A website page layout is one of the most important aspects of a website.
A web page layout is often mistaken for the web page design.
Though it is a part of website design, page layout refers to the placement of content and other elements on the page.
A web page layout looks at the functional aspects of the website, without worrying too much about glimmer and jazz.
While the purpose of website designing is to draw maximum traffic, the purpose of an effective web page layout is to retain traffic and convert them.
This article covers the best practices that one needs to follow for an effective web page layout.
Optimized Display: The basic principle of a good website page layout is to avoid scrolls at all costs.
Once a browser visits the homepage, there should be minimum mouse pointer movement on the site and more importantly, the pointer movement should more importantly be for clicking on the call to action buttons.
Consider Target Audience: The target audience is the biggest determining factor in deciding on the layout style.
The layout plan should be customized to suit the target audience.
This highlights one of the biggest problems in using a template design for a website.
Templates do not allow a change in the content layout and this results in loss of precious leads.
Different layout styles suit different target audience based on the industry, target demographics etc.
For Example: A product oriented consumer website would place its product features and related content on the top of the web page to maximize sales.
On the other hand, a B2B website would not hard sell its products and instead adopts a more subtle layout with more access to White Papers, Articles and other resources.
Consistency: Consistency is the essence of an effective page layout.
There should be consistency in the content flow, brand elements and the navigation structure.
Consistency in the page layout brings in intuitiveness to the whole website.
Consistency makes browsing easy and increases the conversion rate of the leads.
Lead Capture area: The web page must contain "lead capture" areas like forms, surveys and contests where the browser can put in his details and in return gain some benefit.
These details can help the marketing team to nurture the browsers as leads and help convert them.
Lead management is one of the biggest areas of study in recent years in B2B marketing.
Hence "lead capture areas" must be accurately defined, according to the industry type and the target audience.
Balance: All design elements on the web pages must help create an overall balance on the website.
The principle of balance must reflect in the following aspects.

• Contrast: Colour contrast should be taken care of.
  There should be a balance in the use of colours.
  Moreover, the colours should be weaved in as per the brand elements.
  
• Content density: There should be balance in the placement of content on the webpage.
  White spaces or blank spaces should not be very prominent.
  The pages should neither be too crowded, nor empty.
  
• Alignment: The alignment of all elements on the page must be perfect.
  The alignment of pictures, content boxes, links and other elements must add to the balance and aesthetics of the whole website.
  

These best practices would help in creating and developing highly effective websites that not only attract leads, but also help in converting them.