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Best Fonts For Reading Online [Updated 2023]

Ever thought about what font you were looking at when you’re reading online? If not, the web design company (e.g., people like us) did their job. They choose a font that was easy to read.

Commonly called legibility, this characteristic is important to the success of your website, especially as visitors view your content on anything from a tiny smartphone to a giant monitor. You want to use a font that’s easy to read and unobtrusive.

By contrast, bad fonts are distracting and can chase visitors away from your website — and no one wants that. How can you ensure that your site uses a legible font? Let’s take a look at what makes a font work well online, as well as some great options to consider.

Choosing a legible, online font.

First off, what is font legibility?

Fonts are the digital files associated with a typeface. A typeface is a special way of rendering letters for use in print and digital media. Typeface designers have been around for centuries. Indeed, some common typefaces still in use today date back to the early days of printing.

Of course, they can’t all be winners, and some typefaces are notoriously hard to read. A good design means that the typeface is pleasing to look at, yet doesn’t call attention to itself. Typical characteristics of a legible typeface include open counters (the space on the inside of the letters), a large x-height (the distance between the baseline and the top of the letters’ bodies), and generous kerning (the space between the letters). That allows the reader to focus on the content, not the way it’s delivered. How the typeface is rendered as a font makes a difference as well. For example, even some of the best typefaces are not legible as 6-point fonts. Legibility, then, also derives from font size, style, and variation (such as italics or boldface).


Looking to develop your own brand? Thrive is a also a top notch web design agency


Legibility should not be confused with readability, which refers to how a designer uses the font on a webpage. For example, having ample white space in your website design is crucial to enhancing the text’s readability. Also, it’s important to have the fonts be of a sufficient size and colors to be easily read on a digital device. There’s a big difference between print media, in which the light is bouncing off the letters, and digital media, in which the light is coming from behind the letters. Good typography takes this difference into account.

Luckily, there are a number of tools available to help designers choose legible online fonts. For example, Quicktools font generator helps you quickly and easily find the perfect font with the right size and color to make sure your text stands out on the page. With this tool, you can easily test out different fonts and color combinations to find one that fits the feel of your project.

For more information about font trends check out this website typography guide and to manage all your fonts check out these font management software.

The designers at Thrive are experts at ensuring that your website is easy to read and keeps your user's attention right where it belongs: on you and your products and services. Here are some of our favorite and easy-to-read fonts to use in our designs.

The Most Legible Fonts

Arial

Arial is a popular sans-serif typeface that features natural strokes and open counters to give it a more organic look. Although it is ostensibly a print font, it looks good on web documents as well due to its open design.

Droid Sans

Droid Sans was designed with open counters, tall x-heights, and a sturdy structure to make it highly legible on mobile devices. Like its cousin Open Sans, Droid Sans was designed by Steve Matteson of Ascender Corporation.

Futura

Futura is a classic sans-serif that’s widely beloved for its innovative design and easy legibility. True to its name, it has a futuristic look, but it’s also great for web content.

Georgia

Georgia was actually designed for the Web, especially online documents that would be hard to read otherwise. Georgia remains legible even when reduced to a small font size.

Lato

Lato is a Google Font that’s designed for the web. This sans-serif has semi-rounded letters for a friendliness that also looks professional. Thanks to its distinctive yet unobtrusive letter shapes, it’s also highly legible.

Merriweather

This serif typeface was designed to look good on digital documents. It is semi-condensed for an elegant look, yet remains legible at small font sizes.

Minion

Minion Pro is a distinguished, classic-looking typeface, and indeed it’s an old-school design. Still, its elegance doesn’t detract from its high legibility and smooth rendering on digital devices.

Montserrat

Montserrat is a geometric sans-serif typeface that has an open, friendly yet even and professional look. It’s commonly used as an alternative to the popular font Gotham.

Open Sans

In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of these easy-to-read typefaces are sans serifs. Open Sans was designed by Steve Matteson of Ascender Corp to be an appealing sans serif to suit all designers’ preferences.

Playfair Display

Playfair Display is an attractive serif typeface commonly used for titles and headings. Its tall x-heights and subtle serifs make it easy to read on the web. This open-source font is a great choice for websites that want a distinguished look.

Pluto Sans

Pluto Sans is a geometric sans-serif designed by Hannes von Döhren in 2012. Its large x-height makes it excellent for rendering long texts, even on the web.

