11 Super Easy Steps to Beautiful Web Design
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Trying to catch the attention of web surfers has always been a big challenge. With more and more websites available every day, it can be hard to figure out what you need to do to make your site stand out and look better.
Strong search engine optimization will help of course, but once a visitor finds your site, whether they stay will depend a lot on your web design. Bounce rates also cause your search engine rankings to take a hit.
What can you do to make a unique and amazing website?
Be Creative with Your Bios
Clients and customers want to know who they’ll be working with. A bit of personality in your bios will add that human touch that can be easy to lose when interacting online. Even phone conversations can lose some of the realness of face-to-face interactions.
Be creative with bios listed on your website. Tell a story, talk about your favorite book, have pictures that aren’t just your typical headshot. Take the opportunity to show everyone what makes you (and your team) unique. It can be more of a selling point than you think.
Take a Unique Stance
Your content should take a unique stance on the subjects important to your target audience. Don’t court controversy unnecessarily, but your product or service should offer something that customers can’t get elsewhere.
Having a unique point of view or relevant opinions (coupled with supporting evidence) can land you more viewers and a higher engagement rate.
You’re not simply baiting clicks. You’re nurturing them. Mean something to the people who click on your site.
Fonts Matter
The typeface is one of the easiest ways to change the atmosphere of your website. With a different font selection, you can make the site seem fun, goofy, serious, official, old-fashioned, or anything else you’d like.
Your font choice should reflect the company, product, or personal style that you want the site to reflect. It’s going to set the page’s tone.
Use a large font for headings, titles, subheadings, and anything you want emphasized. Have body text in easy to see, easy to read font, and in colors that don’t hurt the eyes.
Backgrounds
You can go with a complex or a simple background. You can have single, simple color tone that is easy to look at, or you can have a mesmerizing photo.
What you want to do is keep the background from overwhelming the text and images in the foreground. It should fit with the site's unique style and atmosphere.
Logos Should be Simple
Complex, elaborate logos are often too distracting, especially for people seeing them for the first time. These logos often have too many colors and too many varying fonts.
You should try to keep your logo simple, straightforward, visually appealing, and instantly recognizable. Simplicity is your ally.
Think about the logos for Twitter, Facebook, McDonald’s, Pepsi, or any other major players. That’s the sort of recognizable simplicity you’re looking for.
Using Images
Modern websites are expected to have quality images as a part of their layout. With these images come new challenges.
They slow down page load time, especially for people with a slower internet connection. They may be hard to get in the right proportions. Here are a few ideas to help you out:
- Use vector files instead of normal image files. Vectors scale up or down more easily without losing their properties.
- With CSS, you can use images as links and still have anchor text code included. Set the text-indent property of your top navigation bar to read –9000px. The text will be pushed off the page but the image will still be visible.
- If you specify the image dimensions, non-replaceable elements will get wrapped around. Browsers will reflow after the images have downloaded without specifying the dimensions. Use height and width tags in your <img> elements to avoid issues.
Whitespace
Make sure there’s space between the different elements of your site. This is true for all pages, but if you have a lot of content, it can be very difficult.
Having everything crowded together can make a site much less readable, harder to navigate, and overall harder to look at.
Negative space is an important design element. Don’t disregard it when designing a good-looking website.
Try Using Icons In Place of Words
Icons, especially common and easily recognized ones, are a good alternative to text. Use social media icons in place of text links to social media pages, for instance.
Use a magnifying glass icon for your search feature and a little house icon for returning to your homepage. These are fun and also save you on pixel space.
Change Up Your Color Scheme
Changing your colors around can make it seem like you have an entirely new website.
Use colors that match your culture and atmosphere. Stick with two or three colors that don’t clash, and make sure your tones are easy on the eyes. Too many colors are jarring and can look very unprofessional.
Social Media Sharing is a Must
If you don’t have a social media page, make one. Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Pinterest are just a handful of the available social media platforms. Pick one, or preferably all, and get yourself a social media presence.
You are missing out on a lot of marketing opportunities if you don’t have one. Include links on your website to your social media pages, as well as buttons that allow users to share product pages or articles on social media.
Do Some Design Research
Great website design is constantly changing. Take a look at what successful websites are doing and what the up-and-coming trends are.
Keep your site updated. Don’t be afraid to use the designs of others for inspiration. Just add your own spin on their ideas!
Conclusion
A great website takes a bit of work, but you’ll begin to see results as soon as you implement changes. Add a bit of sleek personality, make sure the font is readable, and keep it fun!