How to improve your website graphics in 10 steps
In this guide article, we will offer the reader 10 tips and tricks to look after your website aesthetically and not only, making it beautiful to look at, fast, functional and navigable without any problems whatsoever.
Those who own a website often carefully create content for SEO purposes. It is the fundamental fulcrum of a good SEO strategy for good indexing of the main keywords of interest in search engines.
But in reality, this is not the only important element to which attention must be paid as to have the same importance is also the graphics of this site. Improving the graphics and therefore the design of your website means making it more professional. And also captivating in the eyes of all those users who choose to visit it day after day. We must therefore do everything possible to ensure that the website is clear to readers. And is also appreciated from a graphic point of view.
1. Improve the graphics of the website: the logo and the tag-line
Therefore, if the desire is to make your website particularly appreciated as regards the graphic aspect by all the readers who will visit you, here we will need to pay attention to some details that we are going to deepen.
A website is usually divided into sections and within these. There are several and important elements on which to focus one’s attention to make it clear and captivating for readers.
Among these we find:
- Logo and Tag Line: specifically, referring to this section, it will be necessary to:
- Clearly display the name of the site and use a clearly legible logo;
- Connect the logo to the Home page and allow the reader to easily reach that page;
- Use a completely original logo and that above all reflects the issues addressed within the website;
- Make the logo visible enough;
- Also, add a representative image next to the logo;
- Add a tag-line near the logo, that is some words that can somehow summarize the contents related to your website
You can learn more about “how to create your website logo by clicking here!
2 – Improving the website graphics: the “above the fold” section
Another very important section to pay attention to is the upper part of the website called in English ” above the fold “, which is the section of the site immediately visible as soon as the page is opened. In this, it will be necessary to make available the best contents of the portal to make all readers understand what is being talked about on this page.
At the same time, however, it should be made clear that too much content should not be included otherwise this could confuse readers. For this reason, it is advisable to make this part not loaded with advertising banners. And/or other components that are inconsistent with the site so as not to confuse the user. Remember that this section of the portal is the business card. And could make Internet users escape right away, significantly lowering the bounce rate, a factor that Google considers a lot to give sites authority.
3 – Improve the graphics of the website: the main menu
Not to be overlooked in a website is certainly its menu and about the latter it is important:
- Use the sections in the main menu and thus make the navigation quite clear;
- Make the contact link and the subscribe link visible;
- Make the reader understand immediately which section of the site he is in.
4 – Improve the graphics of the website: the design of the template
Here the advice is only one but concrete, effective and solid: use only light templates, clear and not too messy, well yes, the one who invoices millions of euros a year with a website for information technology, uses a minimal, light (and therefore usable and above all fast) and clear template. Obviously, the design of a site also depends on the type of topics covered, not all sites talk about computer science. For example, a medical site must have another type of design, different from a site that talks about luxury jewelry; the important thing, however, is always to have a template that is: light, usable, fast and clear. Even the basic colors of the template play a key role according to the theme addressed by the website (you can learn more: how to choose the colors of your site).
In any case, there are several elements to work on to make the website clean. And at the same time captivating. For example, it is recommended to choose a design that is particularly appreciated by your audience and that conforms to the topics covered. But at the same time, as already mentioned. It is recommended to focus on the contents and not burden the website with graphics.
As for the CMS to use for your site, unless you are an expert HTML programmer. And then you can build everything in pure HTML, I recommend using WordPress, now used by 90% of bloggers. The pros include high ease of management, well-liked by search engines. But little flexibility, supportability with regards to extensions, and huge plugins. Instead of WordPress, you can use another CMS, equally powerful, but a little more difficult to use, that is Joomla. In contrast, the latter CMS is much more flexible and you can really do whatever you want, especially if you also know a little bit of HTML.
