When you start your own business, you accept that you also need a website. Between phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, people simply rely on Internet searches to help them find the businesses they want. If you bow out on a website, you essentially bow out on getting business from most of those people.
Of course, launching a website isn’t identical to launching a good website. For that, you must consider the web page layout your site will use. Not familiar with how to lay out a page when you built a website?
Keep reading for the basics of page layout and why it matters.
User Flow
The first thing you must consider when you design a page or a site is the user flow. This encompasses a few things, but it essentially means how the design leads visitors to your intended end.
If you’re Google, that means putting emphasis on searches. If you’re someone who makes chainmaille jewelry, that means constructing a page that guides visitors toward a purchase.
Navigation
A good web design agency will tell you that clear navigation is core to a web page layout. That means visitors can find and understand the navigation at a glance.
Most page designers handle this with a navigation bar across the top of the page or in a right-hand column. They simplify navigation with tabs that designate major areas of interest and then offer some drop-down menus for sub-categories.
If your site is sophisticated enough, you can also simplify navigation with a search bar that offers autocomplete suggestions.
Information Architecture
It’s difficult to fully separate navigation and information architecture. Information architecture focuses on ordering information in a way that will seem logical to your visitors. That can mean anything from what should appear in your navigation menu to which order sub-categories should appear.
Visual Appeal
Page layout isn’t just about navigation and user flows. It’s also about creating visual appeal from the start. That means careful selection of colors and some solid graphic design.
At a minimum, you need a good header image, logo, and product or services images.
Why Does It Matter?
In many ways, consumers are less tolerant of poor sight design than ever before. Chalk it up to so many company websites offering high-end visual designs and intuitive user flows. Now that people have experienced those kinds of sites, they find anything less an unpleasant experience.
Web Pay Layout and You
It’s entirely possible for you to handle web page layout on your own. You can lean on research, premade themes, and hire a graphic designer. The real question is whether you want to do that.
A DIY approach will add a lot of time to the process. Beyond that, you can likely find a website design company for a reasonable price. You’ll get a better product and get it faster when you let a pro handle the work.
Looking for more advice for building or polishing your website? Check out some of the other great posts on our blog.