Is Your Website Ready for the New Year?: Web Design Trends for 2018

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In today’s world, having a quality website for your business isn’t just a plus, it’s a requirement. Your website is your main tool for marketing your business and growing brand awareness. With Google constantly updating its algorithms, new design trends are constantly popping up. Being able to adapt and make changes to your site as those updates happen is crucial. Here are a few examples of how you can enhance your site’s design and increase your search rankings in the upcoming year.

Meaningful Pictures

The images on your website will be one of the first things that a visitor notices when they arrive on your site. Because of this, you want to make them as meaningful and impactful as possible. The pictures on your site will help you create an immediate connection with potential clients or customers. The type of photos you use will determine how positive that connection is. While stock photos allow for quick and easy content when posting blogs, having custom photos on your site can be way more beneficial. Using quality photos of your products or services helps to convey a very professional appearance.

More Video

Photos are a great way to make a connection with your audience but video marketing is the ultimate way to create positive user engagement on your site. In today’s smartphone world, people want information delivered to them as quickly as possible. When someone comes to your site, they are more likely to watch a video then they are to read an entire page of text. When creating videos for your website, make sure you understand the difference between square and widescreen formats. Small as it may seem, the format of your videos will have a profound effect on how your customers perceive them.  

video marketing 2018Micro-Animations

Micro-animations are a way to make things just a little more interesting on your site. While they are not critical to the website’s functionality, they are a huge bonus in regard to user experience. Small animations help to assist users with a single task on your site and they make it more engaging for the user. There are many ways to add animations to your site. You can have the buttons on your site wiggle or be highlighted when the user hovers over them with their mouse. This will not only add a little flash to your site but it will help users know where to click.

Another great way to use micro-animations is by having a check mark appear when a user has successfully submitted a form. This gives them confirmation that they have completed a task so they are not left wondering whether they have done it correctly or not. All the animations you use on your site should help the user. Keep in mind that adding too many animations could have a negative effect on your site. Try to keep a healthy balance to ensure the optimum experience.

User Conversion

Getting people to visit your site is only the first step of the process. Getting those users to engage with your content and converting them into customers is the tough part. In order to do so, you need to have calls-to-action that tell users what to do and where to go while navigating your website. Without effective calls-to-action, users will wander aimlessly around your site or they will just leave your site entirely.

Using micro-animations like the ones described above are great ways to guide users in the right direction. Try using fixed sticky banner callouts at the top or bottom of a page. An example of this would be to have a form banner, telling users to fill out a form to get a free ebook.

Mobile-First

At this point in time, you should be thinking mobile-first rather than just mobile-friendly. Everything on your site should be optimized for mobile over everything. Make sure that your website has responsive designs so that it displays well on various screen sizes. Remember, mobile-friendly isn’t just about how well your pages display on mobile devices but how fast those pages load as well. Using the Accelerated Mobile Pages tool, you can help speed up the load time for all of your pages. Focus on using this tool for your pages that are full of content, like your blog page. When people conduct a search on their mobile device, they’re looking for quick answers. So, having fast loading times is crucial for reducing the bounce rate of your site.

mobile website 2018Security

Google has made it clear that they want sites to be fully secured. Because of this, web designers have started to use SSL certificates on their site. When your site has an SSL certificate, your domain will have “HTTPS” at the beginning instead of “HTTP”. The SSL certificate ensures that a site is safe from hackers. Those sites that do not have an SSL will be labeled unsecure by Google and could see their rankings diminish.

Website security is huge, not only for the site owner but for the site’s users as well. If a user goes on to an e-commerce site that does not have an SSL certificate, they may be hesitant to make a purchase. Making a purchase online requires the user to enter their credit card information. People may not want to do so if they think there is a chance of a hacker stealing their information. Make sure your site is equipped with an SSL certificate so that you don’t drop in the rankings or miss out on sales.

Stay Up-To-Date

A stagnant website is terrible for SEO. A big part of your site’s ranking factor is producing relevant, up-to-date content. If you don’t regularly update your site, you could see a quick decline in your rankings. To ensure your website is constantly being updated, you have to have a plan. Create a content calendar for your site, highlighting deadlines for when blog posts, new videos, or company news needs to be published. If you’re an e-commerce site, you’ll want to ensure your products page is always kept up-to-date. Having a product on your site that you no longer offer looks unprofessional and may negatively affect your ranking. There are always new web design trends popping up. Adapting to them early and updating your site as they come will help leap you ahead of the competition.

Ensure You are Ahead of Web Design Trends for 2018

From the initial design to constantly updating your content, there is a lot that goes into managing a website. At Creative Click Media, we have the experts who can not only manage your site but can make it the best version of itself. With a variety of services including web design and content marketing, we can ensure your site is up-to-date on the latest design trends and is constantly producing relevant and engaging content. We’ll implement SEO best practices to help your site rise in the rankings while enhancing the user experience at the same time. If you think your website needs some work heading into 2018, reach out to us today!

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