The goal of your website is to promote your company in a way that captures a visitor’s attention, creates strong interest in your product or service and ends in a sale.
Listed below are some suggestions that can improve your website and draw a greater interest in your business.
Improve Focus: To start off, rid your website of excess clutter! Keep only what is necessary so users can focus on what’s important. How? You can do this by removing excess elements, emphasize or increase white space, and choose a great color palette with symbolic colors corresponding with your core values. You can look up color psychology online to see what emotions resonate with certain colors and create the perfect message. Improving Focus does not mean your website has to be bland or boring. Rather, it can be fun in a clean, sharp way.
Custom Photography: The young female receptionist, the handsome middle-aged CEO, the group of well-dressed business partners sitting happily around a conference table. These images could come across cliché. If possible, custom photography, images, and illustrations are preferred over stock photos, as long as the quality is good. Show everyone who you are! Research your competitors’ websites to see what photos they are using. You don’t want to copy their style or have the same images as them. If you opt for some stock images, always purchase images with a higher resolution. They are more professional and boost your aesthetic value. Most importantly, avoid bland, predictable images. Think outside the box and try to “wow” your customers!
Bold Typography: Web design is all about communication, and using bold typography is a way to subtly communicate an important message to site viewers. Start by reviewing your site, and choose the most important message you want to get across to visitors. Use a typeface that expresses qualities and emotions consistent with that message. If your site follows a specific theme, use a font that corresponds with that theme. Place the bold type in a prominent position, preferably on white space. Remember, typography is a form of art, just like images, illustrations, and colors, that work together to make up your web design. Selecting the right (or wrong) font can impact a design’s quality.
Call-to-Action: The main point of your website is always to make the visitor complete a task, known as a call-to-action. A defined call-to-action is essential to creating a successful website. Your site should have a clear purpose, whether it’s for visitors to download, sign up, purchase, or call. To do this, begin by keeping the language short, or they will lose interest in your business. Provide value within the content – “Free”, “Last Chance”, and “Hurry” are common phrases used to grab their attention. The button or bold typography you use for the call-to-action should be the largest on the page, and placed ‘above the fold’. The user should not have to scroll down to find it. Using bright colors is good, as long as the button isn’t too large. The call-to-action should not overpower your website.
Your site should convert visitors into buyers, and give you a competitive edge. It is important to continually measure and improve site performance, usability, and conversions. Tools like Google Analytics can provide information on where customers are clicking, their time spent on the page, and their bounce rate (how quickly they leave the site). While this tool won’t turn a poorly designed site into a great one, it may provide insight on things worth changing that will help turn one-time visitors into recurring customers.
