Making a Strong First Impression with Your Web Design
You could have the best content in the world, but that won’t do you much good if you’re website doesn’t first make an outstanding first impression. What you have to remember is that your visitors will only spend a few seconds looking over your website. If they don’t instantly like what they see, they’ll move on to your competition. This doesn’t give them enough time to do more than skim a few headings.
While it only takes a second or two for your website to make a first impression, making sure that the first impression is a positive one takes time, planning, and effort.
Several different variables come into play.
Loading Speed
The loading speed of your website is crucial for making a good first impression. The average consumer is growing steadily less patient with slow-loading web pages. While you can’t do anything to influence the speed of the internet connection they are using, you can make sure that your webpage will load as quickly as possible.
The best way to increase your website’s loading speed is using fast-loading plug-ins, moving large images lower on your page, and taking advantage of tools that assess the average loading speed of your page.
White Space is Your Friend
Did you know that white space actually encourages your customers to stick around and read the content you’ve worked so hard to develop?
The last thing your visitors want to do is shift through long paragraphs of dense content. Break up your content and create inviting white space by using headers and subheaders and creating short paragraphs that aren’t more than three or four sentences long. When it comes to blocks of text, less is more.
Contrasting Colors
Contrasting colors make your website inviting and easier to read, however, you don’t want to go too crazy either. Stick to a few basic colors and work out how to use those colors for bullet points, headers, and banners so they draw your visitor’s eyes to your website’s key points.
Sharp Images
Images and videos help your website make a great first impression, but only if those images and videos are high quality and work to enhances your content. The way your images are laid out is also crucial. When done correctly, they should draw the eye to a key piece of content.
These are just a few components that a webpage needs so that it can make a strong first impression.