These questions may sound like they’re hard to answer, but they’re surprisingly easy. Without an easy-to-use, high-quality website, your company could lose valuable leads online.
In fact, there are 10 major factors that all high-end websites share.
#1: Custom coding
Many places offer quick-and-easy websites that are made using the same code. They’re easy to spot, mainly because they all seem to have the same look and simple functions.
So what’s the benefit to custom coding if templates are already available?
You can essentially have your site do anything possible to deliver exceptional results for both you and your visitors.
You also have the chance to give your site a unique appearance that sets it apart from your competitors (and other websites on the Internet).
Finally, you can do anything you want with custom coding. You’re not restricted by another company’s rules or limitations — the sky’s the limit!
#2: Brand-strengthening design
One of the biggest issues with using pre-made web design template is that it won’t have much, if anything, to do with your brand.
In other words, you may be able to change small elements like the typography and color schemes, but you can’t make anything unique to your brand.
Take a look at some websites yourself—you will instantly be able to see which ones have design touches that boost their brands, as opposed to cookie-cutter products that use catch-all templates.
A brand-strengthening design can help your business stand out. A roofing company’s custom web design, for example, will set the company apart from competitors that settle for copy-and-paste designs. For users, that makes your site and business unique and memorable.
#3: Simple navigation
High-end sites may sound complex, but the best thrive on simplicity — especially when it comes to navigation.
From the user’s standpoint, the navigation should be seamless from start to finish. You can do this through extensive storyboarding and site architecture planning. You won’t get this kind of robust navigation unless you work with high-end web designers who deeply understand the process.
Often, a single navigation bar at the top of a page is enough to let any user find what they want on your site.
#4: Strong site architecture
The architecture of your site should be intuitive, adaptable, and clean. That means the code you use for your site is minimized into what you only need, providing your site with a strong infrastructure that is clean and loads quickly.
Most templated website software platforms have a weak architectural design. Essentially, they aim to work for every business, not a particular type of business. That may not work for you.
#5: Lots of room for your content
You’ve probably heard the saying “content is king.” It’s referring to content on the Internet, which involves blog posts, articles, images, videos, and graphics.
It’s essential that you have enough room for all the content you need on your site. This doesn’t just mean the number of pages on your site, but also what you do with them.
High-end websites crisply display their content on pages with specific topics. That keeps every page laser-focused on a subject, allowing visitors to get what they want right away.
With templated sites or other hosting services, you could be significantly limited with how many pages you can create. That’ll limit your content, which makes your website weaker overall in terms of user experience, search engine optimization (SEO) potential, and more.
#6: SEO-friendly elements
High-end website designers know that it’s important to keep up on trends in the SEO industry. This means adding SEO-friendly elements to your site’s overall design.
For instance, using keywords in your pages’ title tags is an essential SEO strategy that makes your site more SEO-friendly. As the search engine’s bots crawl your site, they have to understand the relevance of each page.
If your site isn’t SEO-friendly, Google and other search engines won’t be able to rank your site accurately. That means potential visitors can’t find you in search engines, which reduces your traffic and overall conversions.
#7: Custom functionality
Your business is unique, and that means your website should be unique, too.
The function you need in your site is not the same as the function another organization requires. A high-end website design will allow you to determine which functions matter most, and which are unimportant.
You get to pick and choose, rather than being forced into a model that doesn’t pertain to your situation.
#8: Responsive design
One of the biggest problems with many sites is that they aren’t compatible on different devices, like smartphones, tablets, and even computerized watches.
In other words, they don’t give the same experience to every user.
For example, a non-responsive site may look terrific on one specific monitor, but it could look jumbled, scrambled, and incoherent on a smartphone screen.
You may have had this happen to you — you want to look up information on your phone, but the website you’ve found is unreadable.
In most cases, visitors simply leave rather than trying to figure out how to navigate this type of site. That’s why it’s so important to make sure for yourself that your site is responsive.
#9: Maintenance planning
When you invest in a high-end website, you will likely also invest in maintenance planning.
Just as you would never consider ignoring maintenance in your business office or your home, you should never ignore the maintenance of your site.
Problems can and do happen, from simple link errors to larger issues caused by unforeseen challenges. Having a maintenance plan in place keeps these problems from growing or sabotaging your success.
#10: Visually appealing images
While it can be tempting to just use stock photos for your website design, if you are going to budget for a high-end website, you should set aside monies to pay for professional photography.
Any high-end website on the Internet is going to have visually appealing images that mesh with its brand and overall appearance.
Whether it’s a manufacturing website design or florist website design, you want to invest in high-quality images. You can access high-quality images via stock photo sites, as well as by hiring a professional photographer to visit your location.
The best place to get those is to hire someone to create them just for your company. You’ll not only own the copyright, but you can help set your business apart.
WebFX is a full-service web design agency
WebFX has a full team of veteran web designers who have spent their whole careers creating websites. We’ve earned awards for our outstanding work with our clients, and we’ve delivered stellar results for any business that’s come to us for a new website. Now, we want to deliver those same results to you. Do you need a website designer now? WebFX is here for you!
Contact us to create the perfect, unique website for your business!