The Ultimate WordPress Website Design Guide
Do you plan to design a WordPress website? You’ll join more than 400 million sites that use WordPress to reach their online target audiences if you do.
Most of these WordPress website designers would tell you that creating a website is not a piece of cake. It takes time, attention to detail, lots of creativity and passion. However, if you have a clear goal in your head, you have a chance to design a website that stands out.
Keep in mind, though, that web design is not only about aesthetic considerations. It would be best to think about the costs, speed optimisation, plugins, and similar.
If you consider all elements, you’ll design an eye-catching WordPress website and easy to use.
We’ve prepared a WordPress website design guide that will help you know which elements you should keep in mind.
Table of Contents
Choose the right plugins
WordPress plugins are helpful because they can improve the functionality of your website. Given the popularity of WordPress, many plugins have appeared over the years.
HubSpot writes that there are more than 50,000 plugins in WordPress. Most of them can upgrade your website, but there are ones that can cause performance issues. This is why you should be picky with WordPress plugins.
If you’re unsure which plugin to install, we suggest you do a little research. Other website designers leave reviews on the internet, telling you which plugin worked for them and which didn’t.
Even when you install a plugin, you need to test it first. Analyse how it’s affecting the performance of your site. If a page crashes after installing the plugin, you need to remove it and find another one.
Explore premium themes
While designing a WordPress website, some technologies and features can make your life easier. For instance, you can use WP page builders to build WordPress pages. You can also leverage WordPress themes to take those pages to the next level.
Many free WordPress themes work just like premium ones. This is good news for all designers because you won’t need to pay a dime to get an eye-catching and powerful theme.
Sometimes, however, it’s best to resort to premium themes. Why? Because a significant number of free themes come with functionality and code issues.
No matter how pleasing to the eye, you won’t get much out of them if they don’t work correctly.
On the other hand, premium themes have an excellent code quality. You won’t have to worry about them crashing. They also have various functionalities, such as dynamic galleries and social media sharing buttons.
Develop a brand identity
If you examine some popular websites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or perhaps a small business), you’ll see they all tell a story through their design.
They use colours, logos and fonts that have become synonymous with their brand. Only one look at some of these websites, and users know which brand it is.
It would help if you learned from these companies. You’re not just making a website but also establishing your brand’s online presence. This means you should think about your brand’s style.
Brainstorm on your own or with your team which colour schemes, font types, and designs suit your brand. After some time, visitors will start associating them with your website or business.
If consumers see you didn’t give your site much thought, they’ll be sceptical about doing business with you. If they recognise you put in the effort, they are more likely to spend time on your website.
For their sake, develop a consistent brand identity and use elements synonymous with your brand. This can be helpful when you are trying to build customer trust by improving every stage of their journey.
Use the right font
Fonts are often overlooked during WordPress website development, even though they shouldn’t be. Why do fonts matter?
Web fonts are essential because they help you be consistent. Imagine if you use a different font for every page on your website. That would give everyone a headache!
You should also pay attention to fonts because they define the hierarchy of your content. Use a bigger font for pages to which you want to draw attention.
Choosing the suitable font sizes means you’ll encourage users to read your website’s content from the most important to the least important.
When you are careful about the fonts you use, this will affect your brand’s personality and your website’s trustworthiness.
What are some of the fonts people like? Although this depends on personal preferences, designers use custom fonts like Noto Sans.
Fonts like this are helpful if you have a multi-language website and want the same font across all site versions.
Are there fonts you should avoid? Of course. Some designers used the font called Impact, but you shouldn’t follow in their footsteps. The font is too thin and focused. It appears amateurish so that you won’t stand out.
Fonts like Noto Sans should be your choice if you want to attract attention and remain consistent.
Think about speed optimisation
Your website can be incredibly aesthetically appealing, but it won’t perform well if it takes too long to load. Consumers have become demanding over the years, and they won’t put up with slow loading times.
According to Google, 53% of visitors abandon a mobile website if it takes three seconds to load. You can draw them in with a unique design, but what makes them stay in your website’s performance.
How can you optimise your website to be faster? For example, graphic designers can avoid using high-quality images and massive file sizes.
This doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice quality to have a faster site. It means that you need to find ways to optimise your WordPress website and decrease the size of your digital assets.
Conclusion
Our WordPress website design guide focused on the most critical aspects of designing a site. Some of these elements are often overlooked by designers.
Even though font sizes and brand identities might seem unimportant, they can improve your website.
You are creating the website for your audience. Think about them before you decide and ask yourself what they need to keep returning to your site.
While creating the perfect WordPress website design requires time and resources, it will ultimately pay off.
Author Bio: Dmitriy Maschenko is the head of a division and a Board member at PSD2HTML. This company offers top-notch web and mobile development services to clients, from S&M businesses to agencies and governmental bodies. Dmitriy went from a developer trainee position up to where he is now. With 12+ years of experience in the IT industry under his belt, Dmitriy has a wealth of knowledge to share with his readers. He writes on business management, website & app development, and everything in between.
