Web development isn’t just about creating a functional or aesthetically pleasing site. It’s also about utilizing certain tips and tricks that boost engagement and conversions.

Whether it’s a new trend or an old standard, a few development changes make a major difference in performance. This is also why you see some similarities in popular websites.

If you’re creating a new website or looking to change your existing site, consider incorporating these tricks into your site.

Keep Layouts Simple

It can be tempting to be innovative and creative when it comes to your website’s layout, but consider your target audience. Is that what they’re expecting to see? More predictable layout makes your site instantly easier to navigate and puts the focus on the content versus trying to take in a strange new layout.

While there are plenty of ways to break out of the proverbial box, most sites have similar layouts because it’s what website visitors want most. If your brand is about being different or creative, that’s when you go for something unique because that’s what your visitors would expect.

Optimize Code

Excess code and elements mean longer page loading times, which spells disaster for your website. Web developers work to ensure the backend looks as clean and professional as the front end to boost overall performance. This is even more crucial when it comes to mobile users who expect pages to load within three seconds.

Utilize Negative Space

Negative space is one of your best tools for directing a visitor’s eye. For instance, using negative space around your call-to-action makes it stand out. This web development tip also applies throughout your entire site for all elements, such as:

Line spacing in content
Menus and navigational elements
Images
Header/footer

The idea is to make your site easy to view while naturally guiding the eye towards the most important elements. Seeing more spacing around your CTA, for instance, draws the eye to that area first.

Match Color To Your Brand

Your website should be a clear reflection of your brand and a simple web development trick to do this is color psychology. Using colors that evoke the same emotion and tone as your brand helps to enforce your branding. Of course, colors also help draw the eye to specific elements, which is why you often see brighter or bolder colors on call-to-action buttons.

Using the right color scheme throughout your site can help boost conversions, keep your target audience on your site longer and increase social sharing.

Design For The User

You have goals in mind for your website, but great web developers know there’s one tip that should always come first. The user experience should be a top priority. This means reducing how much effort it takes for a user to navigate and use your site.

For instance, a menu with numerous sub-levels is confusing and complicated. Condensing the menu so it only takes a few clicks to get to the desired page is more likely to keep users on the site. A trick web developers use is that less really is more.

Think Z Or F

People scan websites versus sitting down and taking in every element. They want to quickly find what they’re searching for and more on. The object is to catch their attention while they’re scanning.

A common web development trick is to design with a Z or F pattern in mind. For sites and pages that aren’t text heavy, most people scan the page in the shape of a Z. They scan the top from left to right, then diagonally down to the bottom and finally the bottom from left to right. You’d want your most important elements along this path.

For text-heavy sites, an F pattern works better. When people are looking for text, they typically look across the first few lines and then scan down for important points or headlines. Think about search results. The search bar and top results are along the first few lines and then you’d scan down to find other results.