Help your website stand out with these 5 easy tips
BRANDING
Before beginning any custom website-design project we need to make sure that you have the necessary brand elements to be able to create a cohesive and compelling website.
If you don’t already have brand guidelines, we can create them together to make sure your entire digital presence is cohesive and consistent.
At the very least you’ll need to know which fonts get used for which purpose, your brand colours, your main logo and a sub-mark (to be used for your favicon).
COMPELLING IMAGERY
If there’s one thing that will elevate the look and feel of your website it’s stunning, custom imagery.
Professional (personal or business) branding photography literally makes a website, as not only will it be high-quality, it’ll also be on-brand, designed to speak to your target clients.
Stock imagery can be used in a pinch, but I advise caution there as the free sites are heavily mined meaning the same images are likely being used on your competitors’ sites. Having your own unique imagery sets you apart from the crowd.
LAYOUT
Avoid block of text like the plague! Get creative, use interesting layouts, space saver tools such as accordion menus, images and negative space to avoid the reader feeling overwhelmed and giving up. Remember, your browser is busy and probably distracted, make it easy for them to access the information they need and take the next step.
CONVERSATIONAL COPY
We’ve all heard about writing for SEO and combining that with our desire to sound professional, we can end up with very stilted, dry prose if we’re not careful.
As technology moves on and smart speakers are the norm in many homes, there’s never been a better time to write your website copy as if you were speaking to someone in real life.
People buy from people, so show your personality and give your future client a glimpse of how it’ll feel to work with you.
TESTIMONIALS
I’m often asked to create a testimonials page and I advise against it as who’s going to click on that? It’s much more powerful to eave them through your pages, strategically placed to reinforce a point you’ve made, or inspire interest.
Testimonials provide a powerful way to communicate your message in a way that’s relevant to your future client - they want to know what working with you will feel like and what they can expect from the experience. Your happy clients can help you with that!
If you’d like help creating your own dream website, please get in touch - I offer Squarespace Sounding Board sessions where we spend 60-minutes on Zoom defining the overarching strategy for you to build your own site from.
Alternatively, you can outsource it to me and I’ll bring your brand to life for you.
Either way, if you’d like to receive more hints and tips on bringing your brand to life online you can sign up for my newsletter below.