The ultimate guide: How to create a successful web design for your website

What is the secret of a successful website? 

You and your team have probably already asked yourselves this question when planning and implementing web projects. One important factor in inspiring your website visitors and converting them into paying customers is clearly modern web design. 

Therefore, in this article we will show you how you can create attractive websites and successfully implement projects by using suitable strategies. And  inspiration from current trends, professional website design and an optimized workflow.

What is web design?

Web design determines the design of a website or web shop, which can be roughly divided into two areas: the technical and the visual design process. The success of a good web design is based on a target group-oriented, modern and convincing concept.

But an attractive web design involves so much more than just choosing the right colors, fonts and images. Web design is a comprehensive process. A process that begins with the planning and conception of the project and is not finished even after a website has been published. This is because contemporary web design must be continuously developed and kept up to date.

The aim of the whole thing: to create a website that is optimally tailored to the target group in terms of content and design. Factors such as particularly good user-friendliness, search engine optimization, web design programming and first-class content therefore play an important role in web design.

Only when all these areas are perfectly coordinated and designed with the target group in mind do they form a strong foundation for a successful website.

Anyone interested in web design and the latest design trends will sooner or later come across the term “responsive web design”. We have compiled the most important information about one of the most important website trends for you.

What is responsive web design?

Responsive web design is a website that can flexibly adapt to the properties of the digital device used. The display and arrangement of content and elements of a website are adapted to the screen size in order to guarantee visitors the best possible user experience. 

Why is responsive web design used?

Responsive web design is used to provide visitors to your company website with a fully functional and user-friendly internet presence at all times - regardless of whether it is accessed in the classic way on a desktop or in a mobile and flexible way on a smartphone.

A large proportion of website visits and online purchases today take place via mobile devices and users expect the same user-friendliness on their smartphone or tablet as on their home PC. 

In concrete terms, this means that all content is displayed correctly and legibly, buttons are easy to operate by touch, and images and graphics load quickly. 

A website that does not have a responsive web design can cause users to have difficulty navigating the site if buttons cannot be clicked or navigation bars take up half the screen. This usually leads to visitors not staying on the site for long. 

If perfect user-friendliness is ensured, customers will stay on your site longer, which will also have a positive effect on your search engine ranking. Mobile web design optimization therefore becomes an important factor in the success of your website.

How does responsive web design work?

In order to adapt a web design to different mobile devices, web developers use the markup languages ​​HTML5 and CSS3 when programming the website. 

With the help of so-called media queries, the fully programmed website is able to recognise the device currently being used by retrieving information about the screen resolution or format. This means that the display of a website can be easily adapted to any screen, from smartphones to tablets to desktop screens.

Therefore, when implementing responsive web design, web developers should always make sure to separate the content of the page from the layout and design right from the start. This means that content, such as text or graphics, is written using HTML5, while the styling of the content is handled using CSS3. 

The advantage of this approach is that if the content is changed, the design remains unchanged across the entire website. Conversely, content is not affected when the design is adjusted. In addition, the code is clearer for web developers if CSS3 elements are outsourced to a separate document.

Why is web design important for your website?

The first impression counts. In web design, this sentence is not just a cliché. The first impression of your website is in fact essential for a convincing web design. 

Your homepage must immediately convince visitors both visually and functionally in order to present your company, your brand or your services in the best possible light. After all, you don't want your visitors to leave the site after just a few seconds. 

In addition to a convincing first impression, web design offers your company other advantages:

• User friendliness

A structured page layout ensures that users will find their way around your website much easier. It makes it easier for them to use your site and leads them to their goal. For example, as the product they are looking for, more quickly and easily. 

The guiding principle here is “form follows function”. No matter how nice a website looks, if it doesn’t work, potential customers will quickly leave. In addition, a structured website appears much more professional and reputable.

• Perfect functionality on all devices

Thanks to responsive design, your new site can be used optimally from any mobile device. Both the appearance and the function of your site can be perfectly adapted to the given conditions ⎼ and your customers and prospective customers can access your website quickly and easily even when on the move.

• Better search engine results

Individual web design is also an optimal prerequisite for the best possible results in the common search engines. Responsive web design, the specification of important meta tags and a fully functional website are crucial ranking criteria that form the basis for getting into the top three in the search results.

What makes good web design?

Now that we have clarified what exactly the term web design means, what advantages it offers and why your marketing team should definitely learn good web design, you probably have another important question:

How do you actually know if a web design is really good? 

An appealing and convincing web design is created through a harmonious and smooth interaction of various factors that help you recognize good web design.

• First-class user experience

In addition to a structured page layout and easy-to-use navigation, intuitive and smooth interaction with the website plays a major role in a successful homepage design. 

With the help of a well-thought-out user experience concept, positive emotions can be triggered in website visitors after just a few seconds ⎼ and these are precisely what ensure that users become paying customers and fans of products, companies and services. 

• Uniform design

With a well-thought-out and appealing design, websites can win over visitors with their first visual impression. It is important to have a consistent design on all pages: use a maximum of two to three fonts on the web, use a consistent color scheme and use elements that match your corporate design to increase the recognition value of your company and your brand.

• Use of known patterns

People are creatures of habit and like to rely on familiar processes and familiar environments. This also applies when visiting websites. 

