Other than ranking high in Google, one of the biggest concerns for a website is how it looks. First impressions matter. Your website is the 21st Century version of a brick and mortar office. How the website looks is a reflection on your business. It’s a big factor in the experiential part of your brand. It needs to reflect your company’s culture, and resonate with your clients.
The main factors to consider when designing your companies website are:
- Your company’s logo
- The colors within the logo
- Complementary colors (or your branding guide)
- Font choices
- Images & graphics throughout the site
Other things to consider would be what your competitors are doing. Many times they are using functionalities and features that you might want to consider. But you don’t have to follow their lead. You can strike out on your own. We ask each of our clients what their favorite looking website is, regardless of what industry it’s in. For example, our first website in the early 2000s, was based off an electric car builder in California. They used a lot of white space, and used a clear glass style navigation (back when 3D button navigation graphics were popular), complete with a very light drop shadow. It was a beautiful site, and received a lot of positive feedback.
We use a checklist like this with our clients before we start any website build. We use it as a guide map to develop a design style that will resonate with their audience, and give them a website they are proud of.
Our point is, that you’re not bound by what your competitors are doing. Any design style can be adapted to almost any business. It’s a chance to build something on the web that has your style to it. Take advantage of creating something beautiful. Ranking high in Google is the ultimate goal, but there is nothing preventing you from doing it in style.