A great-looking website will draw visitors in and encourage them to look around. While the content to be found there will always matter, the importance of a website's appearance should never be overlooked.
Fortunately, there are some easy, effective ways to make even ugly- or outdated-looking websites much more attractive. At least a few of the five appearance-enhancing tactics that follow should be applicable to just about any site that needs a makeover.
Many websites look to be overflowing with information, and that can put visitors off. Even websites that contain relatively little in the way of content will sometimes be so packed with menus, contact forms, and the like that they feel visually overwhelming.
Websites tend to be a lot easier and more enjoyable to use when they include lots of empty, open space. That allows each of the elements on a page to establish an independent, uncrowded presence that soothes the eye and invites visitors to engage with them.
The website of one prominent Singapore-based digital marketing agency, for instance, includes plenty of information but also a lot of open space. That contributes to a pleasing overall effect which heightens the site's attractiveness.
Jokes abound about websites weighed down by clunky, clichéd fonts like Comic Sans. Despite that, website designers sometimes put relatively little thought into choosing an especially appropriate, attractive way to present text.
Fortunately, switching to one or more new fonts should normally take little more than adjusting a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file. Few website adjustments can be made as easily while also having as much of an impact on appearance.
It used to be quite common for websites to include full-page graphical backgrounds, artistic menu headers, and plenty of other visual flourishes. That tends to look unpleasantly overwrought to today's visitors, though, and is normally best avoided.
In many cases, it will be possible to improve a website's appearance significantly by simply doing away with graphical elements that are weighing on its looks. Even when a page's layout has to be adjusted to accommodate the removal, the effort required will typically be fairly minimal.
Whether you realize it or not, your website's appearance speaks to visitors in a specific way. Many sites, though, seem like they would be more at home in the Tower of Babel than anywhere else.
Websites that feature fractured, incoherent design languages tend to be inherently unattractive. Even if individual elements were put together with great skill, visual clashes between them will make a website unappealing.
If your website seems to suffer from such problems, it can make sense to take a step back. Look at which of the design approaches embodied in it are most successful and try to realign everything else with them. That will give your site a more cohesive, welcoming look that visitors will always appreciate.
Website owners sometimes hope to make an impression by commissioning particularly colorful creations. In most cases, though, a site's looks will do a better job of resonating with visitors if it features only a handful of more carefully selected hues.
Paring back on your website's palette should normally be fairly straightforward. In many cases, it will require little more than swapping out most variations on a shade for a single substitute.
While not all five of the options above will always be applicable, at least a couple of them should be relevant to any given website. In many cases, a website's appearance can be improved significantly without much work.
