Web design is the process of planning and building the structure and appearance of your website. The structure of your website refers to the navigation architecture, which creates a hierarchical organization flow that allows visitors to move through your website to find the information they need. The appearance of the website refers to the colors, fonts, images and other visual elements used to represent the information conveyed on your website.
There are several components which must be addressed to ensure your website provides an exceptional user experience for your visitors:
- Graphic design to create an aesthetically pleasing appearance
- User experience (UX) design to ensure your website is easy to use and directs your audience to the pages that will provide them with the information they need
- Content creation to provide authoritative information that addresses your audience’s questions and pain points, and that establishes your business as an industry thought leader
- Search engine optimization (SEO) to help your audience find your website when they search for questions and topics associated with the products and services you provide
Web design is different from web development. While web design focuses on the front end elements of your website (the part that users interact with), web development focuses on the back end coding that makes your website work. The code created in the web development process makes your website functional for the end user.
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