This support guide will give you a few tips on creating a website that utilizes the best web design practices to realize your vision of creating a beautiful and engaging website.
In this guide
One of the great features of WordPress.com is its nearly unlimited customization options. Simply put, the possibilities of what you can do with your website are virtually endless! However, along with that flexibility comes a lot of decisions to make. How do you want your WordPress.com site to look and feel, and what experience do you want your site visitors to have? This can cover everything from what theme you apply to your site to the color you choose to set for a specific button or link.
To begin, we recommend these two Go by WordPress.com articles:
- If you’re new to creating websites, Website Design Best Practices and Tips for Non-Designers offers some excellent advice and tips to remember when starting out.
- If you wonder why this is all so important, Why Great Web Design Matters gives an excellent overview of how good web design can help you achieve your goals.
As you’re designing your site, ask yourself the following questions to help set the direction of your new website:
Or, ask yourself, who is your audience? Do you want to create a personal website, a blog, an online portfolio, a business presence, a store to sell your merchandise, or some combination of these? Understanding the purpose of your website is the first step to designing a site that suits your visitors’ needs.
Thinking about what your site is for will help you make decisions about how to design the site. Many of those decisions will revolve around the site’s content and structure… or, to put it another way, what you want on your website and how it should be organized.
How you want to organize your site can be a complicated question. The most important thing to remember is that you can change your site’s structure at any time! Start with a design that meets your immediate needs, then expand your site based on what you learn from how your visitors navigate your site or the feedback you receive.
For an in-depth look at how to start answering questions on organizing your site, please see our Go by WordPress.com article Site Structure Planning: Build Your Website For Success.
Speaking of content, this question comes up a lot, so let’s address it right now: on WordPress.com, there’s really no difference between a blog and a website.
They’re both just ways of delivering your content to your site visitors. The main difference is in the kind of content and its structure; blogs are updated with posts, while websites tend to have more static content. Our tutorial Do I Need a Website, a Blog, or a Website with a Blog? addresses this question at greater length.
Here are a few suggestions to help you create the best possible design for the greatest number of visitors.
C. E. M. Joad once wrote, “the height of originality is skill in concealing origins.” If you find a website with a look you admire, feel free to use it as inspiration for your own design!
While content is copyrightable and should never be taken or used without permission, no one holds a copyright on layouts, individual colors, or other design elements and their combinations.
Our article on drawing website inspiration from competitors while remaining ethical provides some additional tips for looking for ideas on how you want your website to look.
A top-level navigation menu is a great way to help visitors find content on your website. Not only can a well-crafted menu help organize your content, but the choices you include and the way you structure them can actually shape the way your visitors experience that content.
Well-placed images and formatting will help to call out important information on your website. People tend to scan for the information they’re looking for. An image, or a header, in the right place encourages your visitor to pause and absorb the information in that section of your website.
The most important information, or “call-to-action,” should be within the first content area of your site. Headings and subheadings are not only good for breaking your content into digestible chunks but are also a good practice for search engine optimization.
Images, like pictures of the products you sell, your logo, or art related to the content you’ve added, are a great way to break up content.
If you’re unsure when to use images, galleries, or even gifs, we have a best practices guide you can check out.
When you’re making design choices for your site, consider how your site will work for users with screen readers, users who navigate with a keyboard instead of a mouse, or users with visual impairments.
Good design is accessible to the greatest number of people possible, and accessible design benefits everyone who visits your site. Our support guide on Accessibility and our blog post 10 Ways to Make Your Site More Accessible, offer tools and suggestions for designing accessibly.
A well-designed website should also load quickly. Visitors are more likely to stay on your site if the content of the site is displayed instantly, regardless of the device or speed of their internet connection. We have a great guide on Site Speed and Performance that will cover the details of creating a well-performing site.
