A webpage is a part of a website with a specific URL, unique content, images, and specific CTAs to keep users engaged. A beautiful webpage is built by putting all the building blocks or elements together. Its efficiency and performance are determined by the right placement of the right elements. When we talk about an efficient webpage structure, we refer to how different elements of a page are put together to make it look appealing and to deliver its purpose.
If you are building a website, don’t let your targeted audience suffer through a creepy and crappy webpage that lacks necessary elements or does not deliver the business goals. An efficient webpage should be usable and engaging, packed with the basic and core elements, and contribute to offering an unmatchable user experience.
In this blog post, we have discussed the webpage elements and their purpose so you know what, how, and where to use them to create a functional, well-structured, engaging, and informative webpage.
Elements of a webpage
Whether you want to build a home page, landing page, or About Us page, a few elements are integral parts of every webpage. A high-quality webpage is comprised of essential elements, and you may also consider adding optional elements to your page to beautify its presence. These elements give your webpage proper structure and optimize it for search engines. The Kemo SaaS website builder offers a seamless website-building experience with niche-specific templates and dynamic features. It helps you build a well-structured webpage with all the essential elements that cater to your business needs.
Let’s dive into webpage elements!
Header
The header is the topmost part of a webpage and delivers the visitor the idea of your website and services. This structural element has links to the core pages of your website so the visitor can easily jump to the required page. Most visitors decide to stay on your website by looking at the header and instantly know the value it offers. The header of a webpage should be designed with sheer focus and don’t let the visitor’s attention sway.
The header, generally, is the global element that stays the same throughout the website and contains essential elements such as a brand logo, a navigation menu having links to the main pages or sections of the website, a search bar for users to search for content within the website, CTA(s) like “Sign Up,” “Learn More,” or “Buy Now,” contact information such as phone number, and email, etc. You may also add a language toggle, vision toggle, links to your social media profiles, or place a welcome banner displaying some promo code, sale announcements, etc. Although the content and design of the header varies on websites, its core purpose remains the same, i.e., to help visitors give ideas about your website and interact with your content.
Google bots, too, love the website header, as it is easier for them to crawl through a webpage with the header, eventually bringing you a good SEO deal. While it is essential to pack a header with all the critical elements, it is also crucial not to overload it to prevent it from looking cluttered. Keep it sophisticated yet descriptive and optimize it for mobile devices as well.
Footer
The footer is another structural element on the webpage that appears at the end of the webpage and holds a substantial value. On some websites, the footer varies from page to page, while on some, it remains static on the whole website as a global element. Since it is like the conclusion of a webpage or your whole website, you need to design it with the best practices to ensure that it produces a pleasant impression when the user wraps up his experience on your website. The footer of a webpage is like the bottom line and should swiftly wrap up the user experience on the webpage.
The footer usually contains the company logo, navigation to your website pages, social media icons linked with handles, contact information, business hours, contact form, newsletter opt-in form, copyright information, and much more. A website footer design can significantly improve conversions, so make sure to entice your visitors with a footer that stands out and offers them site exploration options. Lastly, your website footer should look good and work properly on different screen sizes.
Menu
The menu on a webpage is a clear representation of what the user will get on the website. It tells the user about your business offering and helps him navigate through the website to explore and know your business and services. A well-designed and well-placed menu can enhance the user experience and make your website look clean and organized.
You may choose a classical horizontal menu that displays horizontally in the header or a sidebar menu that displays the menu list vertically, usually on the left side of the webpage. Large content-heavy websites can use a drop-down menu where the sub-menu options appear when the main menu is hovered or clicked.
For a more expansive website, you can use an expandable mega menu to facilitate multiple levels of subcategories and content without overwhelming users. The hamburger menu is another ideal format for small screens, in which the three horizontal lines are stacked together. Upon clicking them, the menu expands and displays all the important web pages or categories. Whatever type of menu you are using is a great way to streamline your website navigation and help users find the required information.
Hero section
A hero section is a visual hook and prominent element right below the header that you can use to grab visitors’ attention and communicate with them. It typically includes a high-quality image, video, illustration, etc., impactful text that instantly resonates with users, and an engaging CTA to compel users to take certain actions. As we call it a ‘hook,’ it quickly establishes an informative yet emotional connection with users.
