In this cutthroat industry, business needs every edge they can get and a sharp site is an essential tool in the arsenal. However, a clumped, generic and outdated site will do more harm than good.

Today, there are over a billion websites all over the globe and that number increases every second. So, how do you ascertain that you develop a website that will serve your clients well while standing out from the crowd? Well, not everyone has the time or skills to create an impressive site, and this is where custom web development comes into the picture.

Whether you design the sire yourself or want to hire someone for the job, you may want to keep the following in mind:

Design for Quick Load Times

We live in an era of instant gratification. Long gone are the days of dial-up internet when people would patiently wait for web pages to load. Nowadays, users expect almost instant load times and the slightest delay could make the difference between getting a new client or losing one.

That being said, ensure that your content is optimized properly, both on the front end and back end. Your images should be sized properly to reduce load times. You should also get a hosting service with reliable servers to avoid downtimes.

Also, never assume that everyone has fast internet. Your site should be optimized to load even for people in rural regions with relatively slower internet speeds.

Design for Mobile

People are using smartphones now more than ever before. They are using them to communicate on social media, navigate through new areas, make payments and to surf the web on the go. These devices have a smaller screen real estate compared to computer screens and so, you need to ensure that your website layout is designed accordingly. Also, these gadgets need extra scrolling and so, you may want to keep that in mind if you have a lot of content. Including mobile in your web development is beneficial as it helps your site rank higher on the search engine results pages.

Design For Visual Simplicity

A site with a straightforward and appealing layout is more likely to succeed. As mentioned before, users today have no patience and certainly won't tolerate clutter.

Simplicity and elegance will ultimately win you more viewers. Nobody wants to keep searching for what they want and this is particularly true for the homepage, which directs users to various parts of the website.

Update Your Custom Site Regularly

Design trends change regularly and so does information. As such, it is important that you update your site often, both visually and content-wise.

Let there be no cases where your 2018 customers visit your site and come across content that's from 2012 and it's outdated or no longer relevant.

On the contrary, you need to stick to your brand identity so that your existing clients can relate to you. It's also imperative that you engage with prospects so that when they click on your website, they won't feel as if they fell into a time warp.

When it comes to custom web development, always work with professionals who know the latest trends in web design. They will be able to tell you which ones will work best for your website.