Professional Web Design Best Practices
A professional website is more than a polished, on-brand user interface design.
It requires careful user experience (UX) planning, from conversion funnels and messaging to user journeys.
With this in mind, some of our best practices include:
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Professional Web Design Best Practices
A professional website is more than a polished, on-brand user interface design. It requires careful user experience (UX) planning, from conversion funnels and messaging to user journeys.
With this in mind, some of our best practices include:
1. Create User Personas
Your website needs to speak to your audience’s needs and meet their expectations.
To ensure your messaging reflects your audience’s pain and gain points, and that the website is intuitive and user-friendly, build user personas to tailor your user experience to each audience segment.
2. Factor SEO Into Your Planning Process
As you are planning your sitemap, turn to keyword research tools to understand what your audiences are actively searching for and how.
Keyword research can point you to new messaging ideas and opportunities to engage your audiences in search.
3. Develop A Brand (or Web) Style Guide
Visual consistency is key to a creating a web design that connects with your audience.
Investing in a brand or web style guide will help you design a coherent digital presence.
4. Build User Journeys
Map out the main touchpoints on your website and connect them with clean navigation, a.k.a menu, as well as clear calls to action (CTAs).
CTAs help you guide your user through the key pieces of information they need to build trust and convert.
5. Use Animation Thoughtfully
While they are certainly fun and engaging, motion graphics and animation can be costly additions to your user experience.
Before investing in these design elements, specify how they will move the needle on your website’s performance. If their purpose is not clear, table them.
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4 Types Of Websites To Consider
Your website design is someone’s very first impression of your business.
And first impression matters a great deal in the online world.
However, to match your design aspirations with your business expectations, the first thing you need to do is consider what type of a website does your company need.
Here are 4 website types that you might want to consider:
1. Single Landing Page
A single landing page, or one page, website is a website design that contains just one HTML webpage.
Single page websites differ from other sites as they do not include the necessary navigation elements, such as drop down or burger menus, to connect the homepage to other areas of the website.
[Source: Café Frida]
When executed professionally, single landing page designs can offer a sleek, stripped back website that highlights a brand’s unique value proposition and calls-to-action (CTAs) without distraction.
They are used to promote a range of content, such as:
- Products
- Events
- Portfolios
- Campaigns
- Promotions
2. Business
A business website can range from simple landing page designs to complex digital solutions. According to data collected by Statista, 83.4% of businesses with more than ten employees have a website.
Although the visual identity of business websites will change from site to site, they all serve the purpose of extending brand awareness, offering online visibility and providing users with value.
[Source: Dunnion Law]
Whether corporate or creative, modern or minimalist, businesses utilize professional website design services to ensure a high-level design that guides visitors along their specific conversion funnel.
3. ECommerce
An eCommerce website is a digital platform that allows consumers to buy products and services directly online.
Global retail eCommerce sales are expected to hit over $8.1 billion in 2026. It’s a vast market where a professional design can make the difference between missing out or capitalizing on these potential revenues.
[Source: Statista]
While the premise behind an eCommerce website—to convert leads—remains the same as with most sites, extra functionalities such as checkout areas and payment windows often require specialist development and integrations.
ECommerce websites will be designed, developed and supported on specialist platforms, including:
4. Custom
A custom website refers to a tailor-made digital experience, created by custom coding and development aspects.
Custom websites are crucial in delivering an online presence that stays true to a brand’s visual identity, while offering a unique user experience and interface designed with a business’ specific targets in mind.
[Source: Ed Snider Hockey]
While a website template is cheaper than a custom design, they are a limited choice for three key reasons:
- Limited scalability
- Lack of individuality
- Possibility for heavy coding/errors
Development Costs Of A Professional Website
The costs to develop a professional website are impacted by multiple factors, from web design company experience to pricing structures, location to project requirements.
As a digital consultancy, our prices at Digital Silk are charged at an hourly rate.
While the exact hours spent on each project will vary, here are our ranges for end-to-end professional website design solutions:
- Strategy: 20 – 40 hours
- UI/UX Design: 80 – 120 hours
- Development: 180 – 220 hours
- Custom API integrations: 80 hours and up
- SEO & content: 120 to 150 hours
- Maintenance & updates: 20 – 40 hours per month
Digital Silk’s Professional Web Design Examples
We’ll show you a few of our recent custom web designs. Each website is responsive or mobile-first, optimized for search engines and strategically designed by our own creative professionals.
1. Tecnam
Website: https://www.tecnam.com
Category: Aeronautics
Client: Tecnam
After our redesign, this Italian airplane manufacturer now has a website designed for manufacturing that truly conveys their brand.
We implemented high-quality videos, images and unique branding elements throughout each page to showcase the company’s attention to detail and bring their products to life.
2. Knopp Biosciences
Website: https://www.knoppbio.com
Category: Medicine
Client: Knopp Biosciences
On the brand’s homepage, Knopp Biosciences delivers a personalized user journey by allowing the visitor to choose their path: “For patients and families” or “For healthcare professionals.”
The clean and sophisticated branding is consistently represented throughout the website, with clear brand colors and subtle yet engaging elements. Our designers used hover animations to show meaningful images and motion graphics with the move of a cursor, to avoid any unnecessary clutter of visual elements.
3. Miami Country Day School
Website: https://www.miamicountryday.org
Category: Education
Client: Miami Country Day School
Our designers took Miami Country Day School’s website to the next level by implementing a video as the homepage backdrop.
From the moment a visitor lands on the site, the video immerses them into the school’s campus, from the facilities to community programs and more.
4. FieldEdge
Website: https://fieldedge.com
Category: Software
Client: FieldEdge
Our redesign remained true to FieldEdge’s brand by thoughtfully using their brand colors while adding an engaging touch with motion graphics.
The result is a simple yet dynamic user journey throughout the site, with clean, clutter-free messaging and direct CTAs.
5. Sandler
Website: https://www.sandler.com/
Category: Sales Training
Client: Sandler
Our award-winning design team enhanced Sandler’s digital offering with a sleek, engaging new website design.
Interactive elements and hover animations guide the user through the homepage, while exciting drop-down menu navigations sit next to a clean contact CTA to drive conversions.
6. WodWo
Website: https://wodwo.co/
Category: AI Data Analytics
Client: WodWo
A modern, responsive website, we also created data analytics platform WodWo’s website to be a constantly moving masterpiece.
From landing to conversion, the visitor is met with scrolling visual aspects, modern pastel color trends and meticulously planned animations to provide an enticing user interface and fun user experience.
7. SNP Therapeutics
Website: https://snptherapeutics.com/
Category: Biotechnology
Client: SNP Therapeutics
SNP Therapeutics’ goal is to advance human health through gene-guided nutrition, specifically for pre-natal moms.
Alongside pleasing design effects and cleverly used negative space, our web designers created an easy-to-find portfolio drop down, allowing users to immediately land of the website’s area they need most.
Schedule A Consultation With Our Professional Web Design Agency
At Digital Silk, we conduct thorough research into your industry, audience and competitors to gather valuable insights, and use these insights to craft a unique digital strategy for your brand.
We specialize in creating custom, professional websites designed to convert.
Contact us at (800) 206-9413 to discuss your mobile-first web design project or fill out our Request a Quote form to receive a proposal and expert recommendations.
