A website's design is the first thing that people see when they visit. How the navigation are laid, how the colors match, how the columns separate elements, how the headlines look like and so forth. The more attractive a web design and the layouts are, the chance to get more traffic increases.
When a visitor lands on a website's landing page, the website design consists of layouts and coloring are the integral part of the whole design they see. Design approaches visitor in a way that their eyes are pleased before even seeing the content they are seeking.
Website design may differ from one another. But the whole process is the same, and all is done to aim visitors feel comfortable.
Below is a list of the most common methods on how a website design and layout should be to attract traffic.
Simple Design and Layout
The more complicated a website's design and layout are, the greater the chance the website will create an unappealing appreciation. Most people generally don’t like a complicated website layout to start with, and professional web designers should be able to put their effort into making a complicated layout appealing.
A complicated layout has more than two columns of text, images, advertisements, and navigation menus. The purpose of this design is that the design is trying to do more than one thing on each page, and this can distract the readers from the first thing they want to do. Sometimes these distraction can hamper website readability and that is not what most people want.
Although web design's only purpose is to please visitors, a complicated website can also cause Google and other search engines to incorrectly index the web page. This can cost the website valuable organic search traffic.
A simple and clean layout doesn’t unnecessarily distract the reader. Great web design usually uses linear flow, in which navigation elements are at the top and every elements below the navigation has its own dedicated sections, including advertisement elements. This design will make readers read each page from top to bottom without ever being distracted by sidebar items.
Internal Traffic
Obtaining web traffic and make them loyal is one of the most challenging and the most difficult task for any webmaster and web entrepreneurs. But all the work done to get someone to visit a website is wasted if the website can’t keep them there until they do whatever it is that makes the site profitable, such as buying a product or clicking on an advertisement.
Good website layout will help a better management of internal traffic. If people aren’t distracted by the design and layout, the higher the change they will stay longer, giving the website more opportunities to sell
Affecting Referrals
When visitors stay at a site longer, the more they appreciate it. And the more time they spend will not only reduce bounce rate, but also they will also come to know what the website is offering and it's brand.
And the better the visitors know the brand, the more likely they will recommend the website to other people through their blog or social media connections. Even the method is has indirect effect, the result will significantly boost incoming traffic and incoming links without giving the website any necessary cost.
Focusing on Layout
- Remove Distractions - When great web design and layout can affect the eagerness of readers to read, distraction can make people forget their main purpose from landing into the website. Does the web page needs all the navigation links, the advertisements and exposed internal links? If not, it's wiser to remove them, or blend them better into the design and layout so the elements won't distract visitors from the first thing the website is built for.
- Less Style - More styles means more HTTP request. 80 percent of the visitors response time is spent on the front-end. Most of this time is tied up in downloading all the components in the page: images, stylesheets, scripts, flash medias, etc.. Reducing the number of components in turn reduces the clutterness of page's design and the number of HTTP requests required to render the page. This is the key to faster pages, and yet still attractive design and layout.
- Make it Linear - Making a website layout linear is by making every element of the site follow another element so readers can simply scroll down the page to read. Linear layout also tends to make a website's design look cleaner and making its contents easier to follow.