If you’re a solopreneur who manages your own website, this post is for you. You may have
- created your own branding
- designed your own logo
- wrote your own copy
- designed your own website
and that’s all fine and dandy. But one thing that many solopreneurs forget to do is design their website for their “ideal customer”, whether you have 1, 2 or even 6 “ideal customer” profiles.
If your ideal customer is corporate business, you should use simple, strong styled fonts, not decorative, frilly ones. If your ideal customers are over 50, they shouldn’t have to zoom their browser window to read the text on your website or try to figure out what the words are. If they can’t see or read the words, what do you think will happen? They will leave your website and go somewhere else.
Here is a simple list that you can use to check over your website:
The number of font types should be a maximum of 2
You can have different variations by using bold, italic, light and condensed versions of the same type. The font type should be crisp, clean and easy to read on desktops and mobile devices. Some good choices are
- Source Sans
- Montserrat
- Open Sans
- Merriweather
Your entire brand should only have 5-7 colours
There is nothing worse than going to a website that has many, many font colours all over the place. It’s too busy and confusing. When it comes to fonts, try to only have:
- one colour for main body text
- one colour for links
- one colour for call to action buttons
- one colour for your H1, H2 and H3 tags. You can make your H tags different by using bold or italic attributes, or a different tone or shade of your main colour.
- you can bring attention to important text by using bold or italic attributes
Add Whitespace
If you are writing a 1,000 word post, imagine how hard it would be to read if it was just a solid block of text. Add whitepace inside large blocks of text by adding double line breaks after each paragraph.
Use Quality Images
Adding relevant images can add interest to your webpage and make it visually appealing. Add “alt tags” and “title” tags to your images.
We live in an age of high speed internet, however, images should be optimized for the best quality at the smallest file size. Mobile devices, unless they are connected to wi-fi, have bandwidth restrictions.
Use Bullets
Bullets can make things easier to read when you are writing key points. Refer to the brand colour section. Picture the branding section written without any bullets.
Did Your Site Pass the Test?
With these 5 simple things in place, your website will be visually appealing to your ideal customer.
Comment below with your one takeaway from this post.
My site passed the test, whew!
I remember spending time with my website designer on the look, feel, color, font and a lot of other things that we tested before going live and right now, we are in the process of a spot of updating to reflect the growth of my business and now ideal customer.
Even if the website passes the test right now, it should be reviewed at regular intervals to check if it is aligned with the business that it is promoting.
PS. I hate websites that have multi-colored text – puts a strain on my eyes and my concentration on the content. 🙂
Glad to hear that! I’ve been so so many websites where they are “supposed” to be targeting 50+ people and the website looks like it’s for little kids or teenage gamers.
Interesting as we are also going thru some website changes. We have an additional consideration as our product is very colorful. WE do have 3 personas who are our ideal customer. That took time to arrive at. Recently used bullets in my blogs & I like the look.
Hi Roz, product being colourful is great. It’s all the other cosmetic stuff that can take away the focus of the product. For example, you’re jewelry is very classy. So you wouldn’t design a website with black and grungy graffiti style images which might target heavy metal grunge styled people.
and I’m so happy to hear you’ve identified 3 ideal customers. That’s fantastic!!!!
Without even knowing these things, we have adhered to the laws of good design and thankfully my friend who is a graphic designer with impeccable taste, incorporated all of the points into our design. Of course, an Art Director would know, even if they aren’t website savvy.
I must say that some websites are like a miss mash of colours and ads and are so busy, that it is challenging to read and even want to stay on the site. Less is always more when it comes to design. We have an embedded font, which has presented some challenges with italics, however, I have circumvented that with changing the code. Colour is so key for me as well, and I know that my colour combo (two main colours) works well for both women and men. It is pleasing to the eye and as a writer, I am not targeting a specific business sector, however, am interested in having people who enjoy reading and engaging visit and stay on my site. Enjoyed the post and as always, it is clear and concise and easy to read and follow.
Yes, the “less is more” assessment is a good way to look at it. You always want to get your message across in clear, yet visually appealing presentation. I have found some websites to be so cluttered using several different font sizes, styles, bold & italic all on the same page. This makes it very difficult for the visitor understand your message.
Great tips especially for colour and font choices based on targeted market. It’s important to see my own website from my customers’ pontiff view. Thank you for sharing!
Your target market and the industry you represent are key in all your design selections.
These are great tips. My one takeaway is your tip to to use quality images, although these are all excellent tips. I agree that adding relevant images can add interest to your webpage and make it visually appealing. I appreciate you sharing this!
Glad you found value in these tips. Images can make a great difference and be a real asset.
Great to know that I have all these 5 points in my website.
Good to see you’re covered, as these are 5 simple steps that are so often over looked.