8 Tips for Improving Web Design for Digital Marketing
Do you have a website that’s not getting many visits? There’s a chance that your web design is what’s holding you back.
According to a recent eye-tracking study, people decide if they like a webpage in two-tenths of a second. If you don’t impress them in that short span of time, you’ve likely lost them altogether.
By improving web design features on your website, you can attract more readers and enhance your marketing game. Check out these eight simple ways to optimize your website and make a big difference in your user experience.
-
Improving Web Design Starts by Limiting Pages and Clicks
How many pages do you have on your website? Can your users get to them easily? If they’re having to click through multiple pages to get to what they’re looking for, they’ll likely give up and leave your website.
Revisit your webpage structure and make sure it’s easy to navigate through. You can increase the user-friendliness of the site by making important pages accessible on the top bar menu. You’ll also want to review hierarchical page structures if you have any.
If you’ve made it so that one page clicks to another related page, these pages have a parent-child relationship. Does this have a third page linked to it? The “grandchild” page can also be easy to navigate to in your page structure.
But don’t make your users keep digging after that. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your website’s visitors can get to the information they’re looking for by the time they’ve reached the grandchild page. Keep this in mind for your current website structure (and for any content you add in the future) to ensure your website is user-friendly.
-
Optimize Your Written Content
Written content can easily make or break your website’s appeal. Did you know the average adult reads somewhere between a 6th- to 8th-grade reading level? Even if you think your content makes sense, it may be confusing to others.
By optimizing your sentences, you’ll attract readers and keep them interested. You can check your written content for free with the Hemingway app.
Just cut and paste your page’s language onto the site’s main webpage and see how readable it is. This website will even highlight specific areas and tell you how to revise them, so you’ll learn how to make your language more attractive in your future webpages.
-
Reduce and Compress Information
Complex sentences aren’t the only way words can scare visitors away from your website. If you have too many words on one page for your market audience, you’re likely deterring readers. Make sure you’re making your point as quickly and concisely as possible to keep them interested.
Go back and review what you wrote on your web pages and make sure nothing’s too lengthy. You should also group related information together and double-check to make sure you’re not repeating anything.
Do you have a lot of information about specific areas that you need to include? It may be helpful for you to create a way to hide and expand your content with clickable options. By using “click for more” content methods such as accordion menus, tab menus, or sidebars, you can let your viewer browse pages easier.
-
Add More Visual Content
Give your visitors a break from reading. By adding images and videos to your pages, you’ll make your website more exciting to explore.
You can also share way more information about something by using a visual representation to support what you’re trying to explain. This will make your pages more exciting to view and can add more helpful information about the concept or product you’re trying to share with viewers.
-
Check Your Content-to-Space Ratio
The background space on your webpages should be used carefully. To avoid your pages from looking overcrowded, you should usually ensure there’s some between your blocks of content.
However, you also don’t want too little of the blank spaces used. If you have sentences that are stretched out thin on your pages, you should consider redesigning your page to use more of your available space.
Think about your webpage as a combination of rows and columns. If you add more columns to the page, you can add more content to these areas. Combining paragraphs near images, menus, and videos can make better use of this space.
By shortening the width of your content blocks, you can add in more visually-appealing items in the same row. This gives your reader more to view and makes the page more visually appealing. Play around with your page structure until you find a way to display your information in a visually-appealing way.
-
Stick to a Style Plan
The font and colors used in a website play a major role in its aesthetic. While you want something eye-catching, adding too much of a variety can make your website look unattractive. Make a plan for your site’s general design, color schemes, and fonts for a consistent, professional look.
When planning your fonts, be sure you’re picking something that’s easy to read. You’ll need to decide what font styles and sizes you’ll use for your headers, subheaders, and paragraphs. Follow your selected pattern consistently on every page, and go easy on using bold and italic styles in your written communication.
When deciding on your color scheme, choose a combination of 2-6 colors that pair well together. Make sure your color combinations are easy on the eyes and remember to use bright colors sparingly. You’ll also want to be sure that you’re choosing color combinations that colorblind people can still read.
-
Account for Page Loading Time
No one likes a page that takes forever to load. Some pages take longer to load than others, especially if you’ve designed a page with lots of data to upload. Encourage your website visitors to explore more of your pages (and stay awhile) by ensuring your pages are loading quickly.
To do this, you can check your web hosting application for speed-optimization features. Many hosts, such as WordPress, can make your pages faster with the click of a button.
You may have additional problems within your website that are increasing lag time. Check out this website for a comprehensive list of troubleshooting techniques: https://setapp.com/how-to/how-to-stop-the-spinning-color-wheel-on-mac. By ensuring your pages are loading as fast as possible, you’ll have much happier visitors on your site.
-
Put Your Website to the Test
You may have put a lot of work into your website, but there may be areas you’ve overlooked or didn’t consider. By asking others to critique your pages, you’ll get an outside perspective on your website’s design. This can help you learn more about how others are viewing your website and how their experiences can be improved.
It’s especially helpful for your reviewers to check out your website on different devices. Because websites display pages differently depending on screen size, one page may look great on one device, but not so great on others. Ask people to access your website on different smartphones, tablets, and computers to learn what designs work best.
Optimize Your Website
Now that you know more about the secrets of improving web design, it’s time to start optimizing your website. With a few simple adjustments, you can easily increase your website’s number of visitors.
And the more views you get, the more money you’ll be making. So what’s holding you back? By enhancing your website today, you’ll be raking in more dough in no time.
Want to learn more about technology news and trends? Check out more of our articles to stay informed about the tech industry.