There are ways to draw customers to your website. One way is to make it engaging to the point that people would want to share it to others. Knowing how to create an engaging website will tend to capture the attention of your visitors and customers. Your visitors would want to come, stay and get to know more of the high-quality content that you have to offer. Your guests would want to interact and maybe purchase the goods on your site.
As a new generation has risen, there are new dynamics at play. There is a need to elevate the user’s experience. One way of doing this is to engage them in a conversation in an interactive environment. There are still those that want a detached relationship online. Still, there is a growing trend of creating an atmosphere where opinions are shared, people contribute ideas, people helping each other and people just only getting to know each other better. It shows that the internet, as well as people that use it, are undergoing a stage of maturity. The technology is advancing with the maturity of the internet as a whole. It means that the technology can adjust and fill this need and encourage interactions.
Image Source
At the centre of all this is the need to meet the concerns of our customers and visitors. Here are ways you can do that to make your website more engaging:
1. Simplicity is the Key.
Start with a simple layout. From there, develop to a more complex design but maintaining that core of the design, many website builders have many templates that you can choose from and use to change your design and make it even more beautiful. Keeping your web design simple makes it clean and inviting. As you see other web designs from other engaging websites, you can easily plan out what changes you can make because you have made the site’s layout simple.
2. Make Unique Layouts
It is essential to keep it simple but not to the point that each page of your website looks monotonous. Consistency of design is good, especially for a brand that is keeping their identity in each webpage. But find ways to keep your layout looking diverse from each page to keep your site’s atmosphere fresh. Your website may have a great page design for your products and services but have a change of layout for your blogs and other information. This method helps readers, visitors, and consumers from mistakenly thinking that they are just visiting duplicate pages from your website.
3. Take Full Advantage of White Space
White space is essential for a clean and simple look. But people tend to think that you need to fill up every space. They are assuming that this is what it means to maximise space. When talking about design and how to communicate effectively, you must make use of the white space.
You would not want to rest your head on a messy room, nor would you want to lie down in a room that is full of clutter. The same goes for web page design. If you fill up each space with texts, links, images, and articles, it will look cluttered.
White space or empty space, when effectively used, can be used to draw people into what you are trying to say or communicate. White space also draws your audience’s eyes and attention to the centre and focus of your page.
4. Effectively Use Colors
Most people take a colour for granted. In design, colours play a significant role in communicating a theme, feeling, or mood. Colour can lead to responses triggered by our psychology. It influences how we think and sometimes, unconsciously, how we make decisions. The colours red, yellow, and orange are colours that affect our appetite and trigger our sense of hunger. That is why most fast-food establishments have these colours as part of their architectural design and their brand identity.
The proper and strategic use of colours can influence or at least keep your audience engaged. For example, some people will wonder why the colour scheme for the website is made up of three colours. But when they see your logo, and it has the same three colours, there is a connection that is being established between the consumer and website.
Careful thought was poured onto the establishment of one’s logo, and it would be wise to put the same care and attention in choosing the colour scheme and colour combination when creating the web design. The aim is to get the user to engage with your website and not get detached or annoyed.
5. Effectively Use Fonts
For a designer, choosing the right fonts to use is essential in the design aesthetics and functionality. If we are discussing just the elements and accents of the whole page or website, you may opt to choose fonts that have a flare. But if we are talking about effective communication and engagement with your visitors and consumers, easy-to-read fonts should be the norm to achieve that purpose.
There are a few reminders that you must be aware of when choosing the right font. It is recommended to use 16-point size as a minimum size to use when displaying the body of the text of a blog or article. It is especially critical when viewing the shape of your book on a mobile platform. Any lower in size for the font and the operating system will zoom in and engagement will be hard to achieve if the user is having a hard time reading your message. Be sure to check the appearance of your fonts in multiple platforms to make sure the text displays correctly in all devices that may view your website’s content.
Not all fonts are of the same size even if you set the size number precisely the same. A 12 point size Calibri font will not be the same size as a 12-point size Arial font.
6. Effectively Use Navigation
Another essential factor to take note of is the easy navigation through the pages and content by the user in your site. Make sure that your website has a proper and organised structure. Find a way that every page is easily accessed from the homepage. For example, it should be easy for your readers to find your contact page from your homepage, and for your contact pages to work, it needs to be well-designed as well. Typically, some sites use general subjects or topics at the homepage, which will lead to sub-categories once clicked. This pyramid-type of navigation also helps in your SEO ranking. A properly structured site is easily crawled and indexed by search engines and would typically lead to a higher ranking. It also means that your website will have more traffic going your way and more visitors. Easy navigation of your website also means better user experience and better engagement with them.
7. Design Your Website for Different Platforms
Mobile phones outnumber people in the world. With the number of mobile phone users, desktop users, and even smart TV users, it is essential that your website can adapt and display correctly in different types of platforms.
People spend much time on their mobile phones, And these mobile phone users would not engage with your website if it does not display correctly on their device. Visitors will most likely leave your website and find another site that is compatible with their equipment. So, an optimised page for different platforms will keep your intended audience from disengaging.
8. Contact Details Must be Easy to Find
Whatever the purpose your website may have, your contact details must be easy to find. You may choose to have a different page for your contact details along with other relevant information that you deem useful for your visitors and customers. Another way is to put your contact details at the bottom of your webpage so people can easily find it.
Whether you provide your contact details, a chat support link, or even an email support link, quickly finding these types of information reduces the chances of frustration for your customers in case they need help with your product or service. It is also essential that you provide correct and accurate contact detail information to maintain trust and credibility. And if you have more than one website, your contact details must remain the same for all instances of your contact details to establish that you are a credible contact.
9. Maximise social media plug-ins
Placement of social media plug-ins ensures that your visitors have an easy way to share your content or your website if ever they enjoyed their stay at your site. These plug-ins also are a way to promote awareness about your brand and would boost the social media presence of your website. It also leads to better engagement with people, increase in traffic to your site, and provides a better user experience for people. You may choose to put your social media plug-ins at the top or bottom of your homepage. These are popular places where these plug-ins are located.
10. Have a clear message or Call-to-Action
A clear call to action for your website encourages your visitors to engage with your content. And when your visitors are engaged with your content, there is a high possibility for sales conversion. Make your CTAs clear and straightforward. Readers want to be directed well and not be kept in the dark. Creative catchphrases are lovely, for creativity’s sake, but the purpose of conversion, not too much. Readers want clear CTAs like “Buy Now,” “Order Now,” or “Click Here” more than vague ones like “Still Curious?” or “Feeling Lucky?”
The measure of a CTA’s effectivity is the conversion that happens out of it. If the CTA is not working, don’t hesitate to change or tweak it right away. You can also do A/B testing for your CTAs or pages to see which design is hitting it well with your intended market.
Conclusion:
The purpose of your website is for you to get discovered by your intended market, so you can disclose your content, and drive conversions for your website. It is why you want your webpage to be engaging. It’s not just for design but also function. It’s for the substance your pages carry. It’s for the potential your website has to add value to the lives of people. When that is what’s forefront in your mind, it will be easier for you to get the pulse of your audience and deliver what they truly desire and demand.
