Your website is like the storefront of your business. You have to design it in a way that excellently communicates your brand and makes your business look more authentic. After all, online users have more than 1.8 billion websites where they can land, and an appealing design can help you attract the most visits and convert more leads.

Besides the appearance, your business website should be easy to navigate. When users visit your website, they should get what they want within the shortest time, whether using a desktop or a mobile device.

But how can you keep everything in order when you have multiple branding projects and websites? This guide will highlight the top practices on how to design a website for mobile and desktop and unify your multiple websites. Read on.

Benefits of Good Website Design for Mobile and Desktop

Here are the top reasons why your websites should have functional and appealing designs. A good website design:

Creates great first impression — 94% of a business’s first impressions come from the website design.
Builds trust with your audience because it makes your business look credible.
Gives you a competitive edge.
Creates consistency when you need to get more leads.

Top Practices to Improve Your Desktop to Mobile Design

1. Keep It Simple

The appearance of your website is important. However, most visitors will not be coming to your website to check how smart it is, but rather to look for what they want. They need to get certain information or an action, and this means that you should keep your website simple.

Too many actions can make your website excessively busy and confusing. A simple and minimalist approach is the way to go. Here are few tips on how you can achieve a simple website design:

Leave white space: white space breaks monotony. Don't be afraid to leave it no matter how much content you have.
Eliminate fluff: avoid words or pictures which do not add value to your website. Retain what is voluble only.
Minimize colors: too many users may be attractive, but not every visitor may like them. Plus, multiple colors confuse the users. Keep a maximum of three colors on your website.

2. Organize Your Elements

Even with the simple approach, you should arrange your elements in a good way to ease the navigation. For instance, you can plan on the elements to top your website and the ones to be at the bottom. The trend should remain consistent in all the websites so that your users don't be confused whenever they switch from desktop to mobile.

Note: there is no specific format for organizing your website. You only need to know the vital elements to include in the website and then systematically arrange them uniformly across all your websites.

If possible, do not regularly change your website elements because your users may find it confusing. Let everything remain as it is for at least three months when you redesign.

3. Include a Visible Call to Action

A call to action guides your visitors on what they will do next when they visit your website. You should not assume that your visitors will know the location of the call to action. The best way is to direct them with a link or a few words because some visitors can be lazy, while others may not have the time to scroll the entire website.

A call to action in a website could be your business contacts, sign-up requests, and so on. The call to action should be on the first page of your website to save your clients time.

You should include a call to action on each page of your website.

4. Work on the Website's Navigation

An intuitive website design allows your visitors to get what they need. All your websites should have intuitive navigations to direct your visitors from one point to another.

Here are few tips on how to maintain easy to navigate websites:

Keep a clean structure of the elements from top to bottom.
Include a search bottom to allow the visitors to get what they need without scrolling too much easily.
Avoid multiple navigation options. Remember, you are trying to keep the site clean and simple and possible, so don't overstuff the pages with navigation links.

5. Maintain Consistency

Consistency is important when you have multiple websites. Your websites represent your brand, and they should all have the same tone and look. If your visitor gets to your page through a desktop, they should not find a difference when using their smartphones.

The websites should look similar to boost the credibility of your business. Here are the main things that should remain consistent in a web design for mobile and desktop:

Font size
Color
Background theme
Tone of voice

Note: you don't have to duplicate content from one website to another to create uniformity. The content can be different, but the general structure should be the same. The consistency makes it easier for your customers to get what they want, no matter the device they use.

6. Choose Your Visuals Wisely

Photos and videos are a crucial part of your website content. The photos you use should be related to your content, and they should directly represent your brand. Most importantly, the photos should be consistent. For instance, if you put a photo in the footer of each page, then you can do the same for the other pages to create some uniformity.

The Importance of Creating a Responsive Website Design

A responsive website is optimized for mobile devices such as smartphones. Due to their smaller screen size, mobile devices tend to reveal fewer details, and this calls for a few amendments to ensure that the user experience lets potential customers find the important website details.

A responsive design desktop to mobile website should have:

Large buttons
Large texts
Simple menus
Intuitive search feature
Visible call to action

Designing for Mobile vs. Desktop: Create the Same Feel for Your Websites

Multiple websites can be hard to manage, but you can achieve the best results and impress your customers. If you plan to create multiple websites for your business, follow the tips above to achieve your desired look. Don't hesitate to seek professional help when necessary.

For more information about desktop site design to mobile site design, view our mobile web design services.

Hearing about growth-driven design for the first time? Learn more about the three pillars of GDD and how this methodology can help you solve your greatest marketing challenges.

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