Any commercial website needs to be designed professionally these days, or it will look out of place in an increasingly competitive online environment. If you are considering a new website or updating your current one, then what are the most important design considerations you should be considering? Read on to find out more about contemporary approaches to commercial website design.

1. A Targeted Approach

One of the most important things in website design these days is to come up with something that will be attractive to your chosen demographic. A website that might look great in a business-to-business environment is unlikely to appeal to consumers and vice-versa, for instance. Choose a design that is more graphical and less wordy for a younger audience while opting for simplicity and elegance for an upmarket brand that wants to attract older people.

2. Plan the Site Structure

Some websites are great if they occupy just one page. You can pack a lot in if there are visual cues about how far visitors need to scroll down to find the content they're after. However, poorly performing websites try to pack too much into their mono-page design. If you need multiple landing pages for different commercial aims, then plan these from the start and use a consistent visual design across each.

3. Add a Blog

All websites should have a blog as a part of their design nowadays. You do not need to draw much attention to it unless you will use it for direct marketing purposes. That said, not having a blog of any kind will lead to lower search engine rankings, so you should include one even if it is just to gain more attention from the big search engines.

4. Use Professional Photography

Stock images and photos taken by yourself may be all you need for your website design to make sense conceptually. However, to really make it stand out, hire a professional photographer to take high-quality images for you that no one else has access to. This way, your website design will gain much more of its own visual identity, helping to mark your brand out as unique among its competitors.

5. Consider Load Times

These days, people will simply leave your site if it takes a long time to load. Using bespoke scripts that need to be downloaded by visitors rather than standard ones that don't will only add to the slowness of your site. Go for a streamlined approach that will mean your website loads fast even if the visitor has a relatively old device and don't assume all visitors will experience the same loading speeds.