The Simple Website Layout

Websites are complicated. Everything can be manipulated and it's easy to get carried away. After searching through thousands of various websites I feel qualified to offer my two cents on what layouts are most effective. If I've learned anything from Google or from countless analytics accounts, it is the fact that simple is better. Not long ago Gmail was changed to a simpler layout with larger buttons for common tasks.

Start by determining what kind of site you have and what value you want to add to your visitors. If you are a local business you are going to focus on simple things that make it easy for customers to find you and trust in your services. Owners should incorporate reviews into their website and create incentives for their customers to leave quality reviews. More than ever, customers are flocking to businesses that have reviews on their site. Reviews are the best way to show potential customers that you're really good at what you do. 

If you're an e-commerce business you need a clean layout for all of your products. Customers need to be able to quickly find what they're looking for. Categories should be strategically organized so that visitors aren't overwhelmed with options. Online Shoe stores are a great example. As a visitor you first choose to shop men's or women's shoes. After that you're faced with options that only apply to either gender. Once you choose the type of shoe you want you can then search through colors, sizes and brands. Presenting too many of these options up front is confusing for the user and it provides a poor user experience. Take advantage of the static landing pages for each main category. You should present  your top ranked or reviewed items for each category. This provides a great starting point for your site visitors. 

Lastly, if you're a nationwide company that is advertising for multiple locations you should focus on presenting as much of your company-wide information on the main portion of your website as possible. The more unique information that is location specific should be listed under each location's page. The URL structure is key for navigation and SEO purposed. If you have offices all over the country and multiple locations per state, you will have the best layout if your URL structure is similar to the following: www.website.com/texasoffices/austintireshop. Under this structure I would presume that the majority of the information about your tire shops would be under the main portion of your website. This would include things like warranty, company information, history and reasons why your tire shop is the best. The location specific pages would clearly layout the necessary information to call or visit the shop. You could tell visitors why the managers or employees at a certain shop are the best.

I could go into much more detail about each type of site and what works best. This totally random post is meant to offer advice in the starting phases. I'm surprised at how many large companies get this part wrong. Please comment below if you have questions or suggestions on what I should post next.