Therefore, contemporary web design should rely on well-known and current conventions, such as placing the page navigation at the top of the screen or linking the company logo to the homepage in order to offer visitors an optimal experience. Therefore, logos are usually placed at the top left and should link to the homepage as usual.

• Technical optimization

But it's not just the appearance of the website that has to be right for a successful web design. The technical side of a website must also not be neglected in your project.  A new website should work smoothly on all output devices so that customers can interact well with the site. 

In addition to the flawless functioning of important elements. Such as CTA buttons or a search function, technical optimization also includes aspects such as search engine optimization, responsive design using media queries and the shortest possible loading times. 

Nowadays, a website's loading speed plays a crucial role in its ability to compete. Less than two seconds for loading can generally be regarded as good.

• Successful SEO optimization

Another key factor for good web design is the search engine optimization of your website. This is divided into two areas: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

With on-page SEO, web developers take care of the technical and content aspects of websites, such as complete meta tags, the correct use of heading tags, functional internal links or mobile optimization. 

Off-page optimization, meanwhile, is about external link building via backlinks from high-quality sources on the web. In addition to the quantity, the quality of the backlinks plays an important role in achieving a positive reputation on the web. And thus a good ranking in the search engines.

The web design process: How to successfully implement and program your website design?

With the help of good web design, marketing teams can achieve successful results when it comes to implementing a new website.

Briefing and concept of the website 

The first step is also one of the most important: planning and designing the website. During this planning process, marketing teams first define the goal that the new web design and website will achieve, as well as the target group that the content and appearance of the website will address. 

Creative teams can use the SMART formula as a briefing template for defining good and helpful goals. This consists of the following five criteria that a good goal should fulfill:

A goal should be formulated as specifically and concretely as possible

It is also important that goals are measurable . To do this, you should define clear criteria and values ​​by which you can measure the success of your goal. 

For successful results, goals should be accepted by everyone within the team .

Realistic goals are also important because they are more often accepted and can be motivating.

Last but not least, goals should be time-bound , meaning you should set a time period in which you want to achieve your goal.

Subsequently, the target group is determined by taking into account socioeconomic factors like education and occupation, demographic factors like age and gender, and psychographic factors like values and wants. Individual personas may then be developed using this data in order to fine-tune the target audience's description.

Based on this predefined concept, web designers and marketing experts of the web designing agency can then develop and implement a target group-oriented web design that not only inspires customers but also achieves company goals.

Development of web design 

As soon as the team has defined the concept of the website, the web designers  can let their ideas run wild. The content structure of the site is developed and a sensible structure is created that will later guide the user well through the website. 

Initial sketches are followed by sophisticated wireframes, the design of a layout and various design drafts,which are finally tested using functional prototypes.

Coordination and approval of the web design 

Once your creative team has completed the development of the web design, the drafts and prototypes are shared with colleagues or the client to obtain further suggestions and ideas, important feedback and final approval. 

In the best case, a well-thought-out web design together with optimal stakeholder management can convince all project participants right away. So that they immediately give the final approval and you can continue with your project.

In addition, project managers always have an overview of the approval status of the drafts. And can see who has already given their feedback or approval and who has not. Each reviewer receives an automated email alert reminding them of the approval deadline and informing them of any pending reviews.

Web design programming 

The web developers start working to make the authorized design templates a reality in the following phase. Code in the form of HTML, CSS, JavaScript or PHP is used for this technical implementation so that both the design and the planned interaction and functional options work smoothly in the end. 

Creation and release of content for the website 

While the web developers are still programming the homepage design, the marketing team can start creating the content in parallel. Graphic designers, copywriters, video producers and content marketing managers work together on the required texts, images, video files and graphics for the website.

Implementation of the web design and content in a CMS 

Once the content has been created and the web design has been programmed, the next step is to successfully merge the two areas. This is done with the help of a content management system (CMS). 

In concrete terms are stored separately from technical elements such as scripts and code.  As soon as a user then accesses such dynamic websites, the content and technology are put together "live" for the user to form the actual page.

SEO optimization of the website and content

Marketing and creative teams should always think about later SEO optimization when designing and creating content. For example, images can be saved in a web-optimized manner to ensure fast loading times. And early keyword research helps to make websites more visible in search engines later on. Professional content marketing tools can support your team in this.

Therefore, this step of our web design process is primarily about the technical optimization of websites.

This includes compressing source code and deleting unnecessary code. But server configurations, the use of canonical tags or the optimization of URLs. And metadata also play an important role in technical SEO optimization. Because they are the basis for successful on-page optimization and top rankings in search engines.

Testing and publishing the website 

Shortly before the finish line, marketing teams now have to carry out extensive testing of the implemented web design. The aim is to ensure that all content is displayed correctly. And links work and interaction with the site is possible without any problems. 

Since many customers today access websites primarily on mobile devices. It is particularly important to test the new site not only on the PC, but on various devices. 

Once all the test series have been successfully completed, the time has finally come: the website is published. From now on, visitors can be convinced with modern web design and useful content and converted into paying customers.

Conclusion

Developing a successful web design is not that difficult. With the help of the content in this guide, you have the opportunity to optimize your existing web design processes.

In addition, you can save valuable time  and resources by using tools and programs. Well equipped, nothing stands in the way of developing and implementing modern web design.