With the average small business allocating around $75,000 for digital marketing, that could be some companies’ entire budget for building a website. If you don’t allocate enough for a clean website design, you could end up losing out on the returns your site should be bringing in. Understanding what a modern website should look like will help you understand what you need to offer to potential clients in the digital space.

Here are four modern examples of what it takes to make a great website design.

1. A Limited Color Palette

One of the most exciting things about modern browser technology is the ability to create all kinds of color combinations in dazzling details on a lot of devices. With the technology to now display millions of colors, many designers want to see how far they can take this potential.

However, when you have too many colors on one page, you can overwhelm viewers, confuse your message, and complicate your brand image.

You need your colors to be limited to focus on your logo or your existing brand. Black and white can go with just about anything. If you’ve already got two majorly contrasting colors in your logo, try something a little more complementary.

Keep things simple and focused. The fewer colors you have, the easier it is to focus on what you’re trying to get your viewers to look at. Limited color palettes might seem like lost potential but you’ll keep your customers’ attention much better.

2. Leave Some White Space

White space is essential for having a clean but strong web presence. Most sites have way too much going on for users to see what designers want them to see. While you might want to leave room for ads, news, a menu, and content in the middle, there’s only so much space on a screen.

Crowding out your users is a great way to get them to go elsewhere for products like yours. When you give them some space to think about what they’re looking at and remove all the distractions, they can tell you exactly what they need.

Clean website design that allows for lots of white space means that you’ve removed distractions. In a clean design with lots of white space, it’s clear what the purpose of every single page is, what users and meant to do, and how they can get on with their day.

White space isn’t so much a design decision as a courtesy offered to users to show them that you appreciate their time and energy.

3. Smart Calls-to-Action

Calls to action tell your users exactly what you want from them at every turn. The aim of your calls to action is to convert each visitor into a lead who will then eventually become a customer.

The whole purpose of your site is to connect your business with customers interested in what you have to offer. Once they’ve connected with you, you need to maintain a connection. With a call to action, you can capture their contact information and stay in touch for longer.

Email subscription forms, free e-books, or seminars to teach customers about the benefits of what you offer in your industry are the best calls to action.

You can even offer free consultations, invitations to events, or sample products if you’ve built up a strong following. When you can give a little away, you’ll yield strong results from customers who will appreciate your faith in them.

With just an email address, you can reach out to customers again and again for years to come. Sometimes it takes a while to turn a visitor into a customer but you’ll be constantly on their mind if you just get their email address.

Check out what LFORM is doing to see great examples of strong web design.

4. Cleaner Code

While you might think that modern design only entails what visitors see, it also has a lot to do with the framework undergirding your site. The way that your site functions and how easy it is to be productive with it make it eligible for repeat visits from your customers.

The best websites have a strong back end that decides how your site will perform. Skilled designers will write and test code until it functions flawlessly, can load fast, and helps users to navigate rather than to get in the way. When you serve your visitors what they ask for when they ask for it, you show them that you value their time and their visit.

One of the most overlooked elements of web design is cleaning up the code. While you might not want to allocate the extra time, the time you put into writing clean code means that there will be less time spent fixing it later. When you try to dig up what could be causing a problem on your site, it could take forever to find the issue unless your code has been cleaned.

Clean code can users to troubleshoot for years. Well-commented code also ensures that even if you suffer personnel changes, your new staff will be able to make sense of whatever your developers left behind.

Cleaner code also means that your site will load faster. When you have clean design underneath the hood, the front end of your site and the way it functions for your visitors will take the center stage.

Clean Website Design Translates To Dollars

A clean website design will allow you to connect with your clients in a more efficient way.

Without distractions or excess elements, you’ll be able to communicate clearly and get what you need from each visitor.

If you’re looking into more ways to market your brand, check out our guide for what it takes to market like a pro.