Having a website for your business is non-optional. But that doesn’t mean you can throw up any old website and have it be effective at bringing new clients to your business. And let’s be honest there isn’t much point in having a website if it’s not working for your business.
How to Make Your Website Resonate With Your Ideal Client
Make it Super Simple to Figure Out How to Work With You
When someone lands on your website they aren’t going to just magically know how to work with you unless you tell them. For example, let’s say that you’re a photographer and the content on your website is photos without text. How would someone know how to work with you in that scenario? Adding text and call to action buttons directing people where to next is very crucial.
Appearing Professional is Key
Even though they say “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover” that’s exactly what people are doing when they land on your website. So if your website is giving off sketchy vibes that going to leave it as soon as possible. Thankfully appearing more professional goes hand in hand with making your website appeal to your ideal clients.
Consistent Brand Colors & Fonts
When it comes to anything in business being consistent is the most important thing you can do. The design of your website is no exception to this rule. That’s why it’s super important to use consistent brand colors and fonts throughout your website. While it can seem tempting to use as many fonts and colors as possible it’s just going to make your website appear less professional.
How to Choose Your Website Colors
How to Choose Your Website Fonts
How Many Colors Should You Use on Your Website?
This will vary a lot depending on your brand vibe. Which is why it’s ideal to work with a brand designer rather than try and DIY it. But if you’re on a tight budget right now and can’t a good general rule is to select 1 shade of white, 1 shade of black, grey or brown, 2 main colors in a light and dark shade and 1 accent color. Minimally you need 2 or 3 colors but you can use more. That being said I wouldn’t recommend using more than 8 and be more careful the more colors you use.
How Many Fonts Should You Use on Your Website?
You should never use more than 2 or 3 fonts on your website and avoid using script fonts on your website for long paragraphs. A good general rule is to use 1 font for your headings and 1 font for your paragraphs. Making sure that your fonts are easily readable is more important than variety. Instead of using multiple fonts, you can also use the same fonts in 2 or 3 weights to add some variety and make your heading stand out more
Font & Text Hyarchy is Important aka. Make Information Skimmable
Whenever you add text to your website it’s important to use font hyarchy. Not only is it best for SEO to use different heading tags but it also makes it easier to read. Most people are going to skim-read your website and not catch every word. With this in mind, the most important information and words that you don’t want them to miss need to be bigger, H1, vs a long paragraph can be smaller, P. That being said your paragraphs should still not be terribly long. If you find that you have a lot of long paragraphs brainstorm ways to make them more skimmable. Consider breaking up the paragraphs into two sections or making some of the information a headline instead.
Professional Looking Photos>Blurry Phone Photos
You need high-quality and professional-looking photos on your website. If you can’t afford yet to do a full brand photoshoot you can get one nice headshot taken and supplement the rest with stock photos. Make sure that when you’re selecting stock photos they are professional-looking, not cheesy, and that you have the rights to use them on your website. If you need stock photos for your website I highly recommend checking out Social Squares. All of their images are high-quality and professional and there’s a diverse amount of variety to choose from. All the images that I use for my Showit template demos are from Social Squares if you want to see an example of what they look like on a website.
Showcase Social Proof
People buy from businesses that they trust. One way to increase how trustworthy you’re viewed is to include social proof throughout your website. Your social proof can be testimonials from past clients in written or video form and showcase logos of more fully known businesses that have featured and/or worked with you in the past. One of the biggest website mistakes I see is having all of your social proof on one page by itself. Instead of creating separate testimonials, kind words or featured in pages all of your social proof-related content should be sprinkled strategically throughout all of your website pages.
Add Animation to Pages & Elements
Making your website more dynamic can also make it easier to draw someone’s attention to important information on your website. For example, if you’re a photographer one of the most important things someone needs to know before working with you is whether your photography style matches what they’re looking for or not. With this in mind adding a rotating carousel of photos to your website to quickly showcase your best work would be beneficial.
Did You Like This Blog Post?
If So, Make Sure to Pin it on Pinterest!
