Running a website these days is not rare at all. You can run a website as a hobby, or you can run one because you want to improve the publicity and marketing of your business.
Either way, you should give your best effort to make your website look as good as you can make it, and make it fully-functional and optimized as well.
When it comes to website development, there are tons of things that you need to know, and usually, people are hiring web developers to create the site for them.
Regardless if you’re the one making your site or you decided to hire a developer, you’ll still need to know exactly what you want to achieve with it.
In this article, we are going to talk about some useful tips that you should consider adding to your website building process in order to get a better final result.
If you are currently thinking about creating a site, or you’re already making one, make sure to stay with us until the end for you to find some valuable information.
Since there is a lot to talk about, let’s not keep this introduction any longer and jump straight into the content.
1. Choosing your theme
If your hobby is exploring the sea world and informing others about the fascinating facts that you’ve come across during your journey, you can already imagine how your website is going to look like.
Blue should be a dominant color and your design and sounds need to remind a visitor of the sea. This is just an example but you probably understand what we’re trying to say.
When you’re choosing the theme, make sure that it suits the things you’re going to post, because that is very important.
2. Keep it simple
Unless the entire point of your website is to make it look as fancy as you can make it, you should give your best to make it simple and easy to navigate through, here’s why.
If the content you’re going to post targets the older population or it doesn’t target a specific group that is computer-savvy, chances are that the people visiting will require a very simple design in order to find where everything is.
Imagine how confused an older person would be if there are no instructions on your site about where to find a certain section. So, make sure that you keep the design simple and concise, with everything being clear and easy to find. If you are not very skilled in designing websites, but you are really dedicated to owning one, feel free to visit Mensis Studio.
3. Try minimalism
About a decade ago, it was fancy to have all sorts of widgets and moving things on your website, but today that’s considered to be very old-fashioned and not cool at all. People today prefer simplicity, and in all honesty, a minimalistic website will always look better and more attractive compared to another one that’s “full” of information on the very first page.
Another great reason to try a minimalistic design is that it will likely cost you less money if you are hiring someone else to do it for you. By having to add fewer things, the developer will probably charge you less, compared to if they have to install tons of plugins, widgets, moving background wallpapers and many other animations.
4. Invest in a logo
Logos are considered to be one of the most important things for many businesses today, but even if your website is not really about business, you should still invest in a high-quality logo. Trust me, a great logo makes all the difference, especially if you’re pretty serious about making your website famous.
Of course, you can choose to design the logo yourself, but just like with web-design, if you are not very skilled at it, it is preferable that you hire someone else to do it for you.
5. Keep your content authentic
It is very important that you create your own style because each website should be unique and that’s the entire point of them anyway. If someone notices that you are copying someone else’s content, your fan base will never grow to the level that you want it to be. So, whatever it is that you are posting, make it unique and authentic.
6. Looks aren’t everything
Even if you have the prettiest looking website, it doesn’t mean that you will be getting thousands of visitors every single day. Make sure that you are carefully creating your content and targeting the right audience with each one of your posts.
Marketing is a very important aspect when it comes to running a website, so unless you want to get buried underneath the other competitors in the search results on Google, make sure to learn some more about search engine optimizations and things that you can do in order to boost your SEO.
7. Make it fancy but keep it optimized
As we all know already, a website that is overwhelmed with tons of animations, functions, and features will usually be slower compared to a website that focuses only on functionality.
According to statistics, one of the main reason why people quickly leave a site and never come back to it is because of the loading times, which is something that can be really frustrating, especially if you are running low on time but you really require a certain information from the page you’re trying to visit.
So, putting a lot of effort in looks is important, and can really gain you some extra visitors, but make sure that you know the border between “fancy” and overwhelmed. If you notice that all of the features you’re adding for cosmetics are slowing down your page and making it sluggish, reduce them until you see that the loading times are back to normal.
8. Create a separate page for everything
You shouldn’t include everything on your homepage, so make sure that you create a separate page for all of your content. Videos can be on one page, photos can be on another, and text articles can be on a completely different one. The organization is the key to success, so pay a lot of attention to it.