Tag Archives: visitors

How to Choose a Website Design That Best Represents Your Business

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Choose a Website Design That Best Represents Your Business appeared first on HostGator Blog . Websites are online storefronts to showcase your products and services. When choosing a website design, you want it to satisfy customers and represent your business. Your brand values will serve as a starting point when building your site. You’ll also need to consider the visitor’s experience. Every design feature should achieve a component of your overall website goal . With more ownership over your design, you can illustrate your business in a unique way. Here are 5 fundamentals to analyze when choosing a website design for your eCommerce site . 1. Design for Emotion Every single day, humans experience multiple emotions. External factors can influence customers, sparking feelings of happiness, sadness, or anger. When they visit your site, it’s your chance to direct them to a positive emotion. Effective emotional design will ignite a sense of pleasure and security for your visitors. It draws you in like a child in a candy store. Alan Smith , a contributing writer at Usability Geek, adds more context: “Understand the emotional purpose and utility of every design choice you make, or a bad choice may come back to haunt you. Choose fonts that feel like your corporate image, not ones that conflict with it. When pulling the website together, verify that all the individual pieces fit with each other as well as your message.” TOMS illustrates emotion in its website with a header design focused on a community initiative. The brand wants to bring people together to end gun violence and uses the peace sign as a cohesive gesture. Website design centers around sparking interest in potential consumers. By appealing to their emotions, you give them an opportunity to experience your brand’s personality.   2. Design for Storytelling One Spot reports that “messages delivered as stories can be up to 22X more memorable than just facts .” This research is a compelling opportunity for your brand to focus on storytelling. When designing for storytelling, the aim is to capture your audience’s attention and persuade them to view more pages with the promise of value. Enticing visitors along the way means they spend more time on your site than your competitors. Think of your homepage as the appetizer where potential customers can immediately see your brand values. The main course is the additional pages of your site, like the blog or product pages. Beardbrand highlights its Instagram feed as a storytelling feature. Each image offers an inside peek at the brand lifestyle and what customers should expect. It’s not necessary to tell a grandiose story on every inch of your site. Storytelling can take shape in your choice of fonts, icons, and buttons. Word choice matters, too. For instance, will you use the word “shopping bag” or “shopping cart”? Be bold. Use your website design to bring your brand story to life.   3. Design for Navigation Navigation helps visitors explore your online brand. When done right, it will lead your audience to what counts most to the customer. So, how important is navigation design? David Hoos , head of marketing at The Good, offers his perspective: “Website navigation can make or break your visitors’ experience. After all, navigating a site without a logical, well-defined structure is like being dropped in the middle of a complex maze with no map and no frame of reference. It’s overwhelming, frustrating, and all-around unpleasant — not exactly the effect you’re hoping for.” Heatmap and usability recording tools are helpful with understanding visitors’ behaviors on your site. Then, you can use that insight to improve how you organize your content. KitchenAid takes navigation to a whole new level. Rather than use just text, the company adds images to direct visitors to their desired paths. It’s very convenient for a busy online shopper. Navigation plays a critical role in your website design. Represent your business well with an easy-to-use menu and well-organized layout. Your customers will love you for it.   4. Design for Accessibility Accessibility gets overlooked in website design. Brands desire to attract as many people to their site, but they often forget the different needs of their consumers. In a broad sense, accessibility is all about designing your products, services, and brand experiences to cater to everyone, including different abilities. For example, if you had a physical store, you would build a ramp for individuals who use wheelchairs. The same principle holds true for online shoppers. You can add alt text to all your images ; that way, screen readers can speak the text to visually impaired individuals. To accommodate people with color blindness, you can use symbols along with colors to convey a message. You might add an exclamation point to signify importance. Nike understands the significance of accessibility. You can navigate its website using your keyboard. With the tab key, a consumer can move through the different sections within a webpage. Accessibility is more than another add-on to your website. It’s your gateway to catering to all consumers and introducing them to your brand.   