One of the first things to do when launching a new business is create a website. This is how people find out more information about the company, engage with the brand, and begin to create an idea about your concept, style and target market, so getting the website right is crucial. It is also important to make it stand out from the crowd, so it doesn’t get lost in a pool of competitors.

Here are our tips on designing an eye-catching website.

1. Attractive and consistent templates

The template you choose for your homepage will shape the entire website, so make sure it is attractive, has an easy-to-follow layout and really represents your brand, whether it is modern and sleek, fun and animated, professional and concise, or creative and daring.

Once you have designed the structure, you can add your brand’s colours, logo and slogan, so visitors instantly recognise your business when they land on the page.

• Bold bios

Having bios of the staff is a popular idea these days, but make yours different than standard headshots and a 20-word summary of their talents. The point of bios is that people want to feel a connection to those they will be working with or employing the services of. Therefore, it is worth making them as engaging and interactive as possible.

Bullhorn’s Brad Flowers told Forbes: “Get creative when you present employee bios. Tell a story. Link out to a Spotify playlist. List your favourite movie… Show the world what makes you unique.”

• Introduction video

Similarly, it is worth creating a video that explains who you are, what you do and what you represent, so people who land on your page can instantly find out if you are right for them.

Leila Lewis from Be Inspired PR told the publication: “For a time, we had a one-minute stop-motion video on our homepage, and I can’t tell you how many of our colleagues and potential clients commented on it. It gave personality to our brand and made us instantly likable and relatable to potential customers.”

• Easy to navigate

There is nothing worse than a website that is difficult to navigate, spending unnecessary time searching for information or getting lost and not being able to get back to where you are. This frustration is enough to put people off clicking on your page again.

Therefore, it is essential to work out a good map of your website to make navigating it a smooth and seamless process. Work out the information hierarchy, which is how the content is organised on the website. You will need to consider what pages you want to include, how they relate to each other, what the goals of each page are, and what data or images you will put on them.

Your main page should be an explanation of your goals and what your brand stands for; then you need to group related content together; and make sure you have a call to action on each page or a way to convert a visit into a sale or enquiry. Don’t let your potential client or customer search around to find a contact form, newsletter or products, as they will soon lose interest.

For more advice, contact our web development experts in Hull.