It’s Valentine’s Day. So, if you have a special someone, I hope you haven’t forgotten to book a nice restaurant, planned to cook a nice meal, or have another surprise in store. If you don’t have someone, then I am sorry about being just another reminder of this “commercial holiday”.
As it is the International Day of Love, and I love a good website, let’s have a look at some of the things which you can add to your website to woo a potential client.
1) A nice colour scheme
While having a luscious red background with some white text over the top is a nice way to show off your lovey-dovey side, when it comes to making a gorgeous website, bright colours should be used as accents or to highlight key bits of information.
Visitors to your website will be drawn to a brightly coloured box, as they will assume it is key information. So, fill it with all the juicy details you think will be important to them; fees, contact details, pictures of your dog, services you provide… you know, important things.
2) A crisp font
It’s 2022, so if you’re still using Times New Roman or Arial, visitors to your website will definitely swipe left.
How do you choose an attractive font, though?
Before even thinking about the font, consider the size of the text, and the people who will read it. Are you expecting a large percentage of your readers to be older, who will be more likely to struggle reading small text? Bump the font up a little higher than you consider to be “acceptable” – that little bit extra may seem too big for you, but one of your future visitors will thank you for it later.
And then we have the font family: Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, Courier… the list goes on. You will have most of these installed on your device by default.
You may think the text in Word looks perfect for your website, and it will do the job just fine. While these system fonts are good, they are not always the easiest to read. There are loads of beautiful fonts that are freely available through services such as Google Fonts, which you can integrate into your website with ease.
3) A sensible layout
This one should be a no-brainer, but how often do you stumble across a website and ask: “Where is…?” or “How do I…?”
If you’re patient (stubborn), like me, you will find whatever it is you’re looking for, even if you reach old age in the process. However, most people will leave the site if they can’t immediately find what they’re looking for.
For example, if you put the information about your fees at the bottom of a page talking about the company, the odds are it will not be seen.
This means that if someone comes to your website and thinks to themselves “I think they’re right for me, but let’s see how much they will cost before contacting them”, that person will feel like they’ve been stood up on a first date. They had high hopes, and were maybe even a little excited, and then you let them down by not giving them any information.
4) Engaging copy
What is your company, and why should I care?
This is a question that you should aim to answer when a new visitor lands on your website. However, this doesn’t mean you should be writing War and Peace as you try to explain your company’s long history – in truth, most people won’t care.
If a visitor doesn’t feel like the copy on your website is talking about them, they’ll leave faster than your date would if they found out you had booked a table at McDonald’s. Therefore, it is paramount that you try to focus on the visitor, and not yourself, when writing content on your website.
Don’t feel like you can’t get creative. If you have a blog article which may appeal to some people, but not all of the potential visitors to your website, then definitely add it. While some visitors won’t care about fruit that looks like a celebrity, there’ll be some who want to have a giggle at Pearis Hilton.
5) Attention-grabbing, not attention-diverting
If you have statistics, an infographic, or something else which would pique a visitor’s interest, you want to ensure that you’re not adding too much information on-screen at any one time.
Whether it is a shocking statistic, such as “100% of people who are born will die”, or a thought-provoking video, you want to keep the surrounding area of this attention-grabbing information free from any other distractions.
People can’t focus on two different sections of a website at once, so you should keep each section wrapped up in a neat package. This means that if you have an infographic, don’t have audio auto-playing in the background. Or, if you have some important copy, don’t put a gif (moving image) next to it.
Need help with your website?
If the time has come for you to update your website, our award-winning team can help. To learn more about what we can do for you email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300.