5. Design for Shopping Shopping should be an enjoyable experience. You want consumers to feel comfortable browsing the latest products and adding items to their carts. The brand-consumer relationship relies on trust. People want to patronize credible businesses. No one likes returning defective products or writing a negative Yelp review. With design, you can exude trustworthiness with testimonials from real customers, an honest pricing page (no hidden fees), and any recent brand achievements. These elements add to your brand’s integrity. Susan Ward , a s mall business expert and writer, agrees: “Successful e-commerce websites also provide information about customer service and contact information that is clear and accessible. Having to drill down through 50 pages to find an email address printed in a tiny font on the bottom of a page will give your potential customer queasy feelings, not good feelings.” Moreover, good design makes it effortless to shop. Fenty Beauty spotlights its featured products using categories and images. This design expedites the shopping experience. Move your brand forward with a design that emits trust. Your mission is to give customers a reason to come back to your site.   Represent Your Business Your website design is a reflection of your business. Take the time to decide how you want customers to perceive your online presence. To manage your website more efficiently, check out HostGator’s web design   services. 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CloudFlare and visitors stats

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Hosting

Hello When I run a website, it’s important for me to know as much as possible about the visitors to see how to optimize the website. I… | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1758223&goto=newpost Continue reading →

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20 Top Tools for Responsive Web Design

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Hosting

The post 20 Top Tools for Responsive Web Design appeared first on HostGator Blog . The main trend in web design that’s dominated the conversation over the past few years is responsive web design. As mobile use continues to grow around the world—recent estimates put the number of mobile devices in use at over five billion —the need for mobile-friendly websites is obvious. Responsive web design is the most popular solution to that need.   Why You Should Use Responsive Web Design Responsive web design is an approach to web design that ensures a website looks good on all devices. Responsive websites have the same information and page elements no matter what device you view them on, but the way the pages are organized changes according to the smaller screen size on smartphones and tablets.   As the name suggests, the website is designed to respond to the size of the screen each time it loads by changing the way the display appears to match the screen layout and provide an intuitive experience for every visitor. Responsive web design has become the go-to option for web designers who care about providing a good and consistent experience on all types of devices. Web designers do also have the option of building two separate websites: a mobile one that loads on smaller devices, and a desktop one that loads on computers. But with the growing number of device types and screen sizes of smartphones and tablets, that option poses the risk of still only working well in a fraction of cases. And if you’re providing different content or information to different visitors, you risk providing an inferior experience to some of your visitors. Why keep content you know is valuable for your desktop visitors inaccessible to your mobile ones? Responsive web design is good for your visitors, good for search engine optimization (SEO), and easier on you, since you only have to build and maintain one website. But if you’re new to web design, figuring out how to create a responsive website can seem overwhelming. Luckily, there are a number of tools to help with an adaptive design that make things easier. 20 Tools for Responsive Web Design The tools available for responsive web design fall into three main categories. For beginners wanting a simple option for building a responsive layout on their website, you have tools that will help you find and use responsive templates . For more experienced designers, there are a number of tools that aid in the responsive design process . Finally, for anyone that’s built a responsive website, there are responsive testing tools to help you make sure your finished website works well on all device types. Tools For Responsive Web Design Templates If you’re building a website and don’t know the first thing about web design or coding, but you know it’s important to have a responsive website, then you may be worrying about where to even start. Fortunately, as the importance of responsive web design has become increasingly clear over the years, a number of designers and web building tools have seen the need to develop responsive web design examples that newbie website owners can use to easily build a responsive website. Here are a few tools you can use to find responsive templates that will make creating a responsive website simple, even for those with limited web design skills. 1. Gator Website Builder Gator Website Builder has over 100 responsive website templates to choose from for an adaptive design. Anyone that subscribes to a Gator plan has access to the library of templates, as well as a intuitive website builder that makes it easy to customize the template you choose to create a unique, fully responsive website. 