Today, the world has four billion cell phones. More than 25% of these phones are smartphones. In 2014, the number of people who access the internet via a mobile device surpassed the number who use a computer. More and more, we are becoming impatient. You have only a few seconds to get someone’s attention once they get to your website. If it does not load almost immediately, people will move on to a different site. If you are looking to revamp your web design, that is a good place to start.

1. Make your website look good on mobile platforms. As was already noted, more people access the internet from mobile devices than on desktop or laptop computers. As a consequence, your website needs to look good on these devices and your web design needs to take that into consideration. In baseball, you say “go where the ball is.” In web design, you have do go where the people are. In web design, that means making websites that look good and load quickly on mobile devices.
2. Start with shades of gray and add color later. Many internet marketing firms recommend starting your site using only shades of gray. Start with only gray. Add your different visual elements such as images, photography and other graphics. Add your color one element at a time. This will insure that you are careful with your color choices and placement.
3. Keep a lot of white space. People tend to think they need to put as many things and elements on each page. The problem with that strategy is that your visitors can become overwhelmed. Good web design keeps a lot of empty space on websites to make them easier to read and digest. Websites with empty space are a lot more visually appealing as well.
4. Use web fonts on your website but also your printed materials. In the same way that you want your corporate message to be the same across all platforms and with all audiences, you need to use the same fonts in your printed corporate literature as is on your website. This consistency and repetition is critical to building and expanding awareness of your brand. The best internet marketing complements traditional marketing methods and policies.
5. Do not make your social media channels overshadow your website. If you have spent a lot of time and money getting the best web design, why do you want to send people to other sites? When you place your links to your other social media channels front and center, that is exactly what you are doing. If you want people to stay on your website, do not push them off to other sites. The best place for links to these other sites is in your footer.
6. Lose you slideshow. When this first became a thing, the idea was that you had to get as much information on the front page of your website as was physically possible. The real downside is that the vast majority of your website visitors do not stay there long enough to get all that data. People do not have the patience to sit through it so just lose it.
7. Make your navigation as simple as possible. Reducing the number of options your visitors have, the more you can help guide them to the most important parts of your website. The best way to make sure your visitors get the information you want them to have, simplify everything. In this instance, you will find that less is more.
8. Get rid of the sidebars. These have become really popular in the last few years. They are used a lot on personal blogs. When they remove the sidebars, companies see that people pay more attention to their main content. It also increases the clicks they get on a call to action that may be at the end of the main article. You will find you get more responses when the sidebars are no longer there to distract people.

Your website is one of the most important parts of your marketing campaigns and strategy. Good web design can make all the difference in how your clients or customers view your brand. Keeping your site looking great will make a difference.