Set the tone for the rest of the webpage by creating a hero section that is strikingly beautiful, convincing, and relatable. You may add a headline, a subheadline, a background image, a CTA button, icons, illustrations, contact information, and a trust badge. By the word ‘hero,’ we don’t mean to add a hero character here, but add any image that strongly depicts your business offerings. You can use a product photo, service photo, building, device, or anything relatable to your business that pushes the visitor to scroll through the webpage. You may use any relatable graphics in this section to deliver your message while staying bold and clear.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a navigational element on a webpage that display the website hierarchy and the location of the current page. They comprise a series of links that backtrack the current webpage to the homepage and make it easier for the user to understand where they are on the website and how they can navigate back to the main page.
The example of Breadcrumbs is as follows:
Home > Services > Digital Marketing > SMM
In this example, “Home” is the top-level category or root, “Services” is the parent category of the current page, “Digital Marketing” is the subcategory, and the user is currently on the “SMM” page.
Breadcrumbs help users return to the Home page, previous pages, or levels in a proper hierarchal manner from their current page location. A website with many pages can experience better site usability and visibility with Breadcrumbs, as they display multiple layers of a complex hierarchy, let users interact efficiently with the website, and provide clear structured data to search engines respectively.
Breadcrumbs take up minimal space on a webpage and appear in horizontal, plain-looking text. They also help first-time visitors navigate a website’s complexity, reducing the bounce rate. Although they improve website usability, you may skip adding these in the case of a single-page website or a simple website with fewer web pages.
Sidebar
The sidebar adds extra functionality to your webpage and is mostly used by the developers to ensure smooth navigation. It is different from the main menu on the webpage as it is more focused on providing additional information and functionality on the page.
Sidebars usually include links to other pages or sections of the website, a search bar for visitors to search for content, a list of categories or topics, tags, recent posts, popular posts, author information, social media links, ads, or sponsored content, and custom widget elements such as calendars, weather forecasts, currency exchange rates, etc.
You can craft the sidebar intellectually to offer visitors something engaging and informative that resonates with their interests. Since the sidebar stays on the page as the visitor scrolls the webpage or navigates the website, its content remains always accessible. It also ensures reduced bounce rates by offering a vertical menu available on either the left or right side of the webpage. It leads to improved user experience as users immediately locate the desired information.
The sidebar is like an extra element of a webpage and does not need to be added to all web pages. For instance, the purpose of a landing page is to drive conversion by staying relevant to the goals. There is no need to add a sidebar on the landing page as it will deviate the user’s focus from the primary goal of conversion.
Text
Text is the fundamental building block of a webpage; it is what people read on your webpage to get an idea of your business and perceive the value it offers. It is a primary means of communication between a webpage and its users.
A webpage with a great design but no text looks like a blank canvas that users find difficult to connect with. While images play a vital role in building your brand image and delivering its story, having text that speaks about your business offerings and communicates with the audience is necessary to drive engagement.
With the right text content placed on a webpage, visitors easily understand what the page is offering and how they can benefit from it. Different text pieces, such as headings, paragraphs, lists, etc, when combined, give your webpage a complete structure and offer value to visitors.
If you want to create a high-converting webpage that also caters to search engine requirements, it is important to write high-quality, relevant, and keyword-rich text that serves your targeted audience. You can highlight your business offering, product features, brand story, and much more and add target keywords that help search engine rankings and drive traffic. If you can keep your audience hooked to your powerful content, there are chances of getting more sales and better customer retention.
Evergreen text content on a webpage remains relevant to your targeted audience for longer and establishes the credibility of your webpage. Quality written content that follows search engine algorithms is more likely to stay at the top and encourages more viewers to visit and take the required action.
Photos
An image or photo is a crucial visual element on a webpage to connect with your audience and convey information effectively. Compelling and relevant images, along with the content, tell the brand story that your targeted audience can easily resonate with, leading to better views and clicks.
Did you know that 65% of shoppers are visual learners and perceive the utility of a product/service just by looking at the images? This is because the human brain can process images faster than written content.
Whatever information you place on your webpage, relevant images can reinforce it and make your business offering much more comprehensive and memorable. While portfolio and product pages have images as an integral part, using relevant photos on the Home Page and other important web pages makes a significant difference and even improves conversions.
