Seven Tips To Optimise The Design Of Your Website Content

• By Sarah
• General News
• 698 Views
• 31st May 2023

Well organised and engaging content is essential for a website that ranks highly in search engines and converts visitors into customers. Here are a few tips to optimise the design and layout of your web content. 

Define your audience

The first step is to decide who will be looking at your web content. By trying to speak to everybody, your content will be diluted and less effective. While your audience may be diverse, chances are that they have at least a few key traits in common. Create an avatar who represents these traits and design your content for them.

Ask yourself questions about your fictional customer, and put yourself in their shoes. What are their concerns and problems, and how can your products or services help them? What is their level of education, occupation, and income? Does your content reflect their cultural and social experiences? What interests them and what would they find alienating? 

Make your text reader-friendly

Whoever your audience is, a dense wall of text on a webpage will put off readers straight away. If you do need to convey a lot of written information on your website, pay careful attention to the layout of the text. Research shows that the vast majority of people only scan web pages rather than read every word. 

Therefore, long form text should be broken down into short paragraphs, with the use of bullet points, infographics, diagrams, and images wherever appropriate. Ensure that the webpage is responsive, meaning that it displays equally well on a desktop and a mobile device. 

Choose typefaces and fonts carefully

The right choice of typeface is crucial if you want to attract and retain readers. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read compared to serif fonts, which have strokes at the end of each letter. Check your font selection across a range of different devices to see how clear and easy to read it is. 

In the earlier days of web design, the choice of web safe fonts was fairly limited, but now there are plenty of options, so there is no need to compromise on the visual appeal and brand identity of your website. 

Include navigational  links in the text

When reading a long form piece, it is sometimes necessary to go back or forwards on the page or website to cross check information. Make this process easier for your readers by including jump links in the text. If the piece is very long and detailed, include a summary near the top of the page with links to each section. 

Get to the point in the first paragraph

Web users have short attention spans and don’t have the patience to read a long spiel before they find the information they are looking for. Put your main takeaways near the top of the piece, and save the less important details for further on in the page. 

Remember that you always need to address the questions and needs of your audience, rather than to reel off a sales promotional pitch about how wonderful your products are. This type of copywriting is regarded as outdated and ineffective for web readers, and it will damage your engagement and conversion rates. 

Consider the tone of voice you are using as well. Is your content packed with jargon and technical terms that are designed to sound authoritative? If so, you could be alienating rather than impressing your audience. 

What is the occupation, educational level and interests of your target customer? Unless you have a very specific and narrow customer niche, it’s best to keep the language as clear and direct as possible. 

Use colour blocking

Simply blocking sections of the text with a different colour can help to break up a page and draw attention to the most relevant sections. Be careful to select a background colour that contrasts strongly with the colour of the font to ensure that it is easy to read. 

Diversify your content

Research shows that web users are engaging more frequently with other types of content such as video and podcasts than text. Speech and moving images are better at attracting and retaining the attention, especially on smaller devices that are harder to read from. Videos are also easily shared, making them ideal for social media marketing. 

If you have products or services that are complex or abstract, then an explainer video is an ideal way to help your customers better understand them. By providing a visual demonstration, either through graphics, animation, or live action, you will be making content more accessible and memorable to a wider audience.

 

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