Ever since the dawn of the Internet, people have been creating their own personal websites suited for their needs. From niche blogs to humongous chatting platforms, the Internet hosts approximately 1.8 billion sites running simultaneously at any given time. There’s no end in sight when it comes to building websites, so why not bring your business into 2022 with a stand-out website?
With such a sea of content, any small business or personal venture needs a legible, accessible, and beautiful website. Your website is often the first thing people see in connection with your brand, especially in the digitally-based age of Covid. To help grow your digital platform in 2022, let’s take a look at 5 key elements to building a modern and successful website.
1. An Eye-Catching but Minimalistic Design
It’s no secret that minimalism has been the biggest trend in graphic design in the past few years. This trend has no intention of fading out soon, so leverage a simple site layout and condensed color palettes. It can be tempting to overload your homepage with the text you deem important, but work to condense your writing to main points and highlight those instead. Have as few navigation tabs as you can and accent text with small pops of color instead of flooding the page. Choose bold and legible fonts, accented by more artistic fonts only when stylistically appropriate.
2. An Instant Loading Speed
As you can imagine, a slow-loading page is one that you leave almost immediately. You can incorporate many free plugins into your CMS of choice to help you measure your site speed. Compressing photos and setting up regular caches are two of the most common ways of tackling this issue. Though it may seem insignificant, your loading speed can make or break your website.
3. Subtle Animations
Most popular CMS platforms allow for easy implementation of animations, or transition movements that are triggered by mouse movement or site scrolling. These animations help your site come across as more professional and personal, but it is also easy to overdo your pages. Look to stick with basic and subtle animations like short wipes and light fades to avoid an overwhelming user interface.
4. Responsive Page Design
Without a doubt, responsive page design is one of the most important principles you need to create a successful website. Whether it be pop-up suggestions based on history, or simple hover-over information boxes, these small user-oriented details can make a world of difference on your site. When visitors feel like your site is responding to their visit, they are more likely to feel welcomed and stick around.
Schedule time to visit your own website and gauge how easy it is to navigate and what more you would like to see. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer visiting your page, and take notes on what could be easier and how engaging your pages are. Additionally, ask others for their insight regarding the responsiveness and interactiveness of your website.
5. Unmissable Contact Info
It’s rare to find a site without contact info, but it’s easy to find one where you need to look for 1 or 2 minutes before finding this valuable information. Put your contact info in your footer, sidebar, or in your header to ensure that it is impossible to miss. Don’t cause it to be overwhelming with bright colors or huge text, but simply assure that it is always somewhere on the page.
In addition to a phone number and email, it is a fantastic step to include your company or personal social media platforms in your contact info. Most CMS have these connection options built right into the website builder, so it only takes a few minutes to implement. More online presence means more brand recognition, so make sure everyone knows where to find you.
Building a website in 2022 has a lot more to it than one might originally think, but site builders like WordPress and Squarespace are making it easier and easier to create an accessible and gorgeous website. With a modern minimalistic aesthetic and responsive design elements on your site, your new or remodeled website is sure to stand out from the crowd.
