Web design is a process of creating designs for websites. It involves planning, conceptualising and arranging content that is meant for the internet. Modern web design goes beyond the aesthetics of the web page, and focuses strongly on functionality as well as user experience. There are increasingly more aspects that web designers need to keep in mind when designing modern websites as the expectations of the user, as well as the devices we utilise to view websites are continuously changing. Web design that changes and adapts to the different screen sizes is referred to as responsive web design.

The main difference between web design and web development is that web designers focus on the aesthetics of the website as well as its usability. Designers consider browser behaviour and ensure the design and visual elements capture users’ attention and help to convert them into leads.

Web development, on the other hand, refers to the actual coding and programming process. Web developers use HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and other programming languages to transform the designs into a real, functioning website.

Responsive web design (RWD) is a process by which the appearance of the website is determined by the screen size and the orientation of the device. Programming a website in this way means that the elements of the website move as the viewport grows or shrinks, making the website more user-friendly.

Responsive web designs are also referred to as ‘mobile-first’ designs where the design is first produced for a smaller screen, such as a smartphone or tablet, and then adapted to larger screens. In the last decade, we’ve observed a shift towards ‘mobile-first’ designs due to the increasing number of web traffic coming from mobile devices.

With the world becoming increasingly more digitalised, your website plays a greater role in your business. It not only impacts the way your audience perceives your brand but can also help convert your website visitors into leads and eventually into sales with the correct layout and use of Call To Action (CTA) buttons and links.
Good web design will create a good first impression for the visitors and deliver your brand message clearly.

Additionally, a skilled designer will apply design principles that aid your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy by using website elements that allow you to publish content on your site, which then allows search engine spiders crawl and index your website, boosting your visibility.

Applying consistency in the design of the website elements helps to reduce bounce rate as many website visitors judge business credibility based on their web design. It also helps your audience become familiar with your brand colours and imagery.

At Web Design London we believe web design begins with SEO. Your web design can incorporate various elements that help your SEO rankings. One way that the SEO rankings go up is as a result of a lower bounce rate. Attractive design and carefully selected keywords reduce bounce rates.

Another aspect of web design that helps to reduce bounce rate is the user experience (UX). What this refers to is the ease with which users can navigate through your website to find exactly what they’re looking for. If the structure of the website is unclear, users are more likely to ‘bounce-off’ and search for the same information on the competitor’s website.

Optimising your web design with compressed images that load faster and social media integrations that let them distribute your content online makes their experience better. As a result, users are likely to stay on your website for longer and as a result, indicate to the search engines that your website is valid and useful for web users.

UX stands for user experience. When this concept is applied to web design it speaks of creating websites that deliver meaningful and relevant experiences to its users. Applying best UX practices when designing websites makes you consider how users interact with your website and, as a result, optimise the design to make it a smoother experience for them. This is critical as it can make a massive difference in your website’s conversion rate i.e. the percentage of website visitors that take the desired action on your website.

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of website users that take the desired action whilst on your website. For a business that sells products online, that desired action may be a user purchasing a product. For someone offering services based on customers’ needs, the desired action could be a quote request. The desired action will be determined by the business’s goals and structure of their marketing funnel.

A landing page is a stand-alone page that serves a specific purpose. A website is built of several pages, also referred to as landing pages because each of them holds specific information about an aspect of the business. Often landing pages are put together for marketing purposes and contain information specific to an offer that the business is trying to promote. These landing pages may be a way to generate leads when integrated with other digital marketing tools such as Google Ads or Email Marketing campaigns.

Web hosting is a service you need when you’re looking to have a website. The website needs to be connected to a server so that the files can be pulled up when someone types in your domain name. As a web design agency, we host websites for our clients using Siteground servers, which are one of the fastest servers available.

The digital world is constantly evolving. Many plug-ins are updated every few months. When this happens, this needs to be updated on your website and monitored for any bugs. Additionally, keeping an eye on the safety of your website to make sure no one hacks your website stealing any confidential information is a good practice. Such web maintenance tasks are best performed by an experienced web developer. At Web Design London, we offer web maintenance services to ensure your site is kept safe and secure.