Looking to improve your website performance? This article is for you. Guest writer, Ralph Rich shares his top tips for brands looking to optimise their website for SEO and user experience.
The layout and design of your website has a lot to do with the success of your SEO and visibility. Making small tweaks to your current design, or bearing some general tips in mind when you’re designing from scratch, will go a long way to make your site a great one!
It’s crucial to remember that you not only want to design something visually appealing for your audience, but you also want that same audience to find you easily on Google. Whether it’s images, content or buttons, always keep local SEO in mind during the development process.
Images should have captions that relate to your services or products. Content should contain meaningful keywords and key phrases related to your industry. A simplified approach to your calls to action should also be exercised, such as placing them in visible spots with bright colors and emphatic button designs.
It’s also useful to create content that answers questions, educates your audience and pops out when conveying important information.
Foremost in web design is ensuring your brand stands out prominently starting with creating a company logo design that stands out. It should be placed where visitors remember your brand long after they leave your website.
Then comes your call to action which is probably the one part of your design elements you want pronounced the most. Placing a call to action at the top right of your page will likely draw the users’ attention to it. But remember that a call to action on its own isn’t going to do all the work for you.
That CTA must be memorable. ‘Click Here’ just won’t cut it, so get creative with your CTAs, but try to keep them shorter than 4 words where possible.
Additional CTAs should also appear in lower parts of your webpages. If a user needs a little more convincing, they may read further. Give them two or three opportunities to follow your call to action once they have done so.
Research shows that using more than 3 different fonts in your web design can result in a page that’s ‘too busy’ or cluttered. Sticking to two or three fonts is advisable if you wish to convey a simple, clean look to your webpage.
As tempted as you might be to use embellished, fancy fonts, rather opt for a font that’s easy to read. Extravagant fonts won’t do anything to embellish your message.
Font size is also an important factor to keep in mind. Significant parts of your message should appear larger than others. Reserve smaller fonts for the filler (not jargon) sections of your page content.
While some readers will read through everything you include, most will simply want to scan your page to see if it’s what they want. Keep this scanning concept in mind and highlight your most important information with large print.
Headings will naturally be larger than other parts of your page, so make sure your headings provide a concise, rounded version of what you want your reader to know. This could be a special offer, an important fact, a pain point solution or a relatable solution to their problem.
Using white space properly can increase the readability of your page by a significant amount. The best way to think of white space is as a pause. Readers will want to pause while moving through your content, your images and your headings. Give them this pause by allowing white space areas between sections.
Good content organization is key in doing this. Make sure each section conveys a single thought that’s not muddled with other sections. Then separate those sections with white space to present your message in an orderly fashion.
In the same way you should avoid embellishing your fonts, don’t embellish your words either. Write your sentences as simply as possible. Readers will avoid trusting a message if it’s full of unnecessary filler words and extravagant words.
Simple words that present a simple message will always captivate your audience and garner the trust you want from them to buy from you. Remember that people don’t want to spend too much time on your site. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they will invariably leave and look for it somewhere else.
Use plain language that promises a solution to their query, and you’ll keep them on your site for longer.
When designing your website, always add at least two or three questions as headings or subheadings. The questions are the reason why your reader has visited your site, so addressing those questions is crucial to keeping them there.
It goes without saying that you should subsequently answer those same questions with valuable information too. Show your audience that YOU are the solution or ‘answer’ to the questions they have in their minds.
Don’t just link to anywhere during the development stage of your website. Credible sites will add credibility to YOUR website, so make sure you’re affiliating yourself with other experts within your industry.
Research your links thoroughly, and make sure your user’s experience won’t be dampened by navigating to the pages you recommend.
Also be sure to link some information to pages that are yours. Internal linking to onsite blogs or service pages will show users that your site has all the information they need to make their buying decision.
Using colors to direct your audience is a psychological method used by most marketing professionals. Sometimes these can be extracted from your logo design but you can use any other colors. Using color to move from an image, to an important bit of information, and then finally to a call to action is a great way to ‘steer’ the reader’s eyes where you want them to go.
Humans respond to emotion, and using faces in your design can have a massive impact on how they feel when consuming your content.
A face that’s looking directly at the reader will usually invoke the same emotion as the expression of the image. A face looking towards your offer or product will automatically jolt the eyes to that point.
Use this emotion method to encourage your reader’s eyes where you want them to go.
We know that it can be difficult for beginners to wrap their head around web design. But with these 10 tips you’ll be well on your way to becoming a professional web designer. Use the tips in this article to help you master your skills so you can create professional web pages for your clients.
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