2. Simbla Simbla offers 100 simple responsive website templates customers can choose from to jumpstart the web design process. For anyone just looking to build a basic website with a few pages, their templates are straightforward and responsive. 3. Colorlib Colorlib is a resource that collects and highlights themes—both free and premium—that anyone building a website on WordPress can use. Some of the site’s blog posts specifically collect responsive themes and templates. While working with their themes will require a little more skill than using a website builder, they can provide a good starting point for building your website and can save you some money if you’re willing to commit the time to learning basic design skills. 4. ThemeForest ThemeForest , part of Envato, offers nearly 45,000 themes and templates for people building a website with WordPress, including over 5,000 that are responsive. Their themes start at around $5, but can cost over $100 for some options. Many of the themes include reviews and ratings from past customers, so you can get some advance insights into how well they work. 5. Templated Templated supplies nearly 900 responsive HTML templates that are freely available under the Creative Commons. Anyone can browse their collection and download and use any template that feels like a good fit for your needs. If you’re looking for a free option to get started with, this is a good place to look first. Tools For Doing Responsive Web Design Responsive templates are the best option for anyone with limited skills hoping to get a website up on their own. For designers with the skills to build a website from scratch, there are a number of tools for responsive web design that make doing the job well easier. 6. Bootstrap Bootstrap is a free, open source tool for building mobile-first responsive websites. Bootstrap provides a toolkit of the various elements you need to build a responsive website and lets you pick and choose the elements you want to include on your page to make prototyping intuitive. 7. Wirefy Wirefy is a free tool for easily creating responsive wireframes. The tool makes it easy to plan your design around your content and make sure it looks good across device types. It requires a working knowledge of HTML and CSS, but makes the work of building a responsive site easier. 8. FitVids If your website includes video, FitVids is a free, useful tool for ensuring your videos load at the right width on different devices. It’s a simple plugin that allows for fluid video embeds. Whatever screen size your visitors use, the videos will automatically load to the right width. 9. Adaptive Images What Fitvids does for videos, Adaptive Images does for images. The program detects a visitor’s screen size and automatically delivers the images on your page in the right size for them to look good on the screen and load quickly. 10. FitText FitText does for fonts what FitVids and Adaptive Images do for visual elements. It automatically resizes your headings and display text based on the size of the screen visitors have. FitText is a free and easy-to-use plugin. 11. Webflow Webflow is a tool to help people design and build responsive websites visually—it automatically generates the code for you, so you can stick to the visual side of design. The company offers a free basic plan you can use for designing a responsive site, and paid plans that come with additional features and services.   12. Invision Invision is a tool for enabling collaborative responsive design. It makes it easy to share your work with others on a team. And notably, it makes it easy to access it on various devices as you work, so you can test out how it looks on different screens as you go. Invision is free for one active prototype at a time, and has paid plans for those who need more. 13. Blueberry If you want to include an image slideshow on your website, the Blueberry image slider is designed to be automatically responsive. It’s a free open-source tool that automatically sizes all the images in your slideshow to fit on the screen of the device your visitors are on. All you have to do is load your images. 14. UXPin UXPin is a platform for web design and prototyping that prioritizes user experience. The platform enables quick and easy design and provides a library of pre-built components you can incorporate into your designs. It also makes collaboration with other designers on your team easy. UXPin is a subscription product that starts at $23 a month. 15. Style Tiles For professional designers that work with clients, Style Tiles is a useful tool for creating quick mock-ups of your design ideas for approval, before having to dive into serious design work. You can download free templates created by a designer familiar with the process of working with clients and knowledgeable about the importance of responsive web design.   Responsive Testing Tools One of the challenges inherent in responsive design is that, while your goal is to create a website that looks good on every possible device and in every different browser, you can’t reasonably test out every variation on your own. There are dozens of different screen and resolution sizes out there, and no person or business will have access to every one of them. While it’s worth it to try out your new responsive website on as many devices as you can access, you can go further by using responsive testing tools to see how your website works on additional screen sizes. 16. