There are three things you have to have in any website design, but what are they? If you’ve been struggling with what you need to finally make your own website design pop, you’re going to have to learn these three secrets to really make yourself stand out from the competition! Why be another face in the crowd with a boring website design when you can use creativity, content and compatibility to quash the competition? Here we’re going to go over what you need to do to start standing out, and how you can get the results you need within a week!

Content

Content is such an important part of design; I know it sounds a little counterintuitive, but they really do go together. You need great content with corresponding images that keep the reader on the page, and you want your content to be laid out in such a way that you can get the attention of the reader too. It should flow in the content box (the area of your website design that’s specifically for content) and your content should work with just about any design if you ever upgrade or when you have to do a format change.

Creativity

Without creativity, a design is lifeless. A great website designer will be able to help you get the website design you need to capture the attention of your readers, but it will also be designed with user experience in mind. People should be able to navigate the site easily, and they should be abel to find whatever it is that they’re looking for. If a design doesn’t communicate, it’s not a design; it’s just art and art isn’t much help to someone who’s trying to sell products and services on the internet.

Creativity also means creative uses of code to get your point across; you’ll want to make sure that you’re not using too many images, too much processor intensive stuff like flash and JavaScript! You wnt to keep the size of the website down as much as possible, and it should be optimised to give your users the best experience possible. But it’s not all about creativity, it’s also about compatibility!

Compatibility

If you want to beat your competition to a pulp, you want to be accessible to everyone that’s looking for you! You want to be compatible with all PCs, Macs, mobile phones and devices like the iPad. People are changing the way they browse, and it’s estimated in the next five years 60% of all web traffic in North America will come from mobile phones and devices. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you’re going to want to make sure you stay ahead of the curve and prepare for the mobile revolution!

You need to make your site as accessible as possible; clean code, creative use of images and great content will give you that advantage you need to be successful online!

Remember the last great flash website you saw? Neither do I and neither do your customers. To be fair there are a lot of beautiful flash websites out there, but they’re functionally crippled and if you want SEO done? Forget about it. If you want a website that will grow with you you’re going to need to go with HTML5, AJAX, and other modern technologies that will give you the advantage over your competition. Here we’re going to go over the disadvantages of Flash and what you can use in its place to get a beautiful functional website that is great for customers and search engines.

Flash is Over

The internet has spoken and flash is over. It started with Steve Jobs only supporting HTML5 and canvas over Flash because of the wealth of adult content and apps. Here are a few more nails in the coffin of flash websites:

• Bad GUIs

Bad GUIs are part and parcel for Flash. It can’t help it, it’s just how it was made. But modern devices demand clean and crisp user interfaces that can be used with the touch of a finger or the click of a mouse. Flash on the other hand was designed for tiny screens and mice/keyboard only. You want your users to be able to take advantage of what you have to offer no matter how they interface.

• Mobile-What?

50% of all web traffic in Canada is now mobile device traffic. This means Android phones, iPads netbooks and anything else on the go. People want to be able to access information while they’re commuting, traveling around, at work (as long as the boss isn’t looking); Flash websites just don’t play well with tablets and mobile devices. Like mentioned above people use their fingers but there’s also screen resolution issues, bandwidth intensive interfaces that are designed for wired speeds and other problems that makes using a flash site on a mobile device hellish at best.

• Not So SEO Friendly

A sad fact of flash websites… they’re just not SEO friendly. They have strange URLs (if anything is separated at all) and half the time text can’t be indexed. Adobe, the developers of Flash, tried to resolve this but even they are on the HTML5 train with their AIR applications. Flash just isn’t supported like it used to be and even YouTube has switched over the HTML5. You want to have a modern website that’s going to play well with the search engines, that takes advantage of modern technologies and gets you ahead of your competition.

You want a modern website? You want to get in touch with your customers and get search engine love? Leave flash in the past and integrate modern technologies like HTML5, AJAX and more to give your audience a truly interactive and social experience! We can help you transform your old dependable website into a customer friendly authority; it’s the easiest way to get ahead of your competition, so why wait?