Moreover, a webpage with clear, high-resolution, appealing images, correct image labels, and descriptions gives your page more chances to be found by search engines. It is suggested to compress image files to improve their loading time. The goal of using photos on a webpage is to enhance aesthetic appeal, engagement, and credibility, convey information, create a long-lasting impression on visitors, and have a meaningful impact on their minds that eventually favors your business.
Videos
Although video is not an integral part of a webpage, it is still crucial to draw visitors’ attention. A video keeps them hooked and informs them why they need the particular service/product in their lives. With the ever-changing digital landscape, more platforms are prioritizing video content, as it is easily understandable and more engaging compared to images or text.
You can create high-quality videos that are relevant to your targeted audience and add them to the webpage where needed. You may even share customer stories, give a sneak peek into a specific service or newly launched feature, or just give a demo of your product or service. There are multiple ways to use a video on a webpage to deliver the message to visitors.
However, when creating videos for your website, it is important to make them relevant, interesting, and concise. Video may affect page load speed or mobile adaptability, but you should consider these considerations when integrating video on the webpage.
Tags
Tags are an optional element mostly used in blog pages, product/service pages, and event pages for effective organization. They help visitors narrow down their search and keep them focused on a specific category or topic.
These tags help find the required information and offer smooth navigation to improve user experience. Tags are like sticky notes that filter your content based on certain criteria and help users explore your website.
The search engine loves web pages that are neatly organized. With tags, you can keep things on your webpage tidy and provide the right context and keywords to the search engine that help your page rank.
Tables
Tables are used in specific web pages to present data in a structured and organized way. Whether you want to display statistics, list items, or compare different options, using a table helps make data understandable and readable. There are instances when using plain text does not look suitable, such as in a side-by-side comparison of two or more options. In these cases, it is better to break the specifications and features into tabular form and organize the data so it is easy to scan and compare.
You can use tables in a blog post to compare multiple tools or features, display your pricing plans and office working hours, display data in different units of measurement, and much more. You can style tables in multiple formats and make them easy to read. It should deliver the purpose, have clarity in design, and be accessible across all devices. Tables also help you improve SEO as the structured webpage is easily understood by the search engine.
Testimonials
Testimonials are a great way to add credibility and social proof to a business. The testimonials indicate to the potential customers that your product or service is used by people and businesses.
It is also one of the best SEO practices to display testimonials as the search engines find your business more trustworthy after seeing customers’ feedback on it. You may choose to add video testimonials, quote testimonials, or success stories and build customer trust in your brand.
You can create a dedicated testimonial page, add testimonials to your Home Page or About Page in a slider format, or you may even add multiple testimonials in the form of a grid. Stay authentic when sharing testimonials on your website as the authentic testimonials resonate more with the potential customers.
Fonts
Whether you are conventional and classical or modern and quirky, the fonts you use on your webpage say a lot about your business. Fonts can significantly impact the overall readability, aesthetic appeal, and tone of your website. Using the wrong font can completely ruin your brand image and even distract users. Font psychology plays a significant role in users’ moods and shapes their perception of your brand image. For example, if your business offerings are more quirky, it is better to use serif fonts, script fonts, open sans, etc. These fonts are lively and fun and offer visitors a sense of excitement.
When choosing the font, keep in mind its relevance to your business so it does not look odd. Don’t play with too many fonts; instead, stick around two to three fonts that complement each other. Choose fonts that are readable and avoid overly decorative fonts. Choose the appropriate font size for headings, body text, and other elements. Use different font weights to create hierarchy and emphasis. Add spacing so the text looks readable and evokes positive feelings. You may use special fonts to create headlines and instantly draw attention.
Color palette
Colors are one of the significant ways of communicating and delivering a brand image. Color psychology plays a pivotal role in human lives as colors evoke certain feelings that later impact our decisions. The color trinkets you use on a webpage should be encouraging and trigger positive emotions in a user rather than evoking distractions.
Like fonts, the colors too, are global elements on a website that remain the same across every webpage and come under branding. The colors you use should align with your brand identity, offer a cohesive web experience, and feel pleasing and calming to the eyes. While playing with the colors, don’t use too bold or dominant colors that overpower the content and make the actual words go lost. Choose colors that complement each other, create a visually appealing palette, and resonate with your target audience. Different hues and colors have different impacts on every reader. Experiment with various colors and explore different color schemes, including monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic, to find out what works for you.
