The first and possibly the most important aspect to mention from the outset is that your business or brand, no matter what you are selling or promoting, needs a website. The website is still the most important hub of any digital marketing campaign.
This article examines the top trends in website design and development for 2022 and beyond and highlights how important the website still is for all businesses and brands out there.
Design matters
The way a website looks and feels is of paramount importance and should be the basis of your brand-building in any digital marketing campaign.
There was a time when based on the widespread availability of template designs, and web design apps, most small business websites looked and felt the same, as they were built on the same basic design template.
The trend is now to look for professional design that is bespoke and allows the brand to stand apart from its competitors.
The site should be built to ensure that first impressions last and that every visitor will remember their experience on your site.
Interaction
If you want a reaction and some response from the content and messages that you have on your website, it needs to be interactive.
The idea is to get users of the website to communicate with the brand, and as such, it’s the color, movement, and dynamics of the website that will be most important in this regard.
An excellent example of this kind of design that encourages user interaction is gaming websites, particularly online casinos, as their whole premise is to attract players, maintain their interest, and keep them engaged.
For instance, live dealer games have become incredibly popular in the modern day because they replicate the real-life casino experience through heightened gameplay and graphics, and employ a real human live dealer, adding authenticity.
As visualized on this site and its live dealer games section, the colors, special gaming offers, new casino games, and welcome messages encourage a response, along with a smart design that showcases all the choices players have available on one simple page that’s visually pleasing and mentally enticing.
Essentially, it emulates a real-life casino, not just in the sense that its live games incorporate heightened realism through real human dealers but also in the platform’s clever design that simulates how an in-person casino would offer games to patrons.
Online casinos like this, as well as many other genres of online gaming websites, are all about encouraging the user to stay on the site for as long as possible and interact with the games – much like a land-based casino uses strategic layout, signage, bright lights and décor, and carefully laid out entertainment to beckon players and keep them entertained for longer.
Ultimate minimalism
There is a current trend to reduce the buzz and noise on websites and tone them down to the absolute basic requirements. A minimalist website is one that has as little distraction from the core content as possible. Not too many, or any, scrolling banners, no music or pop-up videos and related content or offers.
The website is used to provide information and as a hub for other digital marketing, such as social media and eCommerce options. This is great for improving load times and ensures that clients and potential customers won’t have to wait for ages for the pages to load.
Animated illustration and infographics
There is a growing trend to provide essential brand information and product specifics in the form of illustrated and interactive illustrations and infographics.
Again, it’s about keeping it simple and yet still providing informative, necessary, and sufficiently detailed brand information.
There are a number of apps and software programs available that will allow you to design and make professional-looking infographics and animations to add movement and character to the website while providing quality information and content.
Layering and overlapping
Layering colors and textures adds depth and feeling to a website, specifically for landing pages where there is less text.
It allows the brand colors and design to be brought to the fore and creates a sense of interest in the site from the get-go, encouraging users to go deeper and look for more and spend more time on the site as a whole.
Think about symmetry, but also use overlapping design aspects that are side by side to offer a different layer and depth to the site.
User-friendly
The website, no matter how great looking and no matter how interactive, must be user-friendly. This usability refers to the manner in which the end user is able to get what they want or need from the website.
Whether it is loading a page, clicking through the content, or simply finding their way to your online shop through the links. Unless the user is actually able to do what they need to, then there is no need for the website.
Ongoing SEO
Rather than having your keywords and content optimized only at the beginning of the website design process and then following this structure for the life of the website, good or professional SEO must include an ongoing process of monitoring and updating.
There must be continuous improvement of the website content and the keywords and phrases being used to make it accessible and ‘findable’ online, or it will simply slowly fall down through the rankings and not be found.
It has been proven in marketing circles that websites still matter and that a website must form the cornerstone, or at least one of the cornerstones, of your digital omnichannel marketing campaign.
The tips in this article will provide you with insights as to what this aspect of your brand-building and marketing process should include for guaranteed success.