Valentine's Day is almost here, just a couple days from away. There are many things to learn from the day, and not just how to be romantic with a loved one, but also lessons about great web design. A website is like your company's significant other, they compliment each other and one cannot succeed without each other.So what can we learn about professional web design from Valentine's Day?
1. Be creative. Any good lover will tell you that you need to bring out your creative side when planning an evening on Valentine's Day. Think about things the other person likes and would enjoy doing or places they would enjoy going to on that special day.
A great web design is creative. This means that you have things on your site that really "wow" the people who visit it. One of the worst things that can happen to a website design is that it comes out boring and uninspired. You can tell when a website was produced with no inspiration behind it because it lacks the ability to inspire. You need to get your message across to the people who view your site and if that vessel does not intrigue, then it will fail at delivering this message. There are several ways to make a site more creative:
- Great transitions between pages
- Color schemes
- Presentations of copy and images
- Sales tabs
- Great copy
- Great images
- Fun interactive opportunities
- Creative background(s)
- Video(s)
It is important to note that while being creative, your site still has to be effective and not overly complicated. When a site gets too cute, it also loses its usefulness; this creates a waste of money and time. There is a fine line between being creative and understandable, any one of our Chicago web design agency creators will tell you this.
2. Don't be predictable. One of the worst things you can do on Valentine's Day is pull the same routine year after year. Don't be the significant other that reserves a table at the same restaurant, draws the same heart in the steam on the mirror, and buys the same box of chocolates. While this can be cute, the likelihood is that there is a rut and things are uninspired, your efforts are just to get by and not in trouble.
This does tie into the previous point in that when you are creative, however, just because you are being creative does not mean you are not going to be predictable. You can still be predictable while being creative. There are a lot of creative ways to put together a site that have been done before, if everyone is using those techniques, then you are likely to be predictable. One common way of being predictable is to have a site that is purely informational; too many sites on the web fall under this umbrella. Another way to be predictable is to have copy and images just pasted on a page, without any sort of design or purpose.
3. Make your site easy to love. When you are in a relationship, you want to be lovable, right? Of course! You do things, say things, behave certain ways, etc. that you know your significant other appreciates and you hope they do the same for you.
The same concept applies to designing a website. You want your website to be loved! This is two-fold: your site has to be loved by humans and it has to be loved by search engines. There are several ways to make your site lovable:
- Good navigation. If your site has poor navigation, both humans and search engines will leave your site, unlikely to come back. Everything that is on your site must be accessible within two clicks. Also, there should be more than one way in and out of every page.
- Helpful information. If your site does not answer all possible questions of the person who ventured to your site, then they will leave your site and go elsewhere. It also has to be helpful in showing the site viewer why your company is best at what it does or sells.
- Internal SEO. As we mentioned with good navigation, your site has to have multiple avenues in and around every page, of course, this is not the only aspect of good internal SEO. For good internal SEO, your site needs optimized images, keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, H1s, H2s, H3s, etc. It also needs to be easily understandable-- yeah, search engines can tell the readability of the text on your site and how easily it can be understood; poorly understandable sites are not liked as much. Your site also needs plenty of copy -- good copy.
4. Make the site beautiful. When getting ready for Valentine's Day, you do your best to look good for your significant other. You take a shower, style your hair, put on a great outfit, maybe a perfume or cologne, the whole nine yards.
Now, take that mentality and apply it to your web design. Have good designs, art, images, and good colors. Do what you can to make the site aesthetically appealing but do not go overboard and make the site too cute (remember, a site that is too cute becomes a site that loses its effectiveness).
5. Show the site off. You want to show off your date, right? Take them out for a night on the town, go to a restaurant, a park, a show, bar, wherever. The bottom line is that you have someone you find attractive and want to show the world that you love them and for people to say, "Wow, look who they're with!"
It is time to show off your website. This is effectively done with external SEO as well as promoting your site with a blog, social media marketing, a business card, and other methods. You would not want to create a site and then let it sit at home, all dressed up with nowhere to go. Make people say, "Wow, what an incredible looking site. I'm jealous it is not mine!" when they visit your website.
Go create a beautiful website and have a fantastic Valentine's Day. Email Integraphix if you are interested in what you read. Does your business need a website? Then let us help you create one that is beautiful, effective, and worth showing off.
