I believe that there are at least 3 things to know about anything. Three funny things. Three important things. Three weird things. Three things.

You get the idea.

Three Things … About Top Website Design

The best website design has 3 things going for it that work together to build improved search engine rank and create the opportunity for increased sales.

A top website design has at least 3 things going on.

  1. Usability
  2. Search Optimization
  3. Aesthetics

There’s usability. Usability is the most important thing. Everything else in a unique website design should interact with the usability.

There’s search engine optimization. The best website design is fed by the usability because search engines are looking for the same things users are looking for in a site and they will recognize and reward a usable Website design.

And SEO feeds website usability if the site is optimized properly on relevant keywords. For example, the very first part of Web usability is assisting users to find what they are seeking. Good keyword research and keyword placement in your pages does that.

So website usability and search engine optimization work together in top website design.

And then there'ss aesthetics. If Web usability and SEO create an easy-to-find, easy-to-use website, then aesthetics becomes icing on the cake, creating a unique website design, building a brand image, making a more inviting site, helping visitors feel more comfortable, all of which feeds back to the website usability and search engine optimization results.

You need all 3.

All 3 of these elements go into the unique website design of a page. All of them are part of designing a Web page and if you leave out any one of them you reduce the effectiveness of the website design just that much.

Great search engine optimization will only bring people to the website. It won’t make a sale. A gorgeous website design that no one can find produces nothing. An easily found and beautiful website that is hard to understand, has very little valuable information and uses sloppy navigation will only hold the website visitor’s attention for so long until they move on to less stressful websites.

So top site designs use, first and foremost, good usability techniques because if people get to your site and they can’t use it, then none of the other work has meant anything. So that’s first. It has to be a usable website design. Then, the website has to be well optimized for search engines so that people will find it. And finally, you want a unique website design that is professional looking and attractive enough to hold the interest of visitors and make them want to see more.

Top 3 elements of website usability

  • Simple, honest and complete website navigation. Finding a website is just the beginning for your visitors. Once there, they need to be able to figure out where to go to get specific information, to learn more, to find the actual product they seek. Confusing or incomplete
         Website navigation creates a stressful situation for your visitors. Website navigation that uses words implying one thing and then leads to something else confuses people. It’s frustrating to be looking for something you think should be there, but cannot find.
  • Use product images and descriptive copy. Good illustrative images. Descriptive copy and product information.
         One of the reasons people shop online is for the research potential. Absence of pictures or pictures that are two small to see any details, too-short descriptions or missing descriptions all make it difficult for your website visitors to make a decision. I’ve seen websites where products were listed with a name and stock number only. Unless the website visitor has done a lot of homework elsewhere and knows exactly what that product is, he is unlikely to have much trust in your website. And if he’s done a bunch of research at another website, what do you think the likelihood is that he wouldn’t purchase the item from that site?
  • Be clear and consistent. Help your website’s visitors intuitively find their way by using clear consistent indicators and action triggers. Descriptive words, images and colors can all help indicate where the visitor is currently in your site or help a user determine what to do next. But don’t make visitors relearn those triggers on different Web pages. Keep it consistent so as they move through your website, their comfort and certainty is increased. If you’ve ever been lost, you know it is frustrating. It is no less frustrating to be lost in the virtual world and letting visitors get lost on your Website is a critical mistake, because they can always click away to someplace they are familiar with.

Top 3 elements of search engine optimization

  • Research keywords to be sure you are using relevant search terms that are meaningful to your prospects in your niche. Use a tool like Wordtracker Keyword Research to help find the best keywords for your niche.
  • Use your keywords in the Web page title, description and top level headings, as well as in the text. Always be certain that you use relevant, researched keywords in page titles. Proper use of page titles is a primary element of implementing good search engine optimization in top website designs.
  • Build your Website's reputation with incoming links from quality, related top websites. This takes effort. Find websites or reputable directories that are related and ask for a link to your site. Build the kind of quality content that will make others want to link to your site. Purchase listings in top directories.

Top 3 elements of website design

  • Develop a page hierarchy. Don’t just dump everything on the Web page. Build a flow of information through the use of white space, heads and subheads, type size and style. Some items on the page are more important than other items. Make those distinctions clear and help your website visitors understand what is most important.
  • Use color effectively. Study the meaning conveyed by different colors and use appropriate colors on your website. Use colors that make reading easier. For instance, you may love bright pinks and blues but putting them together on a financial services Website just doesn’t make sense and will impede the readability of text on the site. Develop a pleasing and appropriate color palette for your unique website design.
  • Eliminate the use of distracting backgrounds or busy backgrounds that can reduce readability — a common website design flaw. Overly textured or cluttered Web page backgrounds take attention away from what’s important on the page and can make reading text a real chore. Before you add that cute graphic behind the text on your website design, take an objective look at the effect it has on clarity and ease of reading. Move these kinds of backgrounds out of text areas on your site.

Top website design is not just pretty.

In fact, pretty is the least important of the above three factors. Objectively view your site for workability first. Is it easy to use? Is the navigation obvious? How well does your website place in search results? Does it come up when you search on the most relevant words for your niche? Only when all 3 factors are developed will you have a unique website design that is also a top website design.