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test isn’t specifically for testing responsive websites, but Google has been upfront for some time about how important its algorithm considers mobile friendliness in websites in determining rankings. For any business that cares about SEO, Google’s tool lets you go straight to the source to confirm that your website is mobile friendly enough to meet the search engine’s standards. 17. Responsinator Responsinator is a free and handy responsive testing tool where you all you have to do is enter your URL, and you can see how your website looks on a few different device sizes and orientations. It’s a quick way to get a snapshot of how other visitors will see your website. 18. Browserstack While Responsinator lets you test your website on a few different device sizes at once, for businesses that want to really be confident that a responsive website works on every possible device, a more comprehensive solution is called for. Browserstack is a subscription product that automates the process of testing your website over 2,000 device and browser types.   19. Resizer Resizer is a free tool that provides a quick snapshot of how your website looks on the three main screen sizes, but also lets you test out how it looks at different widths on each device type. With a simple click, you can see how people with a variety screen or browser sizes will see the website, so you can get a much broader view of the different ways your responsive site will appear to visitors. 20. CrossBrowserTesting While a lot of how we talk about responsive design focuses on different device types and sizes, the way your website shows up in different browsers is another important consideration for user experience. The CrossBrowserTesting tool automates the process of testing out how your website looks and works in all the main browsers so you can spot potential issues before they affect how your visitors experience the website. Responsive Web Design Made Easy Building a responsive website doesn’t have to be hard. With the right tools for responsive design, you can pull together a website that meets your needs and provides an intuitive experience to all your users, no matter the device they come from. If you’re building your first website and don’t know where to start, the Gator Website Builder makes building a responsive website a fast and easy process. All you have to do is select your responsive template, and use the intuitive drag-and-drop editor to change the template to suit your particular vision. Even beginner website owners can have a working site up and ready within hours. And as an added benefit, Gator comes with HostGator’s powerful web hosting. Web hosting is a requirement for every website, so you can get two things done at once by signing up with one of the most respected web hosting providers in the space. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Benefits of Using a Simple Website Builder

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Hosting

The post Benefits of Using a Simple Website Builder appeared first on HostGator Blog . One of the first things you learn when you start looking for a new website builder is that you have a lot of options. That’s generally a good thing—it means you get to be picky, right? But it makes finding the right one for you more complicated. Learning about lots of different features, add-ons, and extras included in different website builders can become a distraction from figuring out what you actually need. And of the many businesses offering website builders, most also offer multiple different website builder packages that all come with a different set of features and benefits. Navigating it all is pretty confusing, especially if you’re just starting to learn how to build a website . Your life may be easier if you avoid the more complicated options and focus on finding the best simple website builder that does what you need it to. 5 Reasons a Simple Website Builder Is a Smart Buy A website builder with lots of bells and whistles may sound appealing at first glance, but extras that sound cool aren’t actually worth much if you don’t need them (especially if you end up paying more for them). For many people, a website builder that sticks with the basics will be a better choice for a few main reasons. 1. It’s easier to learn. If you’re building a basic website, then you don’t need to be able to learn how to do a lot of complicated design work, you just need the ability to make your website look good and say what you need it to in a user-friendly interface. That doesn’t have to be hard. You can certainly create a simple website with a website builder that packs in a ton of functionality and complicated features, but you’ll be more likely to spend a lot of time trying to understand all the different features you’re paying for—whether or not they’re useful to you. That’s not the best way to spend your time or energy when creating a new website. A simple website builder will be easier to figure out, so you can start designing your site from day one of subscribing, and with fewer distractions. 2. You can make a website fast. No matter what your website goals are, the sooner your site is up, the sooner you’ll be able to achieve them. If you’re building a professional website for an online store, that means making money faster. If you’re creating a personal website to share your art or ideas with the world, getting it finished soon means you’ll start to reach people faster. With a simple  web designer and builder, you can feasibly build your small business website fast —in a matter of hours or less. If your needs are pretty basic, it could even take you less than an hour. But that’s only true if your website builder is easy to use and provides you with the tools to work quickly, such as good web design templates to start with and drag and drop functionality. 