company does, and you replied with your descriptive header, would they immediately understand what you offer? If not, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and come up with something better. You only have a split second to make a positive impression. A great headline is an excellent way to start strong.
Already a Logicblock customer? Here’s a tutorial on how to set up your homepage.
Need some more tips? Check out our Guide to Homepage Conversions.
Now on to the other web design best practices we listed.
Responsive Design
When you are looking something up online, how often are you doing so from your phone? And how frustrating is it when you get to a website from that phone and it’s impossible to navigate it because the site does not have responsive design? If you’re like many people, it immediately leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Many will simply click off the site and not return. Not good.
But that isn’t the only reason responsive design is vital. Some other benefits from it include:
- Faster site load times
- Cost-effectiveness: you only need to maintain one site
- Flexibility and ease of updates
- Improved mobile-first indexing
- Improved user experience
So many companies spend tons of money on creating a beautiful, slick website without ever considering whether it looks good and operates well on any device other than a laptop or desktop, or how easy and cost-effective it is to update. With responsive design, your site looks great no matter what device someone’s using to view it, it loads quickly, it’s easy to update, and it provides your customer with a better experience overall.
Learn more about responsive design and some best practices when implementing it.
Frequent Banner Updates
Nothing dates a site faster than out-of-date banners advertising something like a sale from 6 months ago. Banner updates are an easy and effective way to freshen up your site and are prime real estate to showcase what’s new with your company.
Your banner space on your homepage is the most valuable space on your website. You want it updated and rotated and clickable, with up-to-date, clickable links. Remember UX when you’re creating your updates. Yes, you might want to highlight a new product, but if you forget to make your banner that features it clickable, you immediately remove the easiest way for a prospective customer to check out that product.
At Logicblock, we understand the value of banners. That’s why our platform makes updating your site’s banners as easy and straightforward as possible.
If you’re a current Logicblock customer (or a prospective one who wants to see how things are done), click here for a tutorial on updating content blocks such as banners.
Copyright Date Is Old
Your copyright date, that small, easily overlooked item, is a key indicator to a visitor about the viability of your brand as well as a safeguard for your content. If your copyright date is out of date, it indicates your company may no longer be in business (or is simply neglectful, neither of which are a good look for a brand).
Attention to detail matters in terms of building brand credibility and trust. But it also matters in terms of protecting your brand itself. Your copyright date serves to protect your ownership rights over the content, logos, images, and other components of your site. The digital world is teeming with instances of content theft. By declaring your copyright, you establish a protective measure that can be crucial if you ever need to pursue legal action to reclaim stolen content from another site.
Update your copyright date every year. Doing so makes it clear your company is both still in business and cares about protecting your company’s assets.
Logo Resolution
Your logo is one of the first points of contact a customer will have with your brand. It’s a calling card to remember you by. The placement and size of your logo can significantly enhance or detract from the overall impression your site makes. Yet it’s amazing how often companies overlook their logos, failing to properly size them or create them in the proper file format.
When your logo is not optimized for the right resolution, size, or file format, it not only looks unprofessional, but it can even make page load times longer, neither of which make for happy customers. Your logo should be 250 pixels wide and 80-100 pixels high. If it’s too big or too small, it will not show up properly.
If you need help in properly sizing your logo and finding the ideal resolution for your specific logo purposes, check out this article – The Ultimate Guide to Resolution in Logo Design.
If you already have your logo properly optimized, have a storefront through us, and just want to upload your logo to your Logicblock account, follow the instructions here.
The Best Websites Are Dynamic, Not Static
To keep your website ranking and your brand relevant, you should update your website regularly and keep your content up to date. The eCommerce web design best practices we’ve discussed in this blog will go a long way in helping you do just that and ensuring your site looks good, operates smoothly, improves reach, and engages visitors.
If you want to go beyond these basics, whether you’ve already built a live site or you’re just starting out and in the process of building, our Pre-Launch Checklist offers plenty of valuable tips to keep your eCommerce site fresh and appealing to new and existing customers.
Not yet a Logicblock customer? Interested in learning more about our services and how we can help you build a successful eCommerce site for your business?
Current customers, need help with services?