Ask any web design agency and they will tell you that the key to a great website is user experience and eye-catching design.
But if you’re selling a premium product your website is also your brand book.
Creating a premium website in WordPress is actually pretty straightforward, but there is a lot to consider before you start building your site. In this article, we will give you simple tips for creating a premium website and also explore some potential technical difficulties that might come up.
With these tips, your website will look premium and you will get it live in no time.
How premium websites are different
Online space is quite messy. Digital brings everything you desire at your doorstep, it’s the place of abundance, it is a highly accessible market where everyone is given an equal opportunity.
Premium websites are not only better from the usability point of view but they retain the user with a sleek design, fast loading speed, and awesome shopping experience.
Of course, cheap, salesy websites will always attract their part of the audience, but if you’re really keen on keeping a high price tag, you have to show the user you’re worth paying for. This means creating a feeling of scarcity and making sure the user experience is top-notch.
After all, it’s all about balance. The yin and yang. And here is how you can do it:
Web design tips to help create a premium website in WordPress
1. Understand your customer
First things first, have a clear picture of who your customer is.
Premium customers tend to share certain characteristics – they are extremely successful and tend to spend their time carefully. They also want a good return on investment and are used to a high level of service.
You need to answer the question of how your audience shops and what will make them sign-up on your website.
Your customers might be used to shopping online. So having an e-commerce store is a must. Alternatively, they might prefer a retail space. Then your site will mostly be used as a marketing tool.
You must also think about your customer behavior online. Do they like reading articles? Do they want to get to know you or simply want to buy something and get done with it? Do they like following the brand news or just want to get straight to shopping?
2. Focus on business objectives
The most important thing to remember is that you need to match the story and your business goals to your website.
All too often, companies launch premium sites only to find out that the “product doesn’t match the packaging”.
There is no need to obsess over premium site features and perfect user experience if your assortment of products is limited by 5 art posters. But let’s say you’re creating a website for an airline. People don’t simply buy tickets on airline websites. There is a complex search process involved, there are hundreds of filters, and finally, there is a complicated checkout process. Additionally, you might want to create alerts, a customer service chatbot and give the user the ability to create complex itineraries.
Match the company’s values to the site’s design and user experience.
3. Pick the right color scheme and use plenty of white space
Browse through a couple of premium websites and you’ll notice one overarching theme – the lack of color. A minimal number of colors is how brands create a feeling of scarcity.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you need to stick to boring black and white. The design critics famously proclaimed colorful minimalism the design trend of 2017.
The key is to go for a limited color palette and choose pale or muted colors.
Also, stay away from the noisy cluttered layouts. You want your website to look clean and avoid the mess and chaos.
White space makes the layout more breathable, emphasizes the main message and gives comfort to the eyes.
4. Choose the right website layout
When you duck into a premium retail store amidst the hustle and bustle of the main shopping street, you instantly notice the difference. There is more space, the furniture is exquisitely beautiful, and there are fewer clothes on the racks than even in your own wardrobe. Premium brands rarely expose more than one size of each model on the retail floor.
You can reсonstruct this retail experience online with the right WordPress Web Design. The simpler the structure of the site, the easier it is for the user to navigate.
Come up with a top-level framework, that surrounds the content and helps the user find a way through different parts of the website. Menus, sidebars, bottom bars – are all parts of the top-level framework.
Each section of a website needs to have a purpose. Think about what actions you want the user to take. Don’t mindlessly put call-to-actions everywhere but think about your customer journey, how he sees the site and where his eyes might land first.
5. Make sure the website is mobile optimized
Having a mobile-optimized website is a sure way to get the customers to stay on the website. Mobile optimization impact site performance in so many ways.
Mobile optimization affects your SEO rankings. Also, as of recently, Facebook decided to give priority in its news feed to pages that list a mobile-optimized website on their profiles.
6. Eliminate the distractions
Have you ever landed on a website only to be repulsed by the pop-up screen that appears within a second of browsing? Pop-ups are great when you need to get the point across, but when it comes to a premium website they scare people off.
There are so many different ways to catch attention on the website: a subtly animated icon in the corner, a brief interaction or a little gradient on the sidebar.
7. Create a seamless user experience
You have to remember that premium consumers are technologically savvy. They read e-books and probably shop on Amazon, they also carry MacBook Pros and buy iPhones.
Technology truly turned the world upside down. It produced one-of-a-kind experiences and made them accessible to everyone. After Amazon’s introduced its One-click purchase button, it is hard to go back to a lengthy shopping process. We all expect great user experiences now.
There is a lot that goes into usability. Start with outlining a customer journey on the site. Also see what your competitors are doing, because once people get used to a certain process it’s hard to change it.
Improve the site usability, streamline customer journey through the website and mind the website’s loading speed. All of these efforts will show the client that you’re aware of latest technological advancements and care about your customer’s time.
8. Customer security is the key
This point follows up on the last one, but when it comes to premium websites every single detail matters.
The premium design conveys the feeling of security while also providing advanced security measures on the website.
For WordPress sites, it means updating as soon as WordPress has a new release and staying up to date with the latest security advice such as security standards, authentification, usage of plugins and passwords as well as taking care of the hosting environment.
Summary
Even though premium websites require more thought and effort, they, in fact, offer some of the best user experiences online.
Moreover, improving your website and making it premium from a design and user experience point of view coincides with you improving your bottom line. If you’re worried about trustworthiness and engagement, a premium looking website provides a perfect opportunity to increase the desirability of product in the customer’s eyes.
