Currently, there are 2 million websites worldwide which is a ginormous figure! These websites vary in terms of design and functionality, depending on what the business is and offers. Some websites sell stuff, some promote services, others tell a story and feature news articles and then there’s some that are simply for fun.
As we’re in a global Pandemic, now is the best time to get a website built to help you continue selling and reaching out to your customers. The restrictions of COVID-19 have put huge strains on some businesses, but for others, it’s also helped them to flourish, with profits doubling and small brands getting more recognition than ever before as they’re able to reach out to a wider audience online. You might, however, still be considering the prospect of having a website made, if you are, why not read our post on ‘The benefits of web design’ to give you some more inspiration.
For this post, we want to focus on the different types of web design so you can understand what will work best for you and your company. It’s always a good start to have a look at what your competitors are doing first by checking out what platforms and formats they’re using. When you have an idea of what they’re doing it can give you a benchmark of what similarities you need to implement on your own site. So, let’s take a look at the different types of web design you can have for your very own website…
E-commerce Web Design
E-commerce is a fancy name for an online shop that sells whatever goods you want it to such as flowers, clothes, books etc. It acts as a shop where users can purchase your goods online by selecting what products they want and then providing their banking details to oversee the transaction. An effective and functional e-commerce site should be easy to use, easy to browse through different products, filter categories and make purchases. It should also have good page speed too! If a user is faced with a high page speed load time when making a transaction, they’re more likely to be put off and cancel before it goes through.
The web design of your e-commerce site can offer up to several different templates that are able to match the needs of nearly any business type. You may have heard of platforms such as Shopify before which is one of the most popular e-commerce sites to use as it’s super easy to update products and online inventory. You also get all your marketing, sales and website stats listed so you can keep on track of what’s performing well and how your sales are doing.
Your Homepage
Although this isn’t a platform, the web design of any home page on any website is the most crucial and fundamental part. It is the sites main hub and first impression to your users, so the design and layout need to be sublime. The web design of your home page needs to stand out but also represent your brand and business in a way that speaks to your audience and gets them to trust you.
When thinking of the web design always remember the actual purpose of your website and business and make this clear to users so they understand right away what it is you do. You can employ your brands colour scheme, logos, content and images accordingly and make sure they represent the business properly. You want the content to be engaging but also informative so be sure to use the correct tone of voice and wording. The web design of the home page should also have a clear unique value proposition (UVP) upfront and establish the site’s hierarchy and navigation structure on the homepage. As you can see from our own home page on real5 Digital, we display what the site is about and what we do, alongside a fun image graphic at the side:
We then feature more content to tell users and search engines what the site is about along with a snapshot of the portfolio of work we’ve done. This gives the user an idea of the quality we can produce as well as helping them to stay on the home page for longer to read more. We then include internal links to our core landing pages, web design, SEO and social media so users have the option of continuing their journey to find a service for them.
Blog
These types of web design will include different articles, photos and videos that are informative and educational for the user. If you’re a newspaper, magazine, book publisher or blogger you should look to have this specific type of website. This type also works really well for Unis and colleges as they hold lots of information on courses for students to view. As more and more people now search online for their news rather than printed publications, having a good web design is crucial to meeting the needs of your users. It also helps you to reach more users and those who are unable to purchase printed documents, even more so in the midst of the Pandemic.
Your web design should have a standard layout across all your pages so there is a persistent theme that users can recognise and interact with. As your sites main focus is on the content you produce, it needs to be displayed correctly across different devices so when a user looks at an article on their mobile the layout and size is responsive to their device and fits their screen.
You may find certain news websites to have a subscription feature where you have to subscribe before you can read anything. If this is for business purposes to yourself you may want to incorporate this feature so you can make a profit. If you don’t intend to make a profit from your articles then don’t incorporate it as it can put users off having to enter their details and banking just for news.
Portfolio Website
A portfolio web design should showcase a persons work professionally. The web design needs to be visually pleasing as its main focus is around the images or work you have on there. You will want to highlight your images/work which you can do by creating categories of items for them. This type of web design allows you to be more creative with the design by applying unique layouts and features. If you’re a professional photographer, you might want to have a carousel of your best work that is rotated across the home page or perhaps you’re a designer and you want the user to see the different themes you have. It’s all about the image when it comes to this particular web design so get creative!
Other Web Design tips
There are other types of web designs and platforms but these are the main ones to consider if you’re looking to build a site for your business. It’s about understanding your business and what will work best. Obviously, if you’re looking to sell goods online then an e-commerce web design will work best for you. If you’re wanting to promote your services you should look to direct your customers to a call to action, for example, you offer a service such as accountancy, then have a home page with additional landing pages that provide information on the service you offer. You should always have a contact page so the user can get in touch and knows where to find you. If you’re wanting to provide educational articles then you’ll want a news/magazine web design.
One platform we find that is remarkably popular for most types of businesses is WordPress as it allows you to incorporate multiple themes and layouts so you can display your brand, logo and images the way you want them. It’s also really easy to use and search engines like Google find it particularly easy to crawl. You can find video demonstrations online on how to build a WordPress site but you might want to get a web designer to help you with some of the more complex parts, particularly if you’re wanting your site to specific things like rotate images on a carousel or display videos.
You can include contact forms so your users can get in touch and engage with you, you can also add a blogging page where you can regularly update content and provide new information. You can also have a gallery and video landing pages to show off your work.
If you’d like any help with the web design of your website, we’re more than happy to help as a digital agency and offer web design services in Warrington and Cheshire. You can have a look at our own portfolio of work and previous clients we’ve worked with where we’ve built them fully functioning and responsive websites. Our goal is to always understand your business and brand so we can display this in the most visually pleasing way for you and your users. Get in touch with our team of rockstars today!
Stay Safe,
Stacey
