People visit websites quite often for various purposes. But have you realised why people always visit a website? Well, in most cases the main reason is the content. The most dominant importance of visiting a website is its content and every web designer prefers to present the content in a useful and intuitive method on their website. Having said this, now how should the content be placed. Then comes the point that you need to select a specific layout for your content, and it is the first thing that the designers would do during the initial stage of the project. So, you need to work on the various website layout idea that would best suit your requirements and meet your project goals. When you come across popular websites, you will observe that many of the websites make use of similar layout types. This is because that these layouts have their advantages like the following:

• It Is Usable – Many common website layouts are quite common as they have proved that many users can work with it. 
• Layouts Are Familiar – Having a good user experience is a must for the website’s success and it is created by creating a sense of user’s familiarity. Visitors would like to see known features being presented as expected. As an outcome of this, people would tend to spend more time digesting the content instead of focusing on the webpage’s distinct design. 
• Layouts Save Money – Reusing current web layouts saves a lot of time. Designers would spend less time experimenting with the layout and would focus their attention on its visual hierarchy and other design aspects that would have a direct impact on the user experience. 

Also, each project is exclusive and needs a separate approach and hence it is ideal that you be aware of the various website layout ideas. In this article let us discuss the various layout ideas for websites that are most commonly seen on many websites today.

• Single Column – This website layout idea displays the main content in a single and vertical column. This layout idea for website is probably a simple one and is easy for users to navigate. Visitors can just scroll down to check more content on the website. Even though this is a simple website design layout idea, single-column layouts are quite popular amongst many websites. The mobile revolt also has acknowledged this website layout idea because of its single layout that would fit exactly to the mobile layout. This website layout idea is best used when many blogs are based on fewer design principles. This website design layout idea can be used for microblogs.

As this layout is ideal for long-scroll web pages, you must maintain the navigation always visible to the users. Sticky navigation would help you to avoid visitors requiring scrolling to the web page top for navigation. 

• Split Screen – As the name indicates, this website layout idea is ideal for a web page that has two main content pieces of equivalent importance. It provides the web designers with a way to protect both the items concurrently and maintain the same consideration throughout. This is a template that has two parts. While the user clicks on one half of the initial view, this website layout would move to the respective direction having some transition effects. This website layout is sometimes visible in many of the portfolio websites. The basic idea is to display a two-sided view and while the user clicks on one side, the entire page is transited to the required direction. The individual page of the element that is selected is displayed.

This best website layout is ideal when your website provides two extreme variations of the user journey, like the main types of instruction. While making use of this website layout idea, you should ensure that the following design tip is maintained:

1. Avoid Using Too Much Content In The Split Sections –  Split Screen does not increase as and when the content increases. So, when you have too much content in the form of text and images on your website, then it is better to avoid this website layout.
2. Add More Animation To The Web Page –  This way you would be able to create more of a dynamic experience by including more animated details.

• Asymmetrical Layout – Yet another website layout idea that you can use for your web design is the asymmetrical layout. This layout can be used to organize text, uneven shapes mostly image overlapping. This would ensure all the User Interface elements like images, navigation menus, headlines, and text boxes are arranged and neatly spaced. Asymmetry is the deficiency of equality that arises between the two layout sides. This is always a good technique in the current era and this layout has become quite popular amongst the web designers when creating website layouts. The main purpose of this layout ideal for website is to maintain a balance when it is either impossible or required to make use of equal priority for the two sections. This layout makes it possible to create various dynamism and tension that would enable a better scanning option on focusing a user’s attention span on a single object. By updating the width, colour, and scale of each of the asymmetrical elements of the content, the web designer would wish the visitor to stay engaged visually.

This website layout idea is ideal for landing pages that would engage the users directly from the time they come to your webpage. This also works well with websites that have less than 25 pages. To make use of this idea for website layout ensure that the following design tip is maintained:

1. Ensure You Can Present Your Content In An Asymmetrical Layout –  This layout is not possible and practical for all the websites. This likely works well for minimum layouts.
2. Include Focus With More Colour –  This website layout is deep-rooted with the idea that an object is better viewed with visuals and draws attention first. You can make use of elements that have high colour contrast to include visual weight to a few design parts. 

• A Grid Of Cards – Yet another website layout idea is a gift of cards. Cards are ideal containers for various clickable information. This layout idea for websites permits the designers to display hefty information neatly and understandably. Visitors would find the bite-size previews that are displayed in the form of an image and a short description easy to find the relevant content and get into its details with just a click or tapping on the card. The most important point about the grid of cards is that it can manipulate it limitlessly. The grids can have different size, columns, spacing, and cards style can be different based on the screen size. This website layout is ideal for responsive designs. This website layout idea is ideal for website designs that have websites heavy with content and those that display many items with the same structure.

To make use of this idea for website layout ensure that the following design tip is maintained: 

1. Ensure That User Can Click On The Entire Card –  User interaction using a card is more comfortable when users do not have to click exactly on a specific location of the card like a card’s headline or image to get access to the content details.
2. Think About How The Image In Your Card Will Look On A Small Screen –  A non-scalable image would become illegible on small screens and it creates an unpleasantness for the users.
3. Look For White Spaces Between The Cards To Influence Browsers – When there is more space between the cards, it would make the browsing slower, but visitors would tend to pay more attention to the cards. Including more space would allow for fast scanning and would increase the risks that visitors would supervise on some content.
4. Use Animated Feedback – If you can include some animated feedback, try to include it as the card would be displayed as a clickable element.

• Magazine – This is a complex website layout idea and as the name suggests, this website design layout was popular for newspaper and magazines. Presenting information for newspapers and magazines was tough as they had to present a huge amount of information to the reader in an easy way. Hence, the print designers made use of the grid system to present the information. This best website layout for displaying information of newspaper and magazine is built using a flexible modular grid that is a multi-column layout. It makes use of many visual weights to arrange various information.

Like the hard copy of the magazine, digital magazines make use of a multi-column grid that permits you to build a complex structure and have an integration of images and text. The main aim of this layout is to make the visitor scan, read, and be able to travel through the webpage layout. This website layout idea is an ideal publication choice with a complex structure and more content on each page. If grids are not used, the webpages would look more cluttered. To make use of this idea for website layout ensure that the following design tip is maintained :

1. Magazine Layout Has More Headlines, Content, And Images – The attention of the visitors is reflected in the heading and image size. When there are more bulging elements on the webpage, the user would focus it faster than the less visible ones. 

• Boxes – This website design layout contains a large header-width box along with a few smaller boxes. Each smaller box would take up a small share of the large box. The smaller boxes would differ from two to five. Each of these boxes includes a link that would lead to a larger one and a complex page. This layout type is the best ideal for a separate portfolio website and eCommerce websites.

1. Fixed Sidebar – Yet another website layout idea is the fixed sidebar. As all of us intensively make use of navigation, it is the main point of any website creation. Users look at the main menu first and from there they navigate on what they require. The menu options should be kept insight along with the top horizontal navigation by placing it in a static sidebar. The sidebar denotes the vertical column that is seen on either the left or the right side of the webpage. For this web design layout, the sidebar would stay fixed and would always remain noticeable and the rest of the page would be dynamic as and when the users scroll down the web page. In this way, the navigation would be accessible to the users. This website design layout is ideal for websites that have few navigation options. Here, all the options can be seen to the user when they enter the web page. Also, the sidebar can contain content apart from the menu.

Conclusion

A website is an important part of any business success. Hence, it must be designed to the fullest and while during website design, you should keep in mind that the content is king. The main goal of the website is to publish content. Whatever website layout ideas that you choose, you need to select the one that would make your website content to shine.