Tisa

Tisa, designed by Mitja Miklav, looks great no matter where it’s rendered. Its large x-height and ample kerning and counters make it ultra-legible, and it’s a versatile font that looks good in a range of contexts.

Trebuchet

This typeface is another one commissioned by the Microsoft Corporation. Designed by Vincent Connare, this sans-serif features tall x-heights and short cross-bars to aid legibility.

Verdana

This sans-serif typeface is widely loved for its open counters and distinctive letter shapes, which avoid confusion of “n” with “h,” for example. Created by designer Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, Verdana fonts read very well on websites and digital documents.


See Related: What Is A Lightbox?


Final Word

Your website is your first line of communication with many of your customers. In addition to great content, you need a typeface that’s highly legible and lets your company’s message shine through. The best web designers know which fonts to choose to match your brand and make your website appealing to visitors.

If you're worried about your website's readability, drop us a line. We can help you figure out how to make your site easier for your audience to read and take action.

Thrive Design is a customer-centric web design agency from SeattleContact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! You can find our reviews online at Clutch, UpCityLinkedIn, and Facebook.

Category: Web design Seattle

Building your first WordPress site is like learning a new language. You've got your domain and picked WordPress as your go-to CMS, but now you're swimming in a sea of themes and templates. How do you choose?

When you first dive into the world of WordPress websites, it's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the choices available. But how do you know what to choose? Do you need a theme or a template? What even is the difference between the two?

There are many things to consider between a custom WordPress theme vs premium theme. Let us help answer those questions for you.

What's a WordPress Theme?

In simple terms, a WordPress theme is the backbone of your website. It determines your website's look and operation - from color schemes and typography to page layouts and margins. It even sets where the headers, footers, and sidebars will sit. Themes shape your website's personality, making it unique.

Those who know a little about code will find that a CSS stylesheet drives WordPress themes. This stylesheet affects your entire website. With a skilled web designer or developer, you can apply the stylesheet to specific parts of your site, giving you greater control. Your choice of WordPress theme is essentially a complete design package for your website. It's a one-stop shop for all your design needs, ensuring that everything from colors to fonts and layouts is consistent and cohesive.


Related Reading: How Much Does a WordPress Website Cost?


What about a WordPress Template?

This is where it can get a bit tricky. In WordPress lingo, a template relates to specific pages on your site, not the whole design. So, while a theme covers your entire site, a template only works for certain pages.

Templates can help add custom parts to your site not covered by your theme. This could be blogs, landing pages, or other content unique to your site.

Your theme might come with templates included. For instance, you could have two different blog post templates, one full-width and one more narrow. This gives you extra ways to customize your site.

Some other elements of your site that you can customize through templates are:


Related Reading: What about hosting and maintenance once you have a website? 


WordPress plugins

Theme or Template: Which One to Use?

When you choose a theme, it often means committing to a predefined design. This can be great for beginners, but it can also be very limiting. Themes can restrict your design choices and make it challenging to expand or evolve your website's design as your business grows. For instance, if you want to add a new feature or functionality not supported by your theme, you could find yourself in a bind.

Choosing a theme is not a one-and-done process; it's a long-term commitment. You must be cautious about selecting a theme that will receive continued support and updates from its developers. Regular updates are crucial to ensure compatibility with WordPress's latest versions and maintain security standards. Without updates, your website might face compatibility issues or even become a target for hackers.

Statistics indicate that theme abandonment is a significant issue within the WordPress community. As per a survey by WordCamp in 2018, approximately 50% of the available themes in the WordPress repository hadn't been updated in over two years. This suggests that half of the themes could be abandoned, leaving users without support or updates.

A recent study by SOTW in 2022 found that only 60% of the top 1,000,000 sites using WordPress themes were operating on a fully updated theme. Many websites are vulnerable to security risks and compatibility issues due to outdated themes no longer supported by the original developer.

Therefore, before committing to a theme, it's essential to research its history. Check for regular updates, browse user reviews, and consider the reputation of the theme's developers. The success of your website could hinge on these factors. Making an informed choice can help ensure that your theme continues to support and enhance your website rather than becoming a roadblock to its progress.

To Wrap Up

In essence, the distinction between themes and templates boils down to scope. While themes provide an overarching design for your website, templates can customize individual pages. Each plays a crucial role in creating a dynamic and engaging WordPress website.