3. You’ll only be paying for what you use. For many people, this will be the biggest benefit of a simple website builder. More complicated features often come at a higher cost. There’s no reason to pay more every month for a website builder plan that includes a lot of features you’ll never use. Basic website builders that provide just the most essential features and functionality you need cost less. And since website builders bill on a subscription model, you won’t just be saving money upfront, you’ll be saving for years to come. If you want to stick with an affordable website builder , look for a simple website builder that just provides the most important features you need. 4. You can still create a beautiful website. This is one of the rare areas in life where paying less doesn’t necessarily mean settling for lower quality. As long as the website builder you choose provides well designed website templates and an intuitive website editor that allows you to easily change out colors and add original images, you can easily create a website that looks beautiful as well as being functional. A good builder will supply website templates that were designed by a skilled professional web designer. You get the benefit of their good eye and knowledge of website design best practices, without having to pay as much as you would to hire them directly. And simplicity can be one of the keys to beauty in a website. You want to avoid clutter or trying to do too much on each page. A simple website builder can help you work from a pre-designed, simple structure that will look good to your visitors. 5. Simple websites are intuitive. The more complicated websites get, the harder it is to design them in a way that’s intuitive. By keeping your website simple—something easier to do with a basic website builder—you’re ensuring that people will have an easy time finding what they need to. With just a few clear pages, people can quickly get to the page with the right information on it. And with a simple uncluttered web design, you more effectively draw their attention to the places on the page you most want them to notice, like your CTAs (calls to action). If you were out to build a website as complex as Amazon, a simple website builder wouldn’t do the trick. But you’re not. As long as you need a basic website that’s clear, attractive, and says all you need it to, you’ll be set with a simple website builder. Trying to make it more complicated—either the website itself or the process of building it—would make your life harder for no good reason. Who Should Stick with a Simple Website Builder For some businesses, those extra features that come with higher-cost website builder plans may actually come in handy. So there’s a chance you’re in a category of people who can benefit from a more complicated website builder. But there are three main types of people who will be better off sticking with a simple website builder: 1. People building personal websites If the goal of your website is to share your art, your thoughts, or your ideas with the world, then you don’t need a complicated website. You need a basic structure you can fill in with your own words or images. Making a personal website your own is easy once you get started, and there’s no reason to let the starting process get bogged down with unnecessary features and costs. 2. Bloggers Whether you’re starting a blog to give people you love updates on your day-to-day life, to offer advice to your readers, or to share your views on something you’re passionate about, a simple to-the-point website should be all you need. You won’t even need to make many changes to your template, and shouldn’t need to bother with creating a lot of different pages. A blog should be easy to build—sitting down to write regularly will be enough work. 3. Small business owners A small business can no longer get by without  developing an online presence through a business website. The internet is the main way people find new businesses they want to work with and the first place they look to confirm a business is legitimate. Your small business website will be the main face you’ll have for much of the world. A simple website builder can help small business owners get that website they need up fast. And by using a website builder that provides responsive design templates made for small businesses, you can ensure your website will adhere to web design best practices and work well on mobile (something essential for all business websites today). If you’re running an enterprise business that will have a lot of pages and traffic, or ecommerce websites with a wide variety of products, then you may need to go for a premium website builder plan that’s more flexible and allows more room to grow. But for anyone in these three categories, a simple website builder should provide all you need and make building your website easier.   How to Find the Best Simple Website Builder If you’ve decided a simple website builder is the best choice for you, you still need to find the right one. And there are a good number of basic and popular website builders on the market for you to consider. Here are a few good tips for finding the best simple website builder for your needs. 