The term strategic website design is thrown around a lot in the creative entrepreneur space. BUT what does “strategic website design” even mean? Don’t worry it’s simpler than you think. AND making sure your website is strategic should increase the conversion of your website. Sounds like a win-win to me, doesn’t it?
What Does Strategic Website Design Mean
Easy to Navigate Layout
If someone can’t figure out how to navigate and browse our website they’ll leave. People don’t have the time or patience to deal with a hard-to-navigate website. <<< And if you’re seeing a high bounce rate in your analytics this could be the reason why. If you’re wondering how to test whether your website is easy to navigate have three people who know very little about your business scroll thru your website. And trust me they’ll let you know if it’s hard to navigate.
Clearly Showcases How to Work With You
This is one of the most common mistakes I see on websites—especially if they’re DIYed. If someone has landed on your website and is confused about what you do or how they can work with you, they’ll leave your website. Having call to actions throughout your website will help avoid someone not knowing how to work with you. But you also need to spell it out clearly to them. Usually, a 1-2-3 steps section is the best way to approach this.
Filled With Call to Actions
YOU MUST have call to actions on every page of your website. <<< I can’t stress enough how vital this is! And it’s by far the #1 most common mistake I see on websites. So if you only fix one thing on your website make it this!
Website Call to Actions 101
Easy-to-Read Fonts
If you have to squint to read any of the words on your website that means either a) your brand fonts aren’t strategic or b) your fonts are too small. Avoiding using script fonts for paragraphs and breaking up text into smaller snippets can help with this. You should also make sure that your fonts on average are at least approx. 18px. <<< But keep in mind that that is just a general rule of thumb because all fonts are different when is comes to px sizing.
How to Choose Fonts for Your Website
Copy that Connects With Your Ideal Audience
Part of a strategic website is having good copy. Imagery can convey a lot of your business but photos will never fully replace words. If your website copy isn’t addressing your ideal client’s problems you’re going to notice a lack of leads that are converting.
Copywriting for Creatives
Professional-Looking Brand Photos
All of the imagery on your website needs to look professional. If all of your photos are blurry or you’re using cheesy-looking stock photos, people are going to notice. That doesn’t mean that you have to have a brand photoshoot—but it does mean that you need to use high-quality stock images on your website.
How to Choose Stock Photos for Your Website
Concise Color Palette
Color is one of the most memorable parts of your branding and website. That’s why when someone says Target you automatically think of the color red. Or if someone says BestBuy you think of blue and yellow. There are lots of debates regarding how many colors and what types and shades of colors make a strong website color palette. BUT when in doubt grab a shade of white, a shade of black, another light color another dark color and an accent color.
How to Choose Your Website Colors
Mobile-Friendly Layout
At least 50% of people browse websites on their phones (personally I tend to browse more on desktop but I digress). It’s a lot easier to design the desktop view of your website than mobile—but it’s important to make sure both have great layouts. That’s why it’s also important to use a website builder like Showit that allows you to customize the mobile and desktop views of your website separately.
My Favorite Showit Features
Every Page has SEO Best Practices Built-In
I can talk about website *design* all-day-long—but if your website isn’t showing up in Google Searches it doesn’t really matter because no one is seeing it. That’s where website SEO comes in. All of your website pages need to have best SEO pratices in mind: including long-tail keywords on every page, naming your images, internal links, backlinks, etc. if you want this ^^^ to happen.
Showit SEO Course
Fast Load Speed
The days of slow-loading dial-up internet are over. You’ve got maybe 2 seconds, if that, for your website pages to load or people are going to bounce off and go to another website. Making sure your website has SEO best practices applied ^^^ can help with load speed. But you also need to compress the size of every single image you upload to your website. <<< Images with a large file size are the #1 cause of a slow-loading website. I use TinyPNG to compress all of my website images.
Shows Off Your Brand Personality
Your website needs to look and feel like you! That’s why it’s important to have a timeless website that reflects your brand personality instead of hopping on every design trend under the sun. Your color palette, fonts, imagery and copy should always match your brand personality.
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