5 – Improve the graphics of the website: images and the test with Pagespeed
Furthermore, the excessive insertion of images and links should be avoided as these. If excessively present, could confuse the reader and weigh down the page. In this sense, you can use the free Pagespeed tool made available for free by Google to check the speed of your site and more … Once you have done the test, the tool will study your portal and in output will offer you all the advice to solve the problems that weigh down your web pages. And/or make navigation difficult (such as navigable elements too close. And here we are talking about unresponsive and not ready-mobile sites).
- One aspect to pay attention to is therefore the images included in the website. Specifically, it is recommended:
- Optimize the weight of the images. In this way it will be possible to speed up their loading on the site;
- Avoid using text in images as it is not always seen by search engines.
6 – Improve the graphics of the website: navigability and optimization for all browsers
Use a logical order in the layout: that is, insert the information in a logical way within the pages so that readers do not get confused. But can find what they are looking for in the place where they think they can find it;
Test the website in different resolutions and especially on different browsers (the most important Internet Explorer now Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera) as there are usually some unsupported resolutions.
7 – Improve the graphics of the website: the text
Speaking instead of the text, among the tips to follow to improve the graphics of the website we find:
- Use fonts whose size is at least 13 pixels: a font that is too small could in fact cause reading difficulties in a less young audience;
- Pay attention to the contrast: therefore make sure that the text is legible and therefore in contrast with the colors used for the background. In this regard, it is recommended to use a solid color for the latter;
- Use the same fonts and colors on all pages thus maintaining a certain consistency.
8 – Improving the graphics of the website: formatting
In general, it is possible to say that to improve the graphics of your website. You must carefully take care of the graphic formatting of the texts. Therefore, use italics and bolds, citations, and, when necessary, also bulleted lists.
In this way, in fact, you will be able to guide the reader and his attention towards what are the most important content. Blank spaces can also be very useful for giving breath to the text.
It is also advisable to write short paragraphs and make sure that these are preceded by some titles. Because? Simple, these titles must be able to explain what is the concept that will later be expressed within the paragraph.
Speaking of the texts it is appropriate to clarify that these will be written clearly and precisely and above all incorrect and fluent Italian. Sentences that are too long and language that is too technical are not recommended. On the contrary, the language used must be suitable for the target audience. Do not forget that readers are not necessarily aware of the subject matter. So it is important to explain well what you are talking about.
9 – Improve the graphics of the website: the choice of images
Finally, don’t forget to pay attention to the choice of images to insert. The advice is to opt for images that can explain what the topic is and that have a strong emotional level. SEO agencies that deal with site creation are well aware of the importance of not burdening the sites. Always remember not to insert images that exceed 200Kb, preferably less than 100Kb. Furthermore, in addition to graphically embellishing a text, images can index well on Google Images (if you optimize SEO, i.e. with all the tags and titles) and indirectly procure additional visitors.
As for the choice of colors, the photos must have light colors. Well contrasted and above all that they are not grainy and pixelated. For example, a good resolution could be 800X600, or 1024X768. On the net, there are many software to change the resolution and the heaviness in Kb of the images. For example, I have been using IrfanView for years and I have always enjoyed it.
As an alternative to images, another great way to guide the user and make sure that they spend more and more time on your site could be to also insert video content, in this sense Youtube is an excellent video mine. thanks to the “embed video” function.
10 – Improve the graphics of the website: avoid Flash
Flash sites once represented the avant-garde, with dynamic homepages, videos, and special effects. Unfortunately, the sites slowed down exponentially, placing great difficulties in the classic and fast navigation. Google, therefore, decided to “penalize” slow sites, ergo sites with Flash graphics … the choice is yours, to be beautiful you will have to suffer, and a lot!
In short, in conclusion, it is possible to say that taking care of the graphics of your website is not difficult, just follow some small. But important tips and not get caught up in the desire to overdo it. If you follow these tips you will surely get advantages, advantages that I myself have seen and noticed on my network of portals.
You may also like to read, Learn Graphic Design in 10 Steps?
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