As a visibility agency, we not only help our clients be found more easily online, but also support them in relaunching or creating a new website with web design.
What is web design?
Web design is the creation of websites into a holistic presence. The design and functionality are tailored to the target audience. The focus is on the goal the client wants to achieve with the online offering. Depending on the target audience, the desired effect, and the required user interaction (usability), a unique design is created that supports the client’s business purpose.
Important elements in finding the right design are:
- Conception
- Design
- Technology
- Contents
The order of these points is not fixed. Often, many aspects are addressed simultaneously. Generally speaking, web design is determined by the information you want to convey to visitors.
Conception
The concept defines the purpose of a website. It also defines the target audience and determines the next steps. This can be done, for example, in a workshop.
Usually, a schedule is created at this stage in which milestones are set.
Design and technology
Design isn’t just about the visual design of the website. In addition to appealing images, functionality and effects are also desirable.
User-friendliness plays a key role. Both the graphic and technical design must ensure that the website user feels comfortable and can access and learn all information easily and playfully. Good usability accounts for 50% of a website’s ranking in Google and other search engines. Design pitfalls that users can’t navigate are worthless (except perhaps for ego gratification). (For example, the design of www.5.fo is very hip and modern, but its usability is zero – menus are difficult to find, the menu isn’t printable, the address is missing, etc.)
Visual design
When designing a website visually, elements such as fonts, colors, images, texts, videos, etc. are developed to suit the purpose of the website.
The rough structure is first sketched out using wireframes/mockups. Typically, one or two sample pages are graphically developed as a proposal. Programs such as Photoshop, GIMP, or Fireworks are often used for this.
Technical design
During the technical design phase, the features (sliders, effects, database searches—the added value) are defined. The basic framework of the page also includes the corresponding HTML, CSS, and JavaScript functions. The structure and layout are implemented in such a way that the pages are clickable. Ideally, this version is already close to the final result, but it often does not yet contain all the text, content, and graphics.
Contents
Text can be highlighted with images and videos, and made user-friendly. Content should be understandable and informative. Furthermore, the text should be comprehensive. Texts filled with rambling and filler words aren’t helpful—and nobody wants to read them. Precise information—that’s what users (and Google) want.
Accessibility in web design: A must for modern websites
One aspect that is becoming increasingly important in modern web design is accessibility. Websites should be accessible and usable for all users. An accessible website ensures that even people with visual or hearing impairments, motor disabilities, or cognitive impairments can easily consume all content.
The basic measures for accessible web design include:
- Clear and simple navigation: The user interface should be intuitive, with clearly visible menus and links that can be easily accessed using a keyboard or screen reader.
- Alternative text for images and multimedia content: This is crucial for screen readers to understand and describe the content of images and videos. This provides users with visual impairments with a better way to absorb the information.
- High-contrast color schemes and fonts: High contrast between text and background as well as easy-to-read fonts ensure that content is better perceived even by users with visual impairments.
- Transcripts and subtitles for video and audio content: These elements make it easier for deaf or hard-of-hearing users to understand multimedia content.
Accessibility is not just a matter of user-friendliness, but also an important legal aspect. The Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) will come into force in 2025. This law significantly tightens accessibility requirements on the internet. It affects many digital offerings that we use every day.
How we support you as an SEO agency
We support you from planning, construction and implementation through to quality assurance.
User Experience
Usability is one of the most important aspects of a website. It’s important to be easy to navigate to maintain a good ranking. We can support you with sophisticated user-friendly design or with a UX audit beforehand , where we list the errors and eliminate them for the redesign.
Mobile First
The mobile view must also be considered when building a website. Mobile First describes the concept of a mobile-optimized version of your website. Key points include the presentation of the menu, submenus, various graphics that need to be adapted, and so on.
We’ll help you build and design your mobile site for a user-friendly experience. Page speed is a ranking factor, so it’s essential for ranking first on Google .
Content
It’s not enough to fill the website with “normal” content. Text must be relevant. This means creating content that encompasses as much information as possible about a topic. Visitors to your website should be able to find it easily.
Our keyword research finds relevant keywords with a decent search volume. These search terms/topics round out the content. Care should be taken to avoid over-optimization.
Quality assurance, analysis and bug fixes
A first performance review can be conducted within four weeks of publication. Traffic and click-through rates can be compared with the targets. Adjustments may be necessary if necessary.
We can regularly analyze traffic and rankings and provide support for future changes.
Conclusion
- To be successful with a website on the internet, many aspects must be taken into account
- Conception, design, technology and content are important points
- The user-friendliness of a website is at least 50% responsible for a good ranking
- An SEO agency provides ongoing support, optimization, and can create and improve content, acquire new customers, etc.