Simplicity if a valuable asset for your website. It makes your web design look sleek, decreases confusion in navigation, and helps you achieve your desired results.

Simplified website design is communicating as much as possible while using as little elements as possible. Sometimes, though, it's hard to figure out what you need to cut and what to keep. 

In this post, we'll walk you through with the seven easy ways on how you can simplify your web design: 

1. Prioritize what’s important

The first step is quite obvious – you need to focus on the important elements on your site.

Surprisingly, a lot of websites fail to achieve this. It's difficult to be objective and prioritize things because everything seems important.

But if your goal is for your website to have a simpler design, you need to identify what you need to focus on, just like with any good design or a stunning piece of art.

Focus on the most essential elements on your site, and make it a priority.

2. Apply the 80-20 rule

One of the best ways to avoid a cluttered website is to go with the 80-20 rule, aka the Pareto Principle.

The concept behind it is that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. 

To put this rule into practice, start thinking about the elements that you want to include in your site design. Get rid of elements that don't push your prospects further down the sales funnel or to your desired outcome. Remove long strings of texts, unnecessary forms or buttons, and other elements that don't add anything to the functionality of your website. 

According to Kenneth Sytian, a top web designer in the Philippines and owner of Sytian Productions, “Remember that only 20 percent of your design choices will affect your overall outcome. So, if you try the minimalist approach strip down your site in its bare essentials, making sure that everything that's included in your design is going to create a big impact.”

3. Parse down unnecessary pages

Now that you know the elements that are vital to your site design, the next thing that you have to do is to identify those that don't do anything to your website's user experience. 

This gives your website a more organized and sleeker look, with fewer elements that could distract users from the most important aspects of your website.

You can review your site and remove the pages that you don't necessarily need, and merge pages that have similar topics. 

4. Use a monotone color scheme

It's easy to go crazy with colors, but sticking with a crazy color scheme will annoy, if not overstimulate, your site visitors.

To simplify your web design, try to limit yourself to using one or two color schemes only. You can also try adopting a monotone color scheme as it attracts users and engages them in your website.

In fact, it can actually make your site look appealing and even boost your conversions.

The idea behind adopting a monotone color scheme is that there are lesser colors for users to process. 

5. Get your CTA above the fold

According to research, users spend a lot of time above the fold of your website the topmost portion that's viewable before the user can scroll down. 

This is usually the most vital part of your site. Whatever is shown in this sweet spot, it's what most site visitors see first. 

So, ensure that you place a lot of rich content on this part of your website, together with an effective call to action like "check out our store" or "contact us today."

6. Do not use ads

Ads on your homepage are a definite no-no. Unless you're running a website that the main purpose is to drive ad revenue, that you need to get rid of them.

Ads make your site look more complex. Only use them if your website or business needs those ads. 

7. Make navigation effortless

Your site's navigation should be smooth. Placing a lot of navigation features may seem like a good idea at first, but unfamiliar navigation may discourage your prospects from exploring your site. You must have neat navigation. 

Here are some ways how you can improve and simplify the navigation of your website:

• Place your most important information above the fold. 

• Remove unnecessary navigation links.

• Take off pages that users seldom visit or land on.

• Make sure that your navigation buttons are easy to locate.

• Utilize symbols and universal icons for navigational buttons. 

Final Thoughts

All of us want a good-looking website. The key to a good looking website is simplicity. Simple websites look better, act better, feel better, and function better. 

Fortunately, simplifying your site isn't daunting and not necessarily an ordeal. You can simplify your site in a few simple ways.