How to make an appealing website?
Websites today demand more than just simple information and links; they are designed to be user-friendly and engaging. Your website is your business’s presentation letter for new website visitors. Think about it the following way. Would you like to visit a restaurant or store that looks messy, disordered, difficult to find what you are looking for, and with poor customer service? Probably not.
The same happens with websites. You want to ensure you have a well-structured and engaging website that offers users the best possible experience. Only this way will you have potential customers go through your website’s content and important pages until they decide to contact you.
Easier said than done, but what can you do to make a website more engaging to users? There’s more to it than just creating helpful content. In this blog, we will go through some things you can do to ensure you increase user engagement on your website.
Use a simple layout
One of website owners’ biggest mistakes is trying to overload their web pages with exaggerated designs. As the old saying goes, less is more, and this is no exception for your website. A simple layout can help you create an engaging web design. You don’t want to distract users from receiving the message you want to communicate. Complex layouts do not improve user experience. On the contrary, it can be what defines if a user leaves your site, which will increase your bounce rate. Engaging websites have a clean, simple, but pretty layout that helps to engage visitors with the actual content.
Website builders like WordPress usually have pre-built templates you can use to build the perfect layout. Try mixing layouts across your different pages to create an attractive design without exaggerating.
Make your website mobile friendly
This is the most essential optimization you want to make to your website. Most Google searches are performed on mobile devices. You want to ensure mobile users have a great experience visiting your website. Actually, 59% of Google searches come from phones and tablets. Having a mobile-friendly website is also a ranking factor for websites. If you want your website to be positioned on the top of search engine results, make sure your content fits smartphone and tablet screens. Test your pages before publishing them to ensure elements, fonts, or images look fine.
Use white spaces frequently
Don’t overestimate the power of white spaces on your company’s website. A white space can make the difference between having an easy or hard-to-read web page. Avoid writing long paragraphs. Use spacings and white spaces strategically. You’ll see how it makes your content easier to read. This works significantly to communicate big pieces of information into digestible short paragraphs. Using and respecting white spaces will ensure that users go through your content without abandoning the page.
Make your website easy to navigate
No one will navigate through a website that is confusing to use. Another thing you can do to make a website more engaging is to include a noticeable menu with relevant internal links to other important pages on your site. For example, you can include a bar menu in your pages headers to relevant links such as the “about us” page, blog forum, contact us, or services pages. This will create an easy-to-navigate website and an internal structure that will benefit each of your pages for SEO purposes.
Use Contrasting Color Schemes and Visual Elements
One way to make a website more engaging for users is using contrasting color schemes and visuals. When choosing the colors for your site, you should keep in mind that there is no right or wrong when it comes to color. The key here is contrast. Even if you are not designing a colorful site, you can use contrasting colors that will catch the user’s eye and lead them to where they need to go on your website.
Additionally, make sure to include visual elements. Users will likely look at a page if it contains relevant images, graphics, or figures. Also, if you plan to explain a complex topic in one of your blog posts, using images or graphics will help you make it easier to understand for users.
Include Social Media Platforms Buttons
This is a great way to redirect incoming traffic from your website to your social media profiles. It makes your contact details easily accessible to every visitor on your website. Additionally, social media links work as backlinks which benefit your SEO efforts. Finally, interlinking your social accounts and website will help you build brand awareness for your company. You can include them at your pages’ bottom, top, or sides.
Use headings across your content
Using headings will help you build a readable and understandable structure for your website that engages users and helps search engines read the content of your pages. If a user is looking for something specific on your page, headings will help him find it quicker and easier. Headings also help boost your SEO. Including keywords in your headings will increase the chances of ranking for those keywords.
Improve loading speed of your web pages
Page speed is a crucial factor you need to take into account if you want to make a website more engaging. Not only is a direct ranking factor for your website, but also pages that load fast provide a better user experience. If your website takes too long to load, users might abandon it before even taking a look at the content in it. This will significantly increase your bounce rate and hurt your rankings. Not only it’s about creating an engaging website design but also creating the best experience possible for users. Try reducing image and elements sizes to help your website load faster. Working side-by-side with a web developer will help you build an optimized website.
Strategically use call to actions (CTA)
The final objective of having an optimized and engaging website is to help users complete the desired action. Include a call to action on each of your pages. It can be a “Contact us Today,” “Read more about it,” “Buy now,” or “Sign Up.” It will depend on your marketing objectives for each of the pages.
Solve technical issues
Technical problems in your website will always hurt user experience, either by providing broken links or slowing your pages. Make sure you constantly monitor your website’s performance and make any adjustments if needed to provide a better user experience. You should work with a developer, as this will likely need some web development expertise to ensure everything works correctly.
Ask for website user feedback
The best way to create a user-friendly website is by listening to what users say about it. Make it easy for users to give their reviews on their website experience by including a feedback or recommendations page somewhere visible on your site. Don’t take negative comments personally. Instead, use them as an opportunity to make modifications to your website that will drive more visitors.
Look at what your competitors are doing
Your competitors are also trying to create an engaging website. Take a look at their site’s structure and format and determine if it’s something you would want to implement in yours. Not necessarily will it work for you, but it will give you a benchmark or starting point to stay ahead of your competition.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to make a website more engaging for users, it’s time to put hands into action! Creating an engaging website that attracts visitors takes a lot of work. You must have excellent attention to detail and knowledge of the digital marketing trends other websites are implementing to ensure you create an appealing website.
At REALTOP, we help you with all your digital marketing needs. Contact us today and get a free marketing plan for your business!
Nik Tsoukales, founder of REALTOP, is an experienced digital marketer with a track record of growing businesses and sales teams. He has received multiple awards for leading fast-growing companies and specializes in organic SEO, Google PPC, and Social Media. With over 89k clients acquired online, Nik’s expertise spans various industries including finance, healthcare, and real estate.