Building an excellent website ought to be a top priority for any business looking to build a profitable online presence.

WordPress is a content management system that powers 34% of all websites on the internet and 60% of websites that run on CMS. The power of WordPress is in the ecosystem—there are a lot of different plugins and themes.

WordPress offers you a dashboard with a simplified interface to create web pages, customize designs, and add content that entices, entertains, and educates your audience and prospects.

However, for beginner-level developers, even the simplest interfaces can often seem terrifying. Sounds relatable?? If yes, you are on the right page.

Best Practices For Website Designing

Website design is one of the major aspects of the development process. 

Website design is not just aesthetics. Your web design should strike a balance between your business goals, user needs and experience, and the content you are adding. To ensure your content is value-driven and helps your website attain visibility, you should consider investing.

Prioritize Responsive Design

It is crucial for your website to be compatible with every screen size, platform, orientation, and device to enhance user experience. This can be effectively achieved with responsive web design services.

Mobile phones are responsible for around 50% of the global internet traffic. It is, hence, crucial for you to ensure your website functions flawlessly across different devices. 

It is true that it might require hours of testing and fixing but if you overlook this design component, you can bid adieu to almost one-third of your traffic. 

Or, if you are short on time, you can always use a responsive WordPress theme.

Keep up With the Trends

Very common. Very obvious. And yet, many avoid putting in extra efforts to understand major trends in the current times. Individuals tend to depend on their unconscious familiarity with the latest happenings that they pick during their daily browsing habits. 

It’s vital for you to understand and leverage the power of visual engagement. All you need to do is simply follow a few design rules and you’re home. Staying with the trend is one of them. 

Focus on Typography 

Fonts and typography are an integral part of website design. Open-Sans or Times New Roman are thus not the only fonts that you see on the web. 

There is an unlimited set of fonts that’s available now. Gone are the days when a lack of fonts held back the developers. Now, it all depends on how much time are you willing to spend to find the perfect fit. 

Your font should keep your content in focus and look like a part of your overall design. Pairing different fonts is an art and is a decision that needs to be taken after a careful thought process. 

Follow WordPress Coding Standards 

When you are developing tools for WordPress, make sure you are always following the coding standards. This is for two main reasons – to ensure readability and to minimize common errors. 

The WordPress coding standards have been developed by programmers after several trials and errors. They are known to maximize business success as well as security. 

Initially, it might get a little difficult to switch your coding style but after relentless practice, you will realize that these coding standards are much easier to write, read, and maintain. 

There are four main languages that are used include HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and PHP. Go through all the coding standards from attributes to space usage of your choice of language to ensure you are on the right track. 

Carefully Select Plugins and Themes

WordPress plug-ins can help you build a powerful website. However, add-ons can also slow down your website and threaten your security. It is crucial to choose those third-party plugins that are frequently upgraded. 

When your plugins are getting updated regularly, the chances of you facing any compatibility issues with the upgraded versions of WordPress are less. 

Have a dedicated resource to conduct an audit of all the WordPress add-ons that you are using. Your plugins should be checked for the latest updates and how well they are performing. 

During this audit, you should also uninstall the plugins you are not using. It will help minimize the risk of infecting your website with malware. 

Ensure Security

Cybercrime is a serious threat. You should take preventive measures to ensure your website is safe at all times.

One of the ways to avoid such threats is by choosing the username and password that are uncommon and not easy to deduce. If you keep your username as Admin, it’s not difficult to guess. 

There are also additional security plugins like Sucuri, WPScan, and BulletProof Security that you can install as pre-emptive measures. These plugins have features like keeping a track of fake login attempts, spam comments, user activity, blacklisting, and blocking attackers that keep your data protected.

Prioritize User Experience

If you are building a website you obviously want website visitors. 

When working on developing the interface of a website, keep the user experience in focus. Take empathetic steps to ensure what you are offering will fit the needs of your user. If you want your customers to easily navigate through your website and reach the end of the funnel, make sure there are no obstacles. 

If you’re not sure about user needs, you can always ask them. User research is a crucial part of any development project. You can also invite a novice user from your target audience to test the website for you. This way, you can see your work in a new light and make changes accordingly. 

Opt for Child Themes and Custom Plug-Ins

It is highly recommended to not touch the codes of any third-party plugins. If you wish to, let’s say, add new functions to a theme, make sure you are creating a duplicate ‘child theme’, instead of directly changing the codes of third-party assets. Otherwise, you risk overwriting your custom code in the future when you update it.  

You can also add a custom plugin to make it easier for you to add your desired functionality. For instance, you can create a plugin to add a different User Role. 

The main reason for adding functions as plugins rather than themes is the ease of switching between different themes without hampering the functionality. 

Protect User Identities

Almost all websites use cookies to store session data. This allows them to “remember” users between the sessions. If someone has stolen a session cookie, they might log in as another user. Losing any cookies is dangerous because they all have some personal user data.

The easiest way to protect your website users from session hijacking is to set the HttpOnly flag on the cookies that are used only from the server-side.

In the case of a CMS, where it’s impractical to edit the core of the CMS (because any changes in the core code would be replaced in the next update) and the way cookies are set, you can globally change configurations through

To wrap it up, building a website requires you to be a developer as well as a designer. It is only after getting an understanding of both will you be able to work towards enhancing the user experience, which is the ultimate goal.