How to Make Your Website Stand Out: Tips for Business Owners

Think of your website as your digital storefront—it needs to draw people in, reflect your brand, and turn visitors into customers. Yet, many businesses struggle to stand out online.

This article will help you cut through the noise with practical tips to create a website that looks great, performs well, and delivers results.

Drawing from years of experience as a web designer, I’ve had the privilege of helping countless small businesses build websites that leave a lasting impact.

Since web design is part of my everyday work, I’m excited to share actionable tips that can help you create a website that truly stands out.

So whether you’re just getting started or looking to improve, these tips will set you on the path to success.

Start with a Clear Brand Identity

Your brand identity is the foundation of your website. It’s what makes your business recognizable and sets you apart from competitors.

A clear brand identity includes your logo, color palette, typography, imagery, and tone of voice. Together, these elements should tell a cohesive story about your business and resonate with your target audience.

When building or refreshing your website, ensure every design choice reflects your brand’s personality. For example, a modern tech startup might use sleek fonts and bold colors, while a boutique bakery might lean on soft pastels and elegant typography.

Even me, when I work as a web designer on the designs, sometimes I consult with a brand designer on certain decisions. So don’t be afraid to reach out for help!

Key Tips:

• Define your core message: What do you want customers to know and feel about your brand? Use this as a guide for your design and content.
• Create a style guide: Document your brand’s visual and verbal elements to ensure consistency across your website.
• Use professional visuals: High-quality images and graphics aligned with your branding can instantly elevate your website’s look.

A clear brand identity makes your website memorable and fosters trust with your audience, making it more likely they’ll engage with your business.

Focus on User-Friendly Design and UX

A great website doesn’t just look good—it feels good to use. User experience (UX) is all about making your website intuitive and enjoyable for visitors.

This is my most famous quote for the UX web design:

When you interact with your website, do you feel ease or frustration? Your users will feel the same—so design with their experience in mind.” – Tom Caklos

A user-friendly design ensures that visitors can find what they need quickly and without frustration, keeping them engaged and encouraging them to take action.

When planning your site, prioritize simplicity and ease of navigation. Think about what your target audience is looking for and design your site to guide them seamlessly to those answers.

Key Tips for User-Friendly Design:

• Keep Navigation Simple: Use a clear menu structure with easy-to-understand labels. Limit the number of options to avoid overwhelming visitors.
• Make It Mobile-Friendly: Over half of web traffic comes from mobile devices, so your site must be fully responsive and look great on all screen sizes.
• Prioritize Loading Speed: A slow site drives users away. Optimize images, use efficient code, and choose a reliable hosting provider to ensure fast performance.
• Use Consistent Design Elements: Stick to a consistent color scheme, fonts, and layout throughout the site for a polished and professional feel.
• Place CTAs Strategically: Ensure buttons like “Contact Us” or “Shop Now” are easy to find and stand out visually.

By focusing on user-friendly design and delivering a smooth experience, you’ll not only impress visitors but also keep them coming back—and convert them into loyal customers.

Prioritize Mobile Responsiveness

In today’s digital world, your website must look and perform just as well on a smartphone as it does on a desktop. With mobile devices accounting for more than half of all web traffic, a mobile-responsive website isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. Mobile responsiveness ensures your site automatically adjusts its layout, images, and navigation to provide a seamless experience on any screen size.

A poorly optimized mobile experience can frustrate visitors, leading to high bounce rates and lost opportunities. On the other hand, a well-designed mobile site enhances user satisfaction and boosts your credibility as a business.

Key Tips for Mobile Optimization:

1. Adopt a Mobile-First Approach: Design your website with mobile devices in mind first, then scale up for larger screens. This ensures the core functionality works flawlessly on smaller devices.
2. Simplify Navigation: Use dropdown menus, collapsible sections, and easy-to-tap buttons to make navigation intuitive for mobile users.
3. Optimize Images and Videos: Compress images and ensure media files load quickly without compromising quality. Slow-loading elements can drive mobile users away.
4. Test Across Devices: Check your site’s responsiveness on various screen sizes, including smartphones, tablets, and different operating systems.
5. Avoid Clutter: Keep your mobile layout clean and straightforward. Reduce text-heavy sections and focus on the essentials.

By prioritizing mobile responsiveness, you create a user-friendly experience that keeps visitors engaged and positions your business for success in a mobile-first world.

Test and Tweak Before Going Live

This is the part that most people miss when going live. They never test.

That is the reason why part of my web design process is quality assurance (QA). Quality assurance (QA) is the process of systematically monitoring, evaluating, and improving product to ensure it meets established standards and fulfill customer expectations.

Before launching your website, thorough testing is crucial to ensure everything works as expected. Check for broken links, test forms and buttons, and ensure your site displays correctly on different devices and browsers.

Don’t overlook small details like spelling, image alignment, and loading speeds—they can make or break the user experience.

Pro Tip: Ask a few people to navigate your site and provide feedback. A fresh perspective can help you catch issues you might have missed. By addressing these tweaks now, you’ll launch with confidence and leave a great impression on your visitors.

Optimize for Speed and Performance

Website speed is a critical factor for both user experience and search engine rankings.

Visitors expect fast-loading websites, and even a delay of a few seconds can lead to frustration and higher bounce rates.

Optimizing your site’s performance ensures a smooth and engaging experience, keeping visitors on your site longer and improving your chances of conversion.

Key Tips for Speed and Performance Optimization:

• Compress Images: Use tools to reduce image file sizes without losing quality to speed up loading times.
• Minimize Code: Remove unnecessary code, and use tools like CSS and JavaScript minification to streamline your site’s backend.
• Leverage Caching: Enable browser caching to reduce load times for returning visitors by storing some files locally.
• Choose a Fast Hosting Provider: A reliable hosting service with good server response times can significantly impact site performance.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): Distribute your site’s content across multiple servers to improve loading speed, especially for global visitors.

By optimizing for speed and performance, you’ll create a positive user experience that keeps visitors engaged and helps your site rank higher in search results.

Make Your Call-to-Actions Impossible to Miss

Your call-to-action (CTA) is one of the most important elements on your website—it’s what guides visitors to take the next step, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting you. 

A well-designed CTA grabs attention, is easy to understand, and stands out visually.

btw. just check how buttons look on my website (link at the top) – they even have a little animation that gives a small hit of dopamine ;-)

By making your CTAs impossible to miss, you’ll guide your visitors toward meaningful engagement with your business, turning them from casual browsers into loyal customers.

Wrapping it up

In this guide, we’ve explored essential tips to help your website stand out and make a strong impact from the start.

By starting with a clear brand identity, focusing on intuitive UX, ensuring mobile responsiveness, and optimizing for speed and performance, you can create a site that resonates with your audience.

Testing before launch and making your CTAs impossible to miss will drive engagement and conversions.

Following these actionable steps will not only set you up for a successful website launch but will also help you build a lasting online presence.