The main purpose of any commercial website is to be able to communicate with its visitors, give the right amount of information about whichever product or service is being offered and finally, convert visitors into customers. It is imperative to adhere to certain basics, to make your website pleasing to visit, easy to navigate and leave a lasting impression on the visitor.

The visitor should be able to enjoy a pleasing design, which will allow easy access to the actual content and move around the website easily in a sensible manner. Here are a few tips you should look out for when designing a website.

1. Ensure a pleasing layout with equal proportions of navigation, content and imagery.

2. Select colours, themes and textures that are associated with the theme of your product/service. You should select colours that are compatible with your company logo.

3. Font styles and sizes are very important. You want something that goes with the overall design and layout of the website, which is also easy to read and understand. Keep in mind that a visitor may not have certain uncommon fonts loaded on his/her computer, and therefore will not be able to see the exact font. To avoid this, care should be taken to use a standard font, or else to convert such fonts into images.

4. Keep your text concise and well spaced. Content should be broken down into bullets or numbered lists to make it easier to read. The web design should be able to communicate to the visitor immediately what the website is about, so long boring paragraphs are definitely not desired. Use interesting and appealing imagery which is relevant to the content.

5. Ensure that your website is compatible with multiple browsers. Certain sites do not function properly in particular browsers, which is a shame as this reduces your potential visitors.

6. Keep your web design simple and straightforward. Do not clutter it with banners, badges and confusing labels.

7. It is advisable not to include detailed audio video presentations which take a long time to load, as people do not like to be kept waiting. Also, avoid auto playing music, as this can put off visitors.

8. The web design should fit the page, and should require very little or no vertical or horizontal scrolling at all.

Having a good website design company by your side will help you make the best choices and steer you in the right direction concerning your website.