1. Figure out what you need. Think carefully about what your website will be and what you need to make that happen. Consider factors like: What the main goal of your website is How many pages you’ll have What the main goal of each page will be What your basic website structure will be—if your website will have a lot of pages, this should include thinking about the best categories and subcategories you should use to organize them all What kind of images you intend to include What types of media you hope to include—will you include any video, audio, or animation? What actions you want your visitors to take—will you be including contact information, comment functionality, social media sharing buttons, contact forms, an email list signup form, or the ability to accept payment methods from visitors? Having a general idea of what you want your website to look like and accomplish will put you in a better position to know what features you need to look for in a website builder. 2. Prioritize ease of use. Anyone that’s looking for a simple website builder will need something that’s easy to use and learn. Look for a website builder that offers an intuitive website editor that has drag and drop functionality and allows you to add elements and change colors on a page with a simple click of the mouse. 3. Focus on basic website builder plans (for now at least). The main website builder providers all offer different plans that provide different features and benefits. If you just need a simple website builder, then there’s a good chance you don’t need to spend a lot of time reviewing what’s available in the higher-cost premium plans at this point. You should pay the most attention to what’s offered with the basic plan for each provider you consider. That said, if you think there’s a chance your website will grow and evolve to need more advanced features over time, such as ecommerce functionality or unlimited bandwidth, then you may want to review the premium options now in order to understand what the website builder you choose offers at the higher levels and the cost you can expect from a future upgrade. 4. Look at the website builder’s educational resources. Ideally, you should be able to use your website builder without spending any time on training to learn how it works, but you’ll still be better off choosing a website builder that provides helpful resources on how the builder works so you can learn all the features available to you and gain some easy instructions if you want them. 5. Check reviews. One of the best ways to learn what to expect from a website builder before you buy is looking at what other people have to say about their experience with it. The internet makes it easy to find reviews from current and past customers who outline the things they love about a product, and the things they wish worked better. When you’ve narrowed down your website builder options to a main couple of plans, take a few minutes to read up on what users have to say about each. Customer reviews are a useful and reliable tie breaker that will help you better gauge factors like ease of use and the quality of a company’s customer service. Choose Your Simple Website Builder Finding the right website builder is a big decision, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult one. Make sure you understand what you need and want in a website builder and stick with a simple option that suits your priorities without making things too complicated. To start your search, check out HostGator’s simple website builder . Our basic, affordable plan provides all the essentials and is extremely easy to learn and get started with. And as an added bonus, it comes with free website hosting provided by one of the most respected companies in the industry. To learn more, our customer support team is available 24/7 to answer any questions you have regarding our web hosting and web builder plans. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Choose Your Web Design Template: 5 Key Factors to Consider

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Choose Your Web Design Template: 5 Key Factors to Consider appeared first on HostGator Blog . The look and feel of your website matters. It can either attract new customers or repel them in the opposite direction. Website builders make it easier to design with drag-and-drop templates. But all templates aren’t created equal. You need a specific design that fits your brand personality, welcomes visitors, and offers good functionality. 5 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Design Template It’s your turn to create a jaw-dropping website. Below are 5 factors to consider when choosing a web design template that follows design best practices .   1. Header Design The header is the first part of the website your visitors see. Your primary goal is to welcome your audience with open arms and spark their curiosity to browse around. Most header designs include the brand’s logo coupled with an engaging image. The text usually offers context and adds a simple call to action. Your site’s header will rely on how complex or easy it is to explain your brand. Brenda Barron , an instructor for Tuts+, offers more insight: “Using a captivating image to create an amazing visual experience works well for businesses such as hotels, restaurants, or spas. If on the other hand, your type of business might be hard to explain with image only, you should choose a header design that incorporates an image with a text overlay.” ClassPass , a health club aggregator, uses a header image to display its business model. The straightforward copy gives the company’s description with two call-to-action buttons . First impressions hold significance online. Choose a web design template that showcases your brand in a positive light.   