White space (also known as negative space)
Putting essential elements on a webpage does not mean making it look cluttered. White spaces are empty areas around elements on a webpage that help balance out the elements so the page does not look suffocated, and the user can easily focus on the page content.
White spaces make a webpage easy to read, guiding the user’s eyes and emphasizing the important elements that improve the user experience. When there are so many elements whirling around on a webpage, it takes longer for the user to focus, and eventually, he loses interest. White spaces allow your content to breathe and communicate easily with the targeted audience. There is no constraint on white spaces; they can be any blank space filled with any color or background pattern.
It improves the overall flow of the webpage, transitions between elements and sections, enhances content readability, and de-clutters the user interface. One of the most common examples of white space implementation is on the Google Home Page, which is all white space and focuses entirely on the search bar in the center of the page.
Cards
Cards are used in the layout of a webpage to display specific chunks of content in an organized section. They usually have an image, description, and a CTA enclosed in a defined area that is easy to scan. These content tiles are sorted in the form of a grid, each one representing a different piece of content.
You may display special offers or promotions in the cards and give your audience richer content. They can be used to display products with descriptions, pricing, and other information, highlight services, or share recent news with the audience.
You can customize the cards in different colors, typography, and images and add visual appeal according to your website’s aesthetics. The intuitive and responsive cards on a webpage give your website a professional look and encourage visitors to expand it by clicking on them. They also improve the web page’s search engine ranking, effectively organize your content, and enhance user experience.
Slider
A slider is another visually appealing yet optional element of a webpage that displays essential content in an engaging, beautiful, and space-saving format. Gone are the days when sliders were only limited to image carousels. Today, sliders have evolved into modern, interactive areas featuring powerful video content, slideshows, and much more in a rotating or sliding format.
A slider may contain several images or content blocks, arrows, or dots to move between the slides back and forth or set to autoplay, a pause button allowing users to stop the automatic transition, and an indicator showing the current and total number of slides.
While sliders can be added to any website, they are primarily used in service, e-commerce, or portfolio websites to display services, products, professional images, etc. If you want to show multiple options on the webpage while also saving space, using a slider is the most effective way to display them. The interactive experiences offered by sliders make visitors feel excited and at the same time, save a lot of space on the webpage.
Sliders can be used to display consolidated content, give users a product tour, present photo galleries, display portfolios in a flexible format, display the most popular/best-selling products, show testimonials, create a visual story, and much more. However, sliders may also negatively impact a web page’s performance, such as decreasing page load speed, poor adaptation on mobile devices, confusing users’ focus, etc. So, while using a slider on your webpage, take care of these points.
Form
The form is an interactive element on a webpage that businesses use for different purposes, such as to collect visitor information. It is like a digital paper with a lot of functionality that helps businesses target their marketing campaigns and improve their sales processes.
Since forms are vital elements of most web pages, visitors often interact with them. Forms can be used for many purposes, including data collection, lead generation, feedback gathering, contact requests, Newsletter subscription, customer support, and collecting payments.
The data and insights collected through web forms help make optimized business decisions, improve customer experiences, and collect data to craft marketing strategies. Since the user directly interacts with the forms, they should be simple and user-friendly. You may also display visual prompts encouraging visitors to fill out the form. There should be clear labels on the form fields that should be precise and relevant rather than too long. The form should be placed at a prominent and accessible place and have a clear CTA like ‘Sign Up,’ ‘Shop Now,’ ‘Get Started,’ ‘Add to Cart,’ etc.
Chat widget
The chat widget on the webpage lets users connect with the customer support team in real-time. Efficient and quick customer support can amp up your business revenues, and with a chat widget on your webpage, you can ensure stronger customer-business relationships.
The chat widget is an interactive element that works like a messaging platform and stimulates two-way communication between the website visitor and the customer support agent. The agent can be a human or a programmed bot to provide smooth, instant, and hassle-free customer support. With a chat widget, a business sees 60% improved sales and 20% better conversions. It can also be used as an effective marketing tool to capture leads, which are further nurtured into conversions.