Yet, choosing a theme isn't without its challenges. Despite their convenience and simplicity, themes can potentially restrict your design flexibility and expansion potential. Furthermore, the risk of theme abandonment is real and can leave your website without critical updates and support. It's crucial to make an informed decision and choose a theme that suits your design vision and is backed by reliable, ongoing developer support.

Remember, if the right theme or template eludes you, expert designers and developers, such as our Thrive team, can help. Crafting a custom theme or design tailored to your business needs can make your website stand out. We'd love to learn more about your business and discuss how a well-designed and maintained website can play a pivotal role in your success story. Contact us to start the process.

Did you know that, as of 2020, mobile internet usage surpassed internet usage on a desktop? In fact, in 2020, over 55% of website traffic is mobile-based. Here's another fun fact about mobile-based internet usage: users who search for businesses via mobile search are highly motivated to make a purchase.

Sounds great, right? It is good news for small business owners like you unless your website is not optimized for mobile devices.

Search engines and the people who use mobile devices to search for local businesses both prefer mobile-optimized websites. In a recent survey, 91% of consumers said they've turned to a business's competitor if the business's website wasn't optimized for mobile devices. Additionally, a long-standing ranking factor for the Google algorithm is whether a website is mobile optimized.

That means, that if you haven't optimized your website for mobile traffic or invested in a responsive design strategy, you're missing a large audience of motivated potential customers.

What does "optimized for mobile" mean?

Basically, a website that is optimized for mobile delivers the same high-quality browsing experience to users as it would on a traditional desktop version. Optimizing your website for mobile devices boils down to focusing on simple, clear navigation and content that connects people to what they're looking for.

Now, when you start researching mobile-optimized websites, you will come across a variety of terms that all refer to websites that work the same on mobile as they do on a desktop (responsive design, adaptive design, mobile-first design, or mobile version design). These terms refer to different ways of building a great website for mobile, but the final result is the same: a site that mobile users love to visit.


Read more: What Does Responsive Web Design Mean?


How to know if your site is optimized for mobile devices

Now that you know what "optimized for mobile" means, let's take a look at some things you can check to make sure that your site has an amazing mobile experience for users.

Speed

Website loading speed is important for desktop and mobile versions of your website. Users want to quickly learn about your business and find important information like contact information, product information, and location information. (More about organization in a little bit.)

If your website doesn't load within 3 seconds, nearly half of all visitors will abandon ship to your competitors' sites. One easy way to quickly reduce loading time is to check the image sizes across your site. Resizing can shave off up to 80% of the total image size. For mobile devices, the size of 600-700px is perfect.

Display

There are some user-friendly rules that need to be taken into account when keeping mobile optimization in mind. The first consideration should be the size of your font and assets.

With the smaller screen size, your font should be large enough for people to easily read it without squinting or zooming in. As for your assets, any clickable links or buttons need to be spaced far enough apart that it's easy for users to avoid misclicking and ending up on an unintended page.


Read More: Is a Slow Website Hurting My Google Ranking?


Organization

The smaller screen size on mobile devices means that display space is at a premium. When laying out your mobile site, take into account the vertical orientation of the screen and remember that users don't want to scroll side to side when reading content.

Secondly, mobile screens are much less forgiving with distracting visual elements. Images and other large visual assets not only slow down loading speeds but also prevent mobile users from quickly finding the content they came for.

Navigation

As important as clear and coherent navigation is for a desktop user, it is even more important for your mobile customer. A mobile-friendly website can anticipate your customer's user journey and presents them with their next step in an easy-to-follow manner. If you are unfamiliar with your customer journeys, experiment with Scroll-to-Top widgets, but also seamless sticky headers whenever possible.

Final Word

With mobile devices ranging from handhelds to tablets, understanding how your site will display on a wide variety of formats is critical. Taking the time to do some testing on the level of mobile optimization on your current website will allow you to make a plan for how to create a compelling mobile experience for your customers going forward.

While solid web design is crucial to a positive user experience, the images and graphics you use in that design are just as important. People are visual creatures, especially when they're browsing the internet. Carefully chosen photos are essential to connecting with and making your customers feel comfortable on your website.

Why are Website Photos Important?

Aside from being a basic web design principle, there are more reasons you want to ensure you have relevant, high-quality images on your website. These design elements are crucial for a solid user experience. (Pro tip: Make sure they are properly sized for responsive design purposes.)

