How To Plan The Structure Of Your WordPress Site?

Your website is your online office where your customers or visitors are going to find you. Hopefully, they should spend sufficient time before clicking on the ‘Complete Purchase’ button. For achieving this, you might think of having a catchy-title for your website, a keyword-rich domain and you might also have some killer content on your website. But this is not all! There is something more you must look at!

Think about this – Is your website title, domain name or content going to help if the website navigation is complicated? As a result of difficult website navigation, your visitors will leave your website quickly and they would not be interested in reading anything.

 People have conducted many studies on the psychological effect of particular website layouts. The small details that you might seldom think about also play great roles in holding the attention of the visitors. Small details like the length of the page title, the location of the text on the page and the color scheme of the website. These are essential elements in determining the success of the website.

It is time for you to plan on a website layout that is not just visually appealing but it also works in catching the attention of the visitors. Once the visitors wait for a specific period of time and start reading the content of your website, or maybe product or service information, then bingo! Your website has created a good impression and they are sure to return soon.

Have a look at this important in order to create the most powerful and impressive WordPress website structure:

Check What Other People Are Doing

One of the best ways to start planning the structure of your WordPress website is to browse through the websites already present and doing well. Check out the websites that offer similar products as yours or the websites that feature content similar to yours and then decide what you like about these websites or don’t like about these websites. See a website for a while and think about what is it about that website that stands out, something that catches your eye instantly, find out the reason why you want to wait on that website and read more.

As you go through various websites, you will start noticing the types of patterns used, the length of the titles, the way in which text is placed on the page and the colors used for website background and text. The motive behind every website layout is to grab the visitor’s attention or to draw the visitor’s attention towards certain areas of the page.

The primary layout should be identical on every layout of the page. This will help in keeping things clean and will maintain the website flow. Everything present in your website should match in some or the other way without mixing all the aspects. Nothing will push away your visitors like a bad website layout.

Don’t Go Overboard With Complex Designs

Graphics and ads sure look good, but having too many of them on your website might lead in the getting your visitors confused. Overuse of graphics and ads will also distract the visitors from the crucial elements on your website that you want them to notice. It is ok to add a few ads on your website for monetizing it. However, overloading your web pages in the hope of getting more clicks will make your website seem spammy and this is a sure shot way to expel your visitors.

Less is more! This concept will work in your website design as well; Especially when it is about ads and graphics. Some tests have been conducted in the past for analyzing the effects of many ads placed on the website. It has been proved that fewer ads on the website result in a higher click through rate and this also results in a higher cost per click. While planning the structure of your WordPress website, make sure that you keep tweaking it until you strike the right balance. This kind of website will be more fun to navigate and it will thus result in higher profits.

Don’t miss out the fundamentals

One of the best aspects of WordPress is that there are a wide range of free and paid themes available that can be quickly customized. Whichever theme you select, make sure you keep the fundamentals in mind, including the following:

·         A navigation bar should be there at the top of the website for providing your visitors with easy access to the web pages

·         Distinct sections in order to let the visitors know where the content starts and where the navigation ends

·         A search box

·         A link to the home page on every product page

Every WordPress theme almost has the same features, but if you happen to come across a different one, preferably you should avoid using it. Visitors seek a website that is easy to navigate otherwise they are gone like wind.

Use The ‘Fold’ To Your Advantage

The phrase ‘above the fold’ was originated from the print media. According to this concept the key stories of the day have to be displayed on the upper half of the newspaper so that they can get the maximum attention when the newspaper is folded in half.

These days, ‘above the fold’ concept has been passed on to the world of website layouts as well. If there is any particular element for which you want your visitors attention as soon as they come to your website, then you have to make sure that it is placed ‘above the fold’. This means that it should be placed before the point where the user has to scroll down to read other information present on that page.

Ensure That All The Important Elements Are On The Same Page

Just like keeping the important elements above the fold is important, it is also important to get them noticed by the visitors. WordPress makes this task easy for the website owners; this can be easily done with the use of page templates, sidebars and plugins.

Are You In Search Of A Sidebar?

Talking about sidebars, for many years the sidebars were taken for granted when it came to website layouts. Even though the sidebars serve a good purpose, they seem to be phasing out.

For instance, if you have WordPress theme like ‘Twenty Thirteen’ that has no sidebar, then you are missing out on a great web page static component. You must think about what effect the sidebar will have on the usability of your website.

You need to think about whether or not the elements traditionally placed in the sidebar can be placed anywhere else. The elements like ads, search box, recent posts, links for subscribing to your blog and the email opt-in forms were traditionally placed in the sidebar. However, many bloggers and website owners have been analyzing whether their websites will do just as well without the sidebars. Many websites have had great success without having any kind of perceived clutter that congested the sidebar’s cause.

Conclusion

When you are trying to come up with the most stunning structure for your website, do a little research and be on lookout for the latest trends in website layouts and themes. Keep an eye on what other people are doing in your industry and develop an understanding of what works for your website and what doesn’t. I accept that it is much easier said than done but this will be worth the effort when your WordPress website structure is streamlined, effective and looks perfect.

Along with the website structure, a good WordPress website also needs the backing of a good web hosting platform in order to function efficiently. Have a look at MilesWeb WordPress solutions for backing your website with the best resources and thereby making the most of the online world.