Less Is More: Tone It Down and Watch Your Customers Tune In

When dabbling in web design for your business, it's hard to not get excited about all of the graphics, logos, add-ons, and content you'd like to utilize. After all, you want your customers to get the right idea about your company and its online presence. But when it comes to design, it may be best to adopt a "less is more" mindset. While you could fill your site with all of the graphics and info you want, you may be compromising site performance and causing potential customers to leave your site in droves. Instead, try some sleeker design options and better content to keep traffic on your page.

Better Content

If you have excellent content on your site, you won't need to resort to flashy design concepts. After all, customers come to your site for information, not to be assaulted by graphics and startup music. Instead, focus on offering the best content possible, from instructional videos to quick blog posts and even how-to's and tutorials. That will help drive traffic to your site without all of the pomp of graphics and gimmicks. Making sure your site is continually offering fresh, new and informative content really helps move traffic and keeps them there for a better chance at connecting with your brand.

Crossing Platforms

One issue that some companies don't think about is the fact that potential customers won't be viewing the website on a desktop alone. Instead, smartphones and tablets mean your website will be viewed across a number of platforms, which means they'll need to be properly optimized for each. While a site may look great when you check it from your laptop, it could be a total mess – slow loading and hard to read, for example – when viewed on a mobile device. By opting for a cleaner web design and getting rid of clutter on the site, you make sure that no matter what device a customer views your site on, it looks great.

Sleeker Design

When choosing a design for your website, less is always more. A sleek design looks more professional and is usually more user-friendly because it's easy to navigate and find what someone is looking for. As you create your web design, look for ways to make sure that it's easy on the eyes, such as choosing a simple color palette and no more than three fonts: One for the header, one for posts and the other for regular text. Your logo should also be clickable and take front and center on the homepage. Using sleek design concepts means lowering your bounce rate and keeping potential customers glued to and navigating throughout site.

Site Performance

Don't forget that site performance should be a major priority when you're testing and tweaking your site. While a site may look flashy and cool, if a user can't load it in just a few seconds, they'll probably try and find something else. Running regular site performance checks on a variety of platforms and devices means you can ensure that customers aren't waiting or getting frustrated when attempting to access your site. It's also a good way to isolate add-ons and elements that aren't working as they should, such as an autoplay video or a library of articles. By seeing what your customers see, you can easily fix problem areas.

By focusing on keeping your website design sleek, clean and simple, you make sure your potential customers can find just what they're looking for. If you have quality content and a clean website, you won't need all the bells and whistles to attract customers to your site.