Images wordpress to drive traffic

People prefer images.

One of the pillars of storytelling is "show, not tell." While this traditionally has been used to encourage writers to use description better, it has a more literal meaning in web design. Your website should "show" through pictures whenever possible.

Words will always be important, especially for conveying any necessary information. But that doesn't mean that people want to be inundated with text when they visit your website. Visual information is not only nicer to look at, it's also easier to process.

How to drive traffic with images

Images can trigger emotions.

Creating an emotional response with your visual elements is a great way to connect with internet users and engage them in your content. Showing how your product solves a problem, creates a difference, or just makes life a little easier is more persuasive than just telling them about how life-changing your product or service can be.

can images drive traffic to your website

Images bring your product to life.

Which is more likely to connect with you: a pool builder telling you about their high-end service or pictures of their amazing builds? A company telling you that their candles are modern and fit in with any decor or pictures showing their candles in use? If you design custom phone cases, your word will not go far unless you can actually show how a specific case looks on a specific smartphone model. Having product photos prominently displayed on your website allows users to easily imagine your product in their space, making them that much more likely to buy.

Images bring products to life

Websites with good images rank higher on search engines.

When you optimize your images with search-friendly metadata and captions creates more content for search engines to index. This metadata and caption information essentially doubles the opportunity for users to find your website through both web searchers and image searches. It's important to ensure your alt tags and titles describe your image and relate to page content to take full advantage of this SEO boost.

Websites rank higher with images

Good images will set you apart on social media.

The best way to snag attention on a crowded social media platform: great photos. Photos and videos are the ultimate scroll-stopper. Studies show that social media posts with images have higher engagement rates than those with just text. Using the same high-quality photos on your website and in your social content is a great way to bring continuity to these two and increase your online presence.

How to Choose the Right Photos

There are some no-brainers when it comes to choosing photos or graphics to use on your website. You want them to be crisp and clear. You want them to be relevant. You want them to reinforce your brand's color palette. You want them to be sized so that they load quickly, especially for responsive design purposes.

Choosing images for your website

Show real people.

People like to see other people on your website. Bonus points if they are your actual staff or customers. Prominently showcasing real people interacting with your business and product makes your content more relatable to your customers. They want to feel like there's a human element to your website, not just a page of code trying to tell them what they want to hear in order to make a sale.

High resolution website image

Use meaningful images.

As important as images are, you need to pick images with a purpose, not just to fill white space or because we're telling you that you need them. The pictures you choose should either show relevant information, prove a point you talk about elsewhere, or convey a feeling that supports your message. When picking images, there are two important questions to ask yourself:

High resolution photos for website

Don't forget a background image.

Banner and background images are a great way to fill white space while creating a unique atmosphere on your website and giving your visitors an immediate idea of what your website is about. It's important to take extra care when using background images because they can make your website feel messy. So test those background images with a test audience before launching them.

Adding a personal touch to your website is easy when you customize your photos. Background images are a great way to express yourself and create a unique atmosphere for your visitors. With a little extra care, you can make sure your background images add to the overall design of your website without making it feel cluttered.

Final Word

Images can support your brand, engage your users, and effectively promote your content throughout your digital properties. Businesses that effectively use images on their website and marketing pieces have a leg up on businesses that struggle to find and use engaging images. Now's a great time to do an audit of the images on your site to see if they're supporting your brand or taking away from the overall user experience.

When choosing a platform to build your small business website, your choices these days come down to two choices: drag and drop platforms like Squarespace or a robust DIY service like WordPress. While it can be tempting to go with the choice that has a smaller learning curve, Squarespace and other services like it has more cons than pros when it comes to running your small business website.

WordPress vs. Squarespace

If you need a website to host your resume or portfolio, Squarespace is perfect. It's cheap, easy to set up, and requires no knowledge of programming. It also has limited functionality, storage space, sites take longer to load, and customization is next to impossible.

A website for a thriving business, or one that wants to be thriving, should be built with WordPress. Here's why.


Featured Reading: Why WordPress?


squarespace vs wordpress

You have a content-heavy website.

Squarespace's drag-and-drop functionality doesn't work well if you're looking to add in lots and lots of content. You'll end up with extra-long pages and your visitors will never make it to the bottom or you will struggle to organize the content in a user-friendly manner.

