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Website standards and best practices 2018

The digital presence herself in the modern world is not enough anymore. Owning an optimized, functional and interactive website is a must. The Internet knows many examples of poor website designs with many lacks of technical and content quality.

Making sure your website is easy to access, easy to use, and includes the right content for your business category. User-friendly is the key here. It concerns clarity and usability. You should take a look at the guidelines website standards listed below. Websites guidelines are a set of rules that web designers need to follow, to meet the expectations. If you go ahead and create a website without any knowledge, probably you’ll have to go back and figure out what is not working on your website. You do not want it, right? Save your money and time. Memory about the guidelines when it comes to the usability of your business’s website is a good way to a better position of your website. It works the same for search engines and between customers. Let’s take a look at what kind of Website standards are important for users and developers.

Website standards and trends feature list

Responsive website trends

Responsive & mobile friendly

Actually, everyone uses other smart devices on a daily basis. Smart-TV, Notebooks, Smartphones, Smartwatches, Tablets, Phablets and much more – your site on each of these devices should be well displayed. Create an engaging, responsive and mobile-friendly design that your audience can access whenever they want, wherever they roam! By providing these functionalities, your site can get more points from Google – so it can be better in search results. Live chat website trends

Live Chat means more money

Email is still the preferred method of communication for many companies, but why do customers have to wait 24 hours when they want buy your product, ask an easy question or for example reset the password? With live chat, you can change leads to customers, and you can also provide professional support with minimum response time.

UX Trends and standards

Optimizing the User Experience

It’s really hard to define one universal look for each page – each group of recipients differently affects certain elements. One aspect of a website that can be frustrating for users is having pop-ups or other unsolicited windows – but at for example – it can be a good sales tool. Making your website professional can also help to make it credible to your users. If they feel as though your website is not credible, they will likely leave. Research your site in terms of the most clickable places on the site – currently, on the market, you will find many solutions that offer hit maps.

Website speed trends

Speed your website

No one wants to wait, wait and … wait for load your site. Design sites with prompt loading times for all users on every device (even with slower Internet connections). Therefore, you should reduce server response time, avoid heavy images and use SVG graphics. You can use Pagespeed Insights by Google to check your website speed and see how you can speed up the loading time of your website

Search on website trends

Let the user search

Searchability is one of the most essential functions of a website, and it is not just website trends. Users appreciate if they can quickly find what they are looking for in the content of the site. Using the search bar allows you to quickly and accurately search for keywords. It is worth making sure that our search works as it should, and all words/phrases are possible to find. It also allows for a more thorough examination of the issues on which phrases and words to emphasize in the content – finding out what users are looking for. This feature on your site will help you to find what they are looking for. Links on website

Useful Links

A few tips on the usefulness of links on the website. The times of linking single words like “here” are over. The user is currently expecting detailed information about clicking. It is worth to link to accurate information. Another thing is to check if the link works. If someone finds a link that does not move it to a given place or just is broken it is very frustrating. Please note that we can link both content and images while linking content is more appropriate and more effective. It is worth considering the use of the method of clicking and clicking. It is also important to mark internal and external links.

Heading-titles-website-trends

Accurate headings

The good working navigation requires using headings as well as titles and labels with descriptions, created on meaningful information. They should lead users to the information they are looking for. Make headings and labels unique -This should trigger a reaction. And in the future, it should result in better results regarding clicks. Headlines should be reasonably arranged. There is a hierarchy, and its behavior allows the reader to better understand the content. If the content is long, it is even more desirable – it will enable you to find specific content quickly. Deficiencies and errors in the headers may result in the visitor’s resignation from its further exploration.

Navigation website trends

User friendly navigation

The most popular button used on the website is a “back button” Website users like to explore, search, go further but they also need to know that they can quickly go back the previous page. That is why you should be sure that the “back” button works. It is essential that buttons and links work on the website. All elements need to be clear and transparent – they give information about where they are leading etc. For example pop-ups – when you hover over a link. It tells you where you will go if you click it. Another examples – the sitemap or content tabs – these are handy and helpful tools. Accessibility-WCAG-trends

Accessibility means more users

It would be great if your site is accessible to all. According to WCAG 2.0 / Section 508 / ADA rules websites must be available for all users, including those with disabilities. If you run a site already then, you can make some changes, but it if you are starting creating a new one, it’s better to remember about the accessibility from the beginning. Your job as a web designer or website owner is to make sure everyone, can get everywhere and find everything on your page. There many free tools in the web available that you can use to check your website and it’s current compliance with website standards 2018. Accessibility is also a one of website e-commerce trends 2018. Summary If your website is no ready for 2018 website standards, it’s time to start reconstruction. You should focus on the issues mentioned above, simple, functional solutions. Implementing and using required standards can change the way visitors see your business and trigger the desired effect, that is increased traffic.