Whether you are planning to build your first website for a blog, to share an interesting hobby with the world, or are a small business owner looking to gain valuable web-based custom, a website is vital in today’s world. It is estimated that around 64% of all small businesses have their own dedicated website. This number is increasing year on year and having a strong online presence is considered of extreme importance for the longevity of any business. A website on its own is certainly not guaranteed to draw in visitors or paying customers. All modern websites must hit several key points to ensure that they begin to rise the all-important Google ranking pages and become more visible to online customers. This article explains three key tips for designing a professional-looking website that will attract visitors.

Consider SEO

If you want to appear higher up ranking pages (which is vital as most customers tend not to look past page one in any search), then search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital skill to learn. It is about designing your site to encourage more traffic to your web pages and improve your placing in organic search results. Key parts of good SEO practice include using keywords effectively, ensuring that you have fast loading speeds for all your pages (which google views as a prime indicator of web page quality), and ensuring that all content is well researched and of high quality. The sophistication of search engines has improved significantly in recent years and concepts such as keyword stuffing are no longer effective strategies to boost your web presence. In short, the website should be slick, fast, and full of high-quality content.

Web Security

It is a troubling fact that we live in an age where cyber attacks can damage or bring to a complete standstill any website. Recent hacks of the websites of major corporations have demonstrated that even the most sophisticated sites are vulnerable to the malicious acts of cybercriminals. Thankfully, web designers have a range of software products at their disposal to test their websites to ensure they are as safe as possible from cybercrime. One such platform is the burp suite, which uses a graphical tool and integrated platform to security test web applications and looks for weak points in the systems from a security viewpoint. Today, many web developers use such tools as part of the overall web development process.

Multi Device Friendly

In the modern world of web surfing, websites will likely be accessed through a variety of tech devices. The era of web access solely through computer or laptop is over and most consumers will now use a range of devices to connect to your site. Smartphones and tablets are increasingly being used to shop for products and surf the web. As a result of this, all web designers should ensure that their websites are easy to navigate on devices with smaller screens. Scroll bars should be easy to operate on smartphones and the page layouts should be such that they allow information to be read quickly and easily on smaller devices.