Take away the shiny colours, striking images, videos and helpful content on your website, and you’ll come down to where it all began — the website layout.
You see, choosing and using the right website layout is the first step to ensuring a successful business website. A good website layout will provide the directions for achieving an intuitive, interactive and easy to use website that will serve both you and your visitors.
This article will discuss the essential factors to consider when planning a website layout, including the best website layout practices to follow.
First, what is a website layout?
A website layout is the foundation of your website. It is the framework that gives life to your website’s structure.
The layout is the arrangement of visual elements and information on the webpage.
A website layout determines how your website displays and functions. Which in turn impacts how your business performs on the internet.
Whether it’s a personal or business website, using an effective layout will not only ensure an excellent user experience but will also amplify your messaging. However, it all begins with careful planning. And the planning is in the early stages of creating your website before anything is built or designed.
Keep in mind that you’ll visualise your website layout through a wireframe. And a wireframe is a basic sketch that shows the website’s structure before adding the visual design and content.
With that in mind, the following are the main factors you should note when planning a website layout.
1. Website goal:
Before you decide on the best layout for your website, you should think about and write down the goal of your website.
No matter if it’s lead generation, conversion, brand awareness or educating your audience, the presentation of visual elements on your website layout must be in tandem with your goal. The reason is you want your website visitors to get the information they need quickly and complete the desired action without confusion or hesitation. Because online visitors will not hesitate to bounce if they can’t understand what your website is about in a few seconds.
So, if you want them to fill out a contact form, make sure your website layout points towards and encourages that action by organising and delivering content effectively.
2. Content-type:
In website design, the content is the plan — the key element, so it comes first. While the layout is the structure — it provides the path for understanding and navigating the plan (content).
Your website layout must be designed around your content type to enable visitors to find and consume information quickly and easily. Whether it’s an eCommerce, portfolio, or news site, you should use a befitting layout that will convey your message and deliver a memorable experience to your audience.
3. Your website design:
Effective website layout should align with the overall website design so that information can flow in a sequence, with essential elements at the front and centre.
If thoughtfully laid out, the design should capture the attention of your visitors immediately they arrive and guide them down to the important sections in order of significance.
A well designed and visually pleasing layout is intuitive and user-friendly. It will amplify your messaging, enhance your branding and visitor’s experience, and increase conversion for your business.
4. Responsiveness:
A responsive website layout displays properly and offers users a similar, satisfying experience regardless of device type or size.
Since Google rolled out its mobile-first indexing in 2016, it has become all the more important to make your website mobile responsive.
According to Statista, mobile devices account for approximately half of the total traffic on the web. You’ll benefit more from web traffic with a mobile-friendly website if you’re a local business because more local searches are being made on mobile phones today than on desktops.
Also, keep in mind that failing to make your website layout responsive will significantly increase website bounce rate.
5. Hosting:
When all the designing is done, and content is laid out, it’ll be time to publish your website. The hosting service you use will play a vital role in how the website displays and performs.
Using cheap hosting will cost you more in conversion and revenue. More so, research has shown that online visitors have little patience and will not hesitate to leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.
Slow page speed will affect how your website layout is displayed. This will, in turn, frustrate your customers, lead to an increase in bounce rate and negatively impact your bottom line.
You see, a slow loading website is the first characteristic of poor hosting. The second characteristic is a website that is always down, i.e. one that doesn’t load at all. Therefore, choosing a good web host with excellent networking infrastructure is essential to ensure your website is up and running, loads quickly and displays properly at all times.
With that out of the way, here are the best website layout practices you should implement NOW.
1. Keep the navigation simple:
Imagine that visitors are touring your website. Your navigation system serves as the tour guide, leading visitors from one location (page) to another.
Hence, it would help if you kept the navigation simple so that your visitors can easily find what they need and convert.
The standard website structure — home, about, services, contact and blog (where necessary) have proven to work exceptionally well for conversions. You can add more (relevant) pages and use submenus to send visitors deeper into your website.
While it’s okay to be creative, avoid complicating things by using unfamiliar menu headings. By all means, feel free to use unique menu headings related to your brand, like leading sportswear company, Nike.
But endeavour to keep it simple, so your visitors do not have to figure anything out. Strategically link relevant pages and sections and keep a search box close to enhance your visitor’s experience.
2. Above the fold:
The best website layouts use the above the fold formula to enable visitors to view, read and convert immediately after they arrive without scrolling down. They do this by making the most critical information front and centre — headline, subheadline, image, copy and CTA.
The information you keep above the fold can make all the difference for your business. Plus, it’s an excellent way to optimise conversion and customer experience. Remember that the fold will differ across multiple devices, so plan your website layout to suit the different screen sizes.
P.S. The fold refers to the upper half of the web page that the visitor sees when he arrives on your site without scrolling down.
3. Use tried and tested website layouts:
For every kind of website, there’s a standard, well-known layout that your customers and potential customers are familiar with. These layouts are proven to attract, engage and convert website visitors as they build on existing expectations, past experiences, and the principles of design.
While it’s good to be creative, it’s best to follow the established patterns in order to deliver the best experience to your visitors and maximise conversions. Here are the tried and tested website layouts that designers all over the world use to build websites that drive results.
4. Use white spaces:
Including white spaces helps guide visitors through your website layout, remove clutter and bring harmony into your design.
Wrapping it up
So, now you know the fundamentals of planning a website layout, it’s time to decide what layout is best for your small business website. Remember that an effective website layout will create a great first impression about your business, make your customers happy and increase conversion for your business.
Let SSGC online help you plan and design an effective website layout today. We’ll walk with you through determining your business goals, discovering your audience, building your message and fleshing it out on your website. Together we can build a successful online business that puts customer experience and satisfaction front and centre.
Click here to contact a professional website designer.