2. Navigation Design When you enter a brick-and-mortar store, it’s fairly easy to locate items. They have signs labeling specific aisles, a designated area for customer service, and even a floating store clerk to assist you. Similarly, it’s important to recreate that shopping experience online. The menu bar acts as a roadmap, guiding your visitors to certain pages on your site. It should be readable with a plain background color and simple fonts. The key is not to overwhelm your consumers. An overcrowded menu isn’t visually pleasing, and it can complicate the visitor’s experience. You’ll also want to create a hierarchy, or architecture , for your pages. For the layout, place the most important pages on the left. You can use a different color or add a familiar symbol to underline critical details. In the example below, Havertys provides an easy-to-access menu for customers to learn about its products. The brand also gives visitors options to receive free design help. Navigation design gives your visitors a clear direction on what to do next. Be their personal guide through the online experience.   3. Functionality It’s not enough to have cool pictures and funky colors on your site. You need to give your site purpose by adding functionality. Start by deciding what you want visitors to achieve with your site. Do you want customers to purchase products? Do you want them to contact you at specific times? Your website’s goal will help you select the right template. If you want visitors to connect with you directly, you may need a live chat feature. If you want customers to shop, you will need an eCommerce store. Perry Lara , creative director at Viral Element, says: “Given that your website is your best salesperson, you should take the necessary steps to ensure your website functions properly before and after it’s launched. A poor functioning website can mean the difference between generating new leads and completely missing out on lead-generating opportunities.” SWANK blow dry bar offers its visitors the choice to book an appointment on its website. With this functionality, the brand streamlines the process of gaining a new customer. Functionality makes your website more than a pretty online space. A successful eCommerce web design template can transform a hesitant visitor into a loyal shopper.   4. Content Area Content plays an essential role in your website. The text and images fill out your design and inform your visitors about your products and services. Depending on your brand, your content area may include a blog, photo gallery, or a slideshow . Choose a content section that helps your visitors learn more about your value. However, don’t complicate your design with too many content areas. The clutter will confuse (or maybe annoy) visitors on where they should focus their attention. If they can’t decide what to do next, it’s likely they will just leave your site. Kitchen Konfidence exhibits a vivid content area with beautiful photos, concise descriptions, and direct call-to-action buttons. Also, there’s enough white space to not overwhelm visitors with loads of content. Your content area is a good place to experiment with how your brand presents information. For instance, you may use a fixed sidebar with your navigation menu, social media links, and contact details. Your web design template should tell a story. Be selective on what content areas you use.   5. Mobile Version According to Statista , “the number of mobile phone users is forecast to reach 4.68 billion in 2019.” This research means a potential increase in website engagement from consumers. Mobile users expect to get what they need quickly without any hassle. Jenny Gove , a UX Research Lead at Google, states: “Make it easy to get back to the home page. Users expect to go back to the homepage when they tap the logo in the top-left of a mobile page, and they become frustrated when it isn’t available or doesn’t work.” Plan for fewer words on your mobile site. The headlines should be short to fit the mobile screen. Also the content should be easy to skim. Bose’s mobile site highlights the essential details. On first glance, a visitor sees the brand’s logo, menu, primary call-to-action, and an image of the product. The copy is short and sweet, too. Your mobile website should follow the same brand style and color palate of your desktop version. Using a different variation will only distract visitors from your brand’s value.   Choose Your Web Design Template Wisely Your web design template is the foundation for your site. Your goal is to create a useful and attractive website. There’s a lot that goes into finding the best web design template that meets that goals. Fortunately, website builders like our Gator Website Builder  make it easy. We have hundreds of mobile-friendly templates for you to choose from, and they all follow the latest trends in modern web design. Take a look today to find the best one for your business. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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