Website content can be tricky, some people are great at writing copy but have no idea when it comes to illustrations and imagery, and vice-versa. It’s important to find this balance in order to get the best out of your website, prioritisation of certain aspects of design is key.
Starting your website design without a plan is a poor decision, having an unattractive, dysfunctional website will increase your bounce rate and reduce audience engagement. Optimising both the way your page is set out and its functionality is crucial, but can be hard if you don’t know what to aim for. Luckily, here are some key points to get you informed!
Write for SEO
SEO is the foundation for every website’s visibility on the internet. Writing your copy without regard to SEO can significantly hinder your opportunities to be seen in search queries. Keyword analysis is the process of discovering which keywords are popular and relevant to your website, these keywords should be used as often as appropriate within your text. This would include small variations of your key phrases, as you never know what users will search for.
High-Quality Images and Illustrations
When choosing imagery to use on your website, it’s important to ensure each image is a suitable resolution to prevent pixelation or sizing issues. High-quality imagery and attractive illustrations reduce your bounce rate and make your page generally more attractive. You also should avoid having huge images on your website as it affects performance and loading speeds, find the optimal size.
Say a Lot, but Say a Little
So, you’re including all your keywords and you’ve got some nice imagery. Now you need to break up your text effectively so your page doesn’t look overloaded with content. It can be good to mess around with a few different layout styles before your website goes live, so you can see areas of text you can cut out, or perhaps an image may look better somewhere else, etc. Assuming your keywords are accurate and relevant, a few small paragraphs per page would suffice in terms of text, you can always include sections of text within your illustrations to highlight things you want to stand out.
CTAs
CTAs, or Call To Actions, are buttons, links, etc. that encourage a user to check out a service or another section of your site. These are great for boosting your engagement and improving the visibility of the subpages on your site. Rather than a user visiting your homepage and checking other pages on their own accord, you can direct them to your other sections before they get disinterested and keep them engaged on your site.
Consistent Tone
Writing in a mix of passive, active, formal, informal, etc. can get confusing and awkward to read. Keeping a consistent writing style improves your readability, selecting a tone based on the topic or related subject is important to improve trust in your knowledge. For example, a website for a law firm should be written with a formal and active voice, whereas a creative design site may have a solid split between the styles.
In summary, pre-planning your content in depth should be a high priority as it can have a great effect on the performance of your website in the long run.