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Good design is something you see every day. Throughout our day, we experience good design. Whether it’s on the box of toothpaste you use or that billboard you see on your way to work, good design is happening all around us.

If we've heard it once, we've heard it a thousand times: Don't judge a book by its cover. But honestly, that really only works with people. And maybe books. When it comes to judging the quality of a company and its products, one of the first things people will do is assess how the website looks to decide if they want to stick around. That's right. Your website design can make or break a buying decision.

Studies have been published explaining that the design of a website is the primary factor in determining if they stay or if they move on. 

Pop-ups can, and do, work when done right. But what is that happy medium? Do they hurt your SEO? How can you get positive results versus simply annoying the visitor?  

There are 5 font mistakes you don't want to make on your website; they include: 

1. Using too many fonts
2. Using all the same size fonts
3. Using illegible fonts
4. Using the wrong fonts for the mood
5. No typographic contrast

Choosing the best font for a website can feel like playing the memory game. Numerous choices but only certain fonts seem to match. If you make the wrong font choices it can hurt the usability of your website. You don’t want that to happen because the entire point is to make your website easy to use for potential customers.

Mobile websites have come a long way over the past few years! Remember when we used to have to create a separate, less robust version of our main website with separate code? It was a bit of a Google Analytics nightmare to track what was viewed most and the mobile version didn't always include the information you really needed. Today, it's all in one set of code with the standardization of responsive design. And that's great! But what is the experience really like? Did the web designers layout a plan that had the mobile user in mind? Did the web developers test everything in a touch format vs using a mouse?

We’ve seen over the years a lot of healthcare industry websites that are built with the “set it and forget it” mentality. A healthcare company will invest thousands of dollars every 3 or so years to create a great looking website and then let it sit there, unchanged, until the next big redesign. Yes, they may run some analytics reports to see what content is most important. But they’re not typically addressing the real question which is, “Is the website providing my visitors with what they want and need in order to produce more leads?” If the answer is anything other than, “yes and here’s how we know…” the website is probably in danger.

A picture is worth a thousand words. We've been told since the early days of our marketing and design careers (and maybe as early as grade school) that imagery will speak volumes about who you are and what you stand for. And it's still a true statement. You can have the coolest product or best service in its class, but if your website doesn't represent your brand, it won't bring you the customers you need. And since most people have a website for lead generation you'll want to be sure that the images you choose support your strategy.

You may have heard that Growth-Driven Design is a new and better build and grow your website, turning the web into a greater source of new patients. The concept makes a lot of sense when you're trying to use your website as more than just a brochure.  The Growth-Driven Design process will actually help you bring in more visitors, engage them and ultimately help the practice meet its goals for patient growth.

The title of this post will make most brand managers or Type A marketers like myself cringe. How could you NOT launch a website that was the best possible representation of your brand, your products, your services and who you are?  I'm here to tell you that while it might take a little bit to bend your mind around the concept, a website redesign that doesn't include every feature you've dreamed of at launch can actually be a good way to go, at least for a little while. By doing it this way you can get to your end goal faster: Increase the number of sales that result from your website. Sound a little crazy? Consider the alternative: the traditional website redesign process.

If you're in the process of a website redesign, or creating an entirely new website, you're most likely trying to decide what to put on the home page and how to organize the site's content. It can be a struggle. But there are some key questions you can ask yourself and your colleagues (and even your boss) as you plan for what to include, especially on the precious, limited space on the home page.