When your site or business is on the internet, the job is far from over! You’re going to need a professionally designed website that shows your potential customers that you’re serious. While a professional web design may not seem that important, think back to your own experiences; if you see a poorly made website you probably think it’s cheap, you may chuckle a little, but you’re not feeling a lot of trust towards this site and probably won’t be doing any business with it, would you? Your potential customers and visitors are just like you, and you want to give them the experience that helps them do business with you.

Make it Reflect You

You want your website to reflect you and your business as a whole; this is exactly why you want to avoid any cookie cutter web design templates that you can get for free or for cheap! A lot of these will be used by thousands upon thousands of other websites, so you’ll want to make sure that your website is YOUR website! The last thing you want to do is have your visitors previous experience with a site that used the same template colouring the experience they have with you. When you have a unique web design, you’ll be able to show people who you are as a business, and that you care enough about their experience on your site to make sure it’s designed for use by modern browsers, mobile users and more!

Customers are Visual Creatures

When you’re shopping online, you want the best of the best, we all do! You’ll want to keep this in mind when you choose your website design; your website needs to be easy to navigate with good design that helps people move towards the point of sale of call to action that the site’s there for. While content does go a long way towards persuading your potential customers, a great design can and will seal the deal, making your website profitable in less time. In times like these, who doesn’t need a boost? Cater to your customer’s desire for easy visual layouts!

A Real Designer Will Help You Communicate

The purpose of design is to communicate an idea; if it’s not communicating an idea it’s just art and you don’t want a piece of art! You want a cogent design that helps you and your customers get stuff done. A real designer will help you get everything up and running, help you communicate and get your users where you need them to be. They’ll be able to bring your vision to life, and give you that edge over your competition that you need to survive in this competitive marketplace.

When you want to stand out and get things done, you want a custom web design. A custom web design will show your customers that you’re a real business and that you’re serious about what you’re doing.

If you’ve ever tried to design your own website, you know how hard it can be! Trying to figure out code, margins, what colours to use can be so frustrating, and half the time your site will end up just a big mess that you end up abandoning; even worse you may spend tons of money trying to find someone to fix it. Why spend all that time and money on a website that might not work when you can use WordPress? With WordPress website designs, you get everything you need and none of the stuff you don’t.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a CMS, or content management system, that allows you to publish content like images, videos, text and more in blog format or build entire sites. It’s a push button solution that lets anyone of any skill level finally have the website that they want. When you’re trying to get the business website that you want, WordPress is the fastest and cheapest way to get there!

How WordPress Makes Design Easier Than Ever

WordPress revolutionised web design with themes! Themes allow you to download many different designs and “skin” your website. While you can use one of these themes that tons of other people are using, you’re going to want to make sure that you use a unique design that really showcases who you are as a company and business. You can have a designer to go over a theme that you’ve found for free, and customise it.

Save Money with WordPress

Having someone design your website from scratch can be expensive, but you’re going to want to find someone to help you create the best design possible. Theming WordPress is a lot faster and easier on designers than other frameworks, and you won’t have to spend thousands of dollars to get a great website. But design isn’t the only way that you will save money with WordPress:

• WordPress has built-in SEO tools that help you get noticed by the search engines! Why spend more money on SEO than you have to when you can get half the work done for you up front!
• WordPress offers a great knowledgebase to get your WordPress site off the ground. You won’t have to hire a programmer to install it for you when you can do it yourself.
• WordPress has millions of plugins for every need. Display multimedia on any device and publish all kinds of content at the click of a button.

WordPress is a great tool for anyone; if you’re opening your website for the first time or deciding to overhaul what you have, you’re going to love WordPress. You won’t have to spend a lot of time and money to get the website that you need to be successful, and you’ll always be able to find a designer that can help you customise it to your tastes and needs. No matter what kind of business you have, it’s the right choice for you. Check out the WordPress site here and see what else it can offer.