Designing your business website is one of the most important if no the most important step in running an online business. Your site is the face of the company and it should show the heart of your business. Depending on what your business is, you can adapt your website by using different colors, content, or features.
Color Scheme: Choosing the right colors will allow your content to look clear, professional, and easy to read. Most websites are built using two or three colors in its design, one main color, and two accents.
There are a few common combinations:
- Red, Yellow, and White
- Blue and White
- Red, Gray, and White
- Blue, Orange, and White
- Yellow, Gray, and White
These colors are displayed in every browser and can show you content clear, but you are free to choose whatever combination you like. Think about a website you have visited and see if the colors can reflect what your business is, you may use those colors. If you still need help, you can use one of the many Color Scheme Generators online like Coolors.co and Paletton.com. You can pick the main color you like and automatic you will receive some examples of accents colors.
Navigation Bar: Unless your site is built in a single page, you would need a navigation bar to help your visitors move through your site. Place your navigation bar on the top or on the left side of the screens, these are the common places where visitors will look for it. Try to keep it simple, don’t overload the bar with every content you have, instead, add the most relevant pages or categories your visitors would look.
While designing your bar, you can use text or images to help your visitors identify where that link is going, but keep in mind that some images do not load in every browser. Choose colors who contrast with your background and don’t use big or too small fonts.
Layout: In these days, your website can be reproduced in many devices, it is important that your page can be shown properly on every screen, keep your content organized. Place your main or most important content on the top where your visitors will look at the first place. You can use a single, two or more columns to show your content, but make sure to not overload the user’s screen. When visitors find a lot of items in a little space, they start losing attention, the purpose of your layout is to keep your visitors on your site.
Fonts: There are three based fonts families, serif, sans-serif, and monospace. Serif fonts are easier to read on paper, while sans-serif fonts are better for screens. Look for a font that shows your content in an easy way to read, avoid fonts with little space between characters or with a low difference between capital and lowercase letters.
Also, remember that fonts have to be installed on the user computer in order to work and if you are using an online font, this could not be available all the time, so try to using Web Safe Fonts as a backup. These fonts are installed on every device and will ensure that your content will look the same on every screen.
Site Map & Search Bar: If your site is extent, you may consider to include a Site Map or Search Bar to help your visitors easy find the content on your website. Place your Search Bar in an accessible place, normally on the right top corner of the screen.
Online Payments: If your business requires an online store or payments, you can use PayPal, a transaction service. PayPal will take care of transfer the money from your client to your bank account with a low rate. It is easy to add to your site, you just need to register with them on their site, place your PayPal button on your site, and start selling. You can even design your PalPay button to match your color scheme.
Designing a website is a long but important task. There are many things to consider before start coding your site, so think about what your want and the points above, create a handmade draft on a paper, then you have a basic idea, create your design using any graphic design software, if you like what you see, is time to start building it.
Fernando Hernandez - Web Business Blog 