Like a webpage, you can customize Kemo Saas’s chat widget to fit into your brand identity. From color, size, placement, and font customization, you can build a chat widget just as you want. Most chat widgets allow you to set up automated workflows with conditioning. To save time for your sales and customer support team, you can create AI-compatible chat widgets that instantly respond to customers’ queries. Although a chat widget is not an integral element on your webpage, it can help encourage potential visitors into paying customers by addressing their issues and offering them tailored solutions.
CTA (Call to Action)
Call-to-action is one of the main elements of a webpage designed with the focus to encourage visitors to take a specific action, for example, ‘Buy Now,’ ‘Sign Up,’ ‘Subscribe Now,’ ‘Learn More,’ or anything depending upon the context of the webpage. A CTA is an independent webpage element and can be placed at any prominent place. It is mainly placed at the beginning and the end of the webpage, but you may also put it anywhere, depending on the page’s content.
The purpose of using a compelling CTA on a webpage is to convert a random user into an active one by catching their attention. Although it’s a small button or link, the power it holds is immense. A CTA is like a signpost that tells visitors what to do next and encourages them to take the required action without saying too much.
A CTA should be designed intellectually to capture visitors’ attention in seconds. Optimize the CTA from the text to color to size to get more clicks. Don’t make it scream harder for attention; instead, place it in a way that instantly makes all eyes stick to it.
Comments
Some webmasters don’t consider enabling website comments, but displaying a comment section on a webpage improves visitor interactions on the page. Comments are used by businesses that are actively engaged in marketing their content. They are left at the end of the page by the visitors who take the time to read the page. The visitors may ask any questions, share their thoughts and opinions about the page’s content, or may even engage with others, which helps businesses develop a community.
A business might not enable the comment section on its website if it is afraid of getting negative or spam comments, or is too busy to respond to the comments. But for better interactions and to encourage discussions on the page, it is important to enable a comments section on the web pages, such as a blog page, or news page, or dedicate a space on your website, such as a community forum where users can discuss your business and different topics related to it. You may even specify a moderation policy to filter comments.
Progress indicator
The progress indicator is an optional element on a webpage that is mostly used in content-heavy pages to inform visitors about the progress of a specific process or to indicate the current point in a set of actions. You may use a linear progress bar that horizontally fills as the process progresses, a circular progress bar, or a determinate progress bar that displays the specific percentage and how long is the process.
The progress indicator is a small but significant element of a webpage that can be used for multiple purposes. It can be used to display the loading of a webpage and indicate to the user how much time he is supposed to wait. In the case of long forms on the webpage, the progress indicator shows the number of steps required to complete the form. Moreover, the progress tracker in a blog post gives the readers a visual cue to estimate the reading time, improving their experiences.
This powerful element indicates how many steps are left in a multi-step process like online shopping. To keep users engaged, you can add more fun elements to your progress indicator, such as different colors or message popups.
Social share buttons
Any webpage can take advantage of the social share buttons that allow visitors to share your business and content with others. When you build a website, you can add social share buttons on any page and drive traffic to your site from social media platforms. The integration helps visitors share business information on multiple platforms, including Instagram, X, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.
When social sharing buttons are clicked, the user is directed to the chosen platform and may share the content with his contacts, on his feed, etc. The communication between social channels and websites is ensured via JavaScript.
This web design element is partially used for engagement and can be sticky or non-sticky on the webpage. When designing these buttons, you can consider multiple designs and variations to engage users. Place them prominently to grab visitors’ attention and bring potential marketing benefits to your website.
Links
Links are highly powerful webpage elements that significantly increase navigation on your website and keep users engaged. Whether you use internal links or guide your visitors to external relevant links, links help users in their search quest.
On a webpage, a link is mostly displayed in a bold format and is hyperlinked to take the user to another online presence. Upon clicking the link, the user is directed to another webpage of the same website or another website or any other digital presence where the user might find something valuable. Links make it easier for the users to navigate through the website, jump from one place to another, and find relevant information.
Search
A website with numerous pages can leverage the benefits of a search feature that allows users to search the website to find the desired content. With the help of internal searching, the user may type in a query and get the relevant results instantly. It saves users time as they don’t have to dig deeper into each webpage to find what they want.
The search field can be in the form of a search bar or a search box and placed at the top right or top left corner of the page, centered at the top, or within the header. You may test different placements of the search bar to analyze which works better for your website. Consider using a magnifying glass icon so users can visually identify it. It gives users a very smooth browsing experience, saves their time, and increases their interactions on your website.
