6 Website Designs Every Web Designer Needs To Know!
What’s the popular website types you need to know as a designer if you’re interested in becoming a web designer it’s helpful to know whether types of websites there are and which ones offer you the best opportunities to work on as a freelancer.
1. Portfolio Site
The first website type is a portfolio website, this is probably the first website you ever created as a designer which was your own portfolio. A portfolio site is used to display and promote examples of someone’s past work, and it’s mostly for those within a creative field, kind of like a visual resume. It demonstrates your skills as a creative and shows your best works in hopes of attracting prospective clients or employers.
Since they are often not too complex, you can choose to design and develop your own website or you can use a website builder tool like Squarespace or Wix to make it. I personally use WordPress for my own when it comes to designing a portfolio website, as the sky’s the limit but the most important thing to remember is to let the work shine through rather than having some complex website design with fancy animations you want to wow potential clients and employers with your work and guide them to contact you for your services.
Each portfolio site should be unique and reflect the designer or creator of the work. So you may want to lean toward a minimal design layout that allows the work to speak for itself and promote a good user experience. If you want to get started in freelance web design, this is one of the easiest ways! You can help design portfolio sites for your friends and family in return for recommending your services, as referrals are crucial to the growth of a freelance business.
2. Personal website
The goal of a personal website varies, it is personal and might not be to sell something or promote work but merely to post and share thoughts. It can feature a Blog, or perhaps a one-page resume with links to other social platforms or whatever the person wants to share.
As a web designer you probably won’t be asked to design too many personal websites unless it’s a favour to a friend or family who wants to start and share a project. However if you’re new to designing websites this could be a great way to get some practice in a low pressure environment.
Start by practicing sketching out wireframes to design a simple one-page website that catches a user’s attention and shares the most important information about the individual. Deciding who the site is for can be a fun challenge, and you will want to have as much content to work with as possible.
3. Blog Sites
A Blog is a website that’s regularly updated with articles or blog posts, these sites can be run by an individual, a group of people, or even companies. The purpose of a Blog is to share information on specific topics, to attract a specific audience.
Each blog is different but most have the goal of lead generation at its heart. By posting well-written and researched content you can rank for specific keyword search terms and generate quality traffic, which may lead to new customers. You’ll notice most blog websites look personal, and that’s on purpose. There needs to be structure to the design of a blog website so it’s easy for the end user to read fresh new content.
On the back end these websites use a “CMS” or content management system. This is how you can create, manage or modify and publish content with a user-friendly interface this makes it easier for someone to update and add new content to the blog, rather than having to pay for a web developer to make these updates continually.
When designing a Blog website, focus on the structure of the site. Think about how you want to display a series of blog posts knowing that the content will change as new articles are uploaded. A good user experience is super important on a Blog website, so the user can easily find what they are looking for.
4. Business Websites
Most businesses these days have a website where they can share what they offer. Mention awards and accolades, along with past examples of work, customer testimonials, specifics on services they offer, and just about anything that helps tell the story of what the business does.
How the web designer helps the site design and branding are vital to a business website as it’s how they can set themselves apart from the competition. When designing these types of websites it’s important to gather as much information upfront from the client about their business. Do they have an existing Logo, Brand colours, tone of voice or style photography? Are they fairly new and that’s something that they’re looking for you to help out with? Maybe you could offer logo and branded services that they can use throughout the life of their business?
5. eCommerce
Next up is e-commerce websites. E-commerce is an online shop where people can buy products, some businesses have both physical store locations and shops as well as e-commerce websites to reach a larger customer base. When your customer lives on the internet you have an infinite amount of potential customers you can reach!
This is a popular website type for designers to work on, as there are always new businesses starting up every single day that are looking for designers to help them create a memorable online presence to sell their products. As a web designer you can choose to specialise in designing for certain specific industries, such as restaurants or other e-commerce businesses.
Choosing to focus on e-commerce websites means you’ll always have more opportunities to work with clients and they’re willing to pay well, since the purpose is to generate business! When designing these websites there are many factors to consider, think about the brand presence and how to set their product apart from the competition. Organisation is key, are there multiple families of products for example or different sizes and flavours? With so much variety it’s important to make sure the customer understands what they are buying. Confuse the customer and they’ll leave the website and never return again – not good!
6. Landing Pages
And finally a landing page is a one-page website usually created for a marketing campaign that drives visitors to take a specific action. The content and design should be to the point and lead the user to one cta or “Call To Action.” For example a company might want to create a landing page as a lead generation for their business offering a free download or access to a video in exchange for an email address.
Another example of a landing page might be to educate the user about an app and direct the users to download on the page. While there are many services out there that make it easy for small businesses to create their own landing pages, it’s still a skill that is in high demand, knowing how to design an effective landing page is a lucrative skill to have as a designer and you will likely have repeat clients, as they will want to request more and more landing pages in the future.
Since landing pages are small website projects they’re also good ones to get started with, you can try your hand at designing landing pages for clients on sites like 99 designs, Fiverr or Upwork, it’s a great way to get started with web design.
So those were some of the most popular website types out there that designers can work on. There are definitely many others, but these are the ones with the base opportunities for freelance designers. They’re easy to get started with and offer the most income potential!
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