If you are in business, regardless of your industry or employment type, you need a website. You might be a freelancer, a small business owner, or a financial advisor, but one thing is true across the board; without a website, you won’t attract new customers.
Having a website put up is easier today than ever before. However, website design is everything. If you want to stand out from the crowd, draw in new leads and customers, and make it as easy as possible for people to buy from you or hire you, you need to invest in minimalist website design.
Gone are the days when you could overload your website with clutter. Users run away from websites with too much text or too much information.
A simple, clean website that conveys your message in the shortest way possible is the key to growing your business on the web. Wondering what website design ideas you should consider? Keep reading to learn the most important factors of minimal web design today.
Design for Your Audience
Understanding your target audience is critical when planning and designing your website. It affects everything from colors and font choices to the terminology used on the site and more.
For example, you would probably approach a financial website design differently than you would a custom surfboard website, right? While there are some key design elements that would remain consistent, such as those listed below, knowing your audience will determine the look and feel of the final product.
Plan Your Pages
You need to know exactly what pages you are going to have on your website before you start doing anything. For most professionals, you are only going to need between three and five pages.
Avoid using a one-page website. While these offer the most minimal design possible, they aren’t SEO-friendly. You’ll have too many competing keywords on your single web page that you won’t rank for any of your keywords.
For your website, you’ll have a simple home page, which introduces who you are and how you serve your customers. This page will guide users to the other information they seek, such as your products, services, or more detailed information about your credibility.
Your about page is important because it showcases your skills, your achievements, and your credibility. This is your opportunity to brag.
But the key is writing in a way that focuses on your audience, the problems they have, and how your experience will help them solve their problems. Don’t just write about how great you are. Write about how great your customers will feel after they utilize your services.
You should also have an individual page for each product or service that you offer. Don’t cram them all onto one page. Then, be sure to have a dedicated page for contacting you, hiring you, or scheduling an appointment, or call with you.
Minimalist Website Design Avoids Clutter
The key to minimal and professional website design is avoiding clutter and keeping your website clean. Too much text, too many images or graphics, and too many design elements can quickly overload your website, distract users, and cause them to leave your website.
You want to leave as much white space, or empty space, on your pages as possible. This keeps the attention on the things that matter, such as your copy which talks about why users should hire you.
Use Consistent CTAs
If you want browsers to become leads, and leads to become customers, you need to give them every opportunity to take the next step. Every page should have a consistent, clear, and easy-to-see CTA, or Call To Action.
This should be a button with color and font that stands out from the rest of your website so that it’s clearly seen at the bottom of each page. Make sure to also include one in your menu and in your footer, so there’s always an opportunity to take action.
And make sure the messaging is consistent with each CTA. Don’t use different words on every single button. Keep your message clear and you will have people taking action on a regular basis.
Define Colors, Fonts, and Other Design Elements
Don’t start designing your website until you have defined your brand assets. If you’ve hired a branding expert, they would’ve compiled this for you. This includes your logo, any accompanying graphics that support your logo, your brand’s colors, your main font, and additional fonts.
A minimalist website prioritizes the use of white space and simplicity. But having a bold color to create the perfect amount of contrast can work very well. Supporting colors are often more neutral, such as grays or blues.
By sticking to these design elements throughout your website, on your social media profiles, and across your online persona as a whole, you’ll remain consistent and avoid confusing users.
Make sure to also have a professional headshot and use this across your website and any other place on the internet where users may see a photo of you. This could be social media profiles such as Linked In, as well as industry-relevant business directories.
A Simple Footer
Users will see your website footer on every page of your website. It’s extremely important as users expect to find certain information on your footer.
Be sure to have the main web page links, so they can navigate your website without having to scroll up. Include your logo or headshot. List your phone number, your email address, and link to any relevant social media profiles.
And be sure to have your main CTA displayed loud and proud, whether that’s signing up for your email list, calling you, or scheduling an appointment.
Start Designing Your Website
Now that you know what goes into minimalist website design, it’s time to start planning and building your website. The most important thing you can do is keep it simple.
Try leaving as much out of your website as possible. You can always add more later if you need to. But keeping it bare and simple is much more effective than overloading your website and overwhelming your users.
Looking for more tips and tricks like this? You can check out other articles like this on our blog today.
