Beyond the visuals: What else to consider in your next website design

For many people, a great website is one that looks visually stunning.

Unfortunately, nowadays at least, it goes oh-so much further than this.

Sure, looks are one thing, and it will define your brand and the way it is perceived by the market. However, functionality is another, and there are some common design mistakes that can blight the way in which your site works and again, how it is perceived.

This is where today’s article is going to come into play. We have outlined three questions that you must ask your website design company, long before any time is spent coding their initial concepts into a working build.

How fast does it load?

Nobody like a slow site, yet some of the fanciest designs on the planet seemingly take an age to load. It spoils the wow-factor from the visuals in an instant.

There are various SEO implications as well that focus around small websites, but first and foremost, let’s look at this from a user-first point of view. If your site is slow, it will frustrate users, and nobody wants that.

As your website is designed, make sure that speed is something that is being taken into consideration for when it is eventually built.

Does it work from an SEO perspective?

You also have to ask some SEO questions. Nowadays, with Google expanding the way in which it deciphers websites, it could be classed as something that wasn’t quite as crucial as it once was. However, with organic traffic being such a big driver for websites, it needs considering.

For example, does the design pledge to use images instead of heading text? This is a classic SEO faux pas.

Or, what about the mobile version of the website. We will cover this in a little more detail shortly, but does this show the same content as desktop? Again, a common mistake.

If you can choose a website design services company who also has an SEO arm, it can help your business greatly from this perspective.

Will it function seamlessly across all devices?

Let’s finally talk about a topic that has garnered a lot of coverage over the last five years; mobile first design. If you were to question most website owners you would get the same response; mobile accounts for the majority of their website traffic.

As such, you need to design in a mobile-first way. Sure, you’re not going to leave your desktop design out there to rot, but the principals of the design need to lead from a mobile standpoint. You can’t leave it as a secondary thought.Of course, this isn’t just about mobile versus desktop, there are further considerations. For example, what about the technology that the design is pledging to use? Will it work seamlessly across both Chrome and Safari, or are the two browsers going to show a different experience? These are the sort of questions that need answering in the initial design kick offs.