The search field is a handy tool for most e-commerce websites comprising many products. It cuts through the clutter and effortlessly displays the required outcome. However, a single-page website or website with a few web pages might not require an internal searching feature, as the navigation is enough to browse the whole website.
Tip to design a high-quality webpage
It’s not just the webpage design that determines its quality; the usability of the webpage is as important as its design. The placement of every component on the webpage, its accessibility, and its utility collectively determine if the webpage will communicate with the visitors and deliver the business goals. Although every webpage has a different purpose, the design of every page should be user-friendly if you want to make the most out of it.
Certain practices contribute to building a high-converting, user-centric webpage that simplifies and streamlines the presentation of information engagingly.
- Use the image files in the correct format and compressed size so they don’t affect the page load time. To make your webpage more influential, use high-resolution original photos rather than stock images.
- Use internal linking strategies to guide users from one webpage to another. This streamlines the user experience on your website and makes it much easier for visitors to visit your product/service pages. Successful internal linking helps users move to the next stage of the funnel and brings more sales.
- Do not use a high number of color interactions on a webpage, as too many colors can obscure the page’s purpose.
- Display all the vital content above the fold, as it is the first screen that the visitor sees when he lands on your webpage. Tell visitors what this webpage will offer so they don’t have to spend too much time or scroll too hard to find the primary purpose of that particular webpage.
- Write short paragraphs to make it easy for the readers to skim through the webpage content.
- Add a ‘back to top’ button on the webpage so the user can go to the top with just one click without scrolling.
- Design every page on your website with a clear goal. Whether you want to sell your product/service, offer something informative to visitors, or convince them to contact you, the webpage design should stay within the intended goal.
- Add visual clues such as graphical arrows to draw visitors’ attention to the content you want them to notice.
Conclusion
Crafting a webpage that is worth visiting is a challenging job. You should be specific about your webpage goals and the needs of your targeted audience that you want to associate with the webpage. It’s essential to keep testing the page elements to see how interactive they are and how the audience responds. This blog post explains the anatomy of a webpage, how different elements are used, and contribute to the quality of a webpage, resulting in improved user experiences. So, when designing a webpage, keep these elements in mind, add your creative touch, and transform your webpage into a vibrant and compelling digital entity.
You may use Kemo SaaS website builder to create a page that stands out and resonates with your website goals. It is crucial to understand the elements of a webpage to deliver value to your audience, keep them engaged, improve your page’s SEO performance, and maximize conversions. Bring your creative ideas to life and let our designer-made templates make the web creation experience a breeze for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the header and the hero section?
The header is the topmost section of a webpage and generally contains a navigation bar, logo, search bar, and contact information. In contrast, the hero section lies beneath the header and includes the main headline, subheadline, background image, and CTA. The header aims to make it easier for visitors to navigate the website, while the hero section is focused on visually appealing to visitors and delivering the website’s value proposition. The header is a global element i.e., it remains the same on the entire website while every webpage has its own hero section depending on the focus of the webpage.
Why should I add a chat widget on a webpage?
Adding a chat widget on your website is a great way to interact with visitors in real-time, offer them instant support when needed, and encourage them to convert. You can add a chat widget to capture visitor information and feedback and offer them valuable content they might be interested in.
What are the different types of web pages?
There are different types of web pages based on their content and purpose. Some of the core web pages on a website are Home Page, Product/Service Page(s), About Us Page, Contact Us Page, Blog Page, Portfolio Page, FAQs Page, Checkout Page, Privacy Policy Page, Thank You Page, Error Page, Landing Page, etc.
Do sliders impact the load speed of a webpage?
While a slider is a highly attractive element of a webpage, it can negatively impact the loading speed in some cases, such as when you want to display large-size complex illustrations or animations on sliders or multiple images, etc. It adds data load to the webpage and makes the webpage load slowly, especially in case of slow internet.
What is the difference between interactive and functional elements of a webpage?
The purpose of interactive elements is to keep users engaged, while the functional components provide information and build a webpage structure. Some essential interactive elements are sliders, CTAs, social share buttons, and forms, while the functional aspects may contain links, tables, and a search bar.