Designing a website involves a number of factors. There is more to professional web design than visual appeal. Good web design is about striking a balance between various elements of the website. Above all, effective design should be functional and usable. There are many factors to consider when design a website for your business. Although the needs of everty business are different, there are certain elements that every professional website should have.

Here are the 15 website elements that every professional website should have.

10 Characteristics Every Professional Website Should Have

1. Visually Appealing Design

Visual appeal is an essential component in professional web design. Good design creates a good and lasting first impression. Look at 10 Business Web Designs for inspiration.

2. Custom Branding

It is equally important for your website’s design to reflect your company’s brand. The colour scheme and overall theme should incorporate your brand. As far as possible, there should be a common theme across your website and other promotional material and documentation used by your business e.g. social profiles, letterhead, invoices, marketing emails, etc.

3. Follow Latest Trends

Internet is fast changing environment. Trends change frequently. It is important for your company’s website to follow the latest trends. This applies to the design as well as functionality. The trend these days is for content driven websites with minimalist design high resolution images. It should not appear outdated.

4. Easy to Use Navigation

Clear and easy to use navigation is crucial and essential element for any good website. It should be placed above the fold and easily evident. For usability and browser consistency, standard navigation such as text links is recommended instead of flash or other forms of fancy navigation.

Consider using primary as well as secondary navigation. Primary navigation should contain links to important sections of your website. It should be easily evident and placed above the fold. Secondary navigation on the other hand typically consists of links such as Terms, Privacy policy, Sitemap, etc. It can be placed in the footer of your website.

5. Well Written Content

Content is the most important element of your website. There is more to quality content that language and grammar. It is equally important to ensure it is well formatted correctly and presented neatly. Correct use of spacing, font size, headings not only improves usability but also improve search engine ranking.

6. Optimised Images

Images and graphics make a significant contribution to the total size of a web page. The ideal web resolution for images is 72 dpi which is much smaller in file size than print images that have a resolution of over 300 dpi.  Appropriate optimisation and compression can provide huge reductions in file size. This will increase website speed and reduce the loading time of your web pages, resulting in better usability and improved search engine rank.

7. Clear Structure

A well defined website structure is important. It ensures customers are able to find information with ease. Decide what pages your website needs based from the viewpoint of your customers. A good structure improves navigation and usability. It also affects your search engine ranking. It helps keep your content organised. Lengthy pages or pages with very little information can be damaging.

8. Effective Call to Action

Call to action refers to elements that encourage website visitors to take a desired action. Effective call to action is an important technique to generate sales or leads on your website. For best results, place it prominently, preferably above the fold.

9. Good Header and Footer

The header and footer of your website are important parts of your website. The header in particular has one of the highest visibilities and should be planned carefully. Your logo, primary navigation, call to action, contact number are some essential elements that can be included in your header.

10. Contact Information

Nothing can be more frustrating for a potential customer than the inability to find a way to contact your business. Users may wish to contact you for your services or to discuss partnership opportunities. Only providing an email address is not credible. Full contact details instils confidence in customers and makes your website trustworthy.

Summary:

Discussed above are some of the factors you need to consider in order to design a professional website. The needs of every business are different. However the elements discussed in this article are some common features that every professional website should have.