WordPress is like a blank canvas for your website. There are no pre-made buckets or boxes for you to try and fit your content in. The WordPress engine is also more than capable of running a large website with few hiccups.

wordpress vs squarespace

You want more for your money.

While Squarespace is one of the more affordable drag-and-drop options available with a handful of pricing plans, it's hard to beat the price of WordPress: free. It is hard to get a website live without additional services, such as web hosting, and those will cost some money. However, there are so many options for WordPress add-ons and a hosting service or a hosting plan that you can pick and choose to find one that fits your budget.

squarespace vs. wordpress

You run an eCommerce shop.

It may be tempting to dive into eCommerce with the built-in features readily available on Squarespace, but you'll quickly outgrow their capabilities, especially if you have many products. While you do have to install an eCommerce plugin, WordPress gives you a more robust suite of eCommerce tools that help you and your customers have a smooth and easy checkout experience.

wordpress vs squarespace 2022

You want more flexibility and options when it comes to website features.

Squarespace has a number of high-quality tools built into its system. It's pretty hard to beat the thousands of plugins and apps available in the WordPress community. Anything you can think of, someone has probably already created a third-party plugin for your website that could make your dream a reality.

That said, you do not want to add too many plugins to your WordPress website. Too many plugins will slow down your website's speed which can have a negative impact on your SEO efforts and turn off your visitors.

what's better wordpress or squarespace

You want a blog to help with SEO.

When you want to connect with your audience or keep a running portfolio of your work, a blog is a great option to have. It's also good for boosting your site's SEO. This is what WordPress was built for. Literally.

Every WordPress site includes commenting abilities, plus helpful plugins to achieve creative, content-heavy blogs. Squarespace has solid, built-in blogging tools, but it just can’t beat WordPress in this area.

Why not WordPress?

WordPress detractors will point out that WordPress sites account for an outsized portion of hacked websites. While WordPress security is of the weak points of the WordPress community, one reason for this statistic is simply the sheer number of WordPress websites on the internet.

You can also combat this weakness by choosing a solid hosting provider that includes comprehensive security solutions in your hosting plan.


Featured Reading: What You Need to Know About WordPress Security


Final Word

As a WordPress design firm, we may not be coming from an unbiased point of view, but that's only because we've been in this industry for decades and have been around the block with website foundations. At Thrive Design, we chose to specialize in WordPress because we think it's the best option around for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Your visitors come to your website got there because of a specific search for your product or service. They need what you're selling but when they get there, they also need the answers to some basic questions. So what do you put on your website? If they can't answer those questions on the first page of your website, they will be heading to your competitor's site before you know it.

5 Questions Your Visitors Want Answers To

Getting visitors to your website is the all-important first step. Once they are there, your goal is to keep them there and, maybe, direct them into a sales or information funnel. To keep them around, you need to give them the information they are looking for once they land on your homepage.

what visitors want to see on your website

Question 1: How can your product/service help me?

It can be easy to assume that because this visitor searched for and clicked on your website, they know what they're looking for and how it can help them. However, just because someone knows they are looking for a realtor or HVAC repair service doesn't mean they know how YOUR realty firm or HVAC company can help them.

Are you known for excellent customer service? Speed? Quality products? If you're in a non-essential business, maybe landscaping or pool installation, you need to make the case for why this person who may be thinking about relandscaping or adding in a pool should make that investment.

what to put on your website homepage

Question 2: How are you different from your competitors?

The next thing visitors are looking to know is how you are different from your competitors. Why should they choose to work with you? Why should they choose your product over the same, or similar, product made by your competitors?

Again, this could come down to the speed or quality of your service. The history of your company and your mission and values, the ingredients you use in your product, the story of how your company started can all set you apart from your competitors and will humanize your company in a way that will have visitors identifying with your story, which is a great way to build brand loyalty.


Featured Reading: Top 10 Things Every Website Needs


what to put on the homepage of your website

Question 3: Can I easily navigate your website?

Visitors want to be able to easily find the information they need. If your website lacks a clear navigational structure, your visitors will get frustrated and leave before buying your product or service.

Studies have shown that 50% of visitors will use your site's navigation menu to orient themselves once they get to your site from a referral site. If your site has an overly complicated navigation structure, you're not doing yourself any favors in getting people to stick around.

what to put on your website

Question 4: Can I trust you?

One of the biggest factors in the decision to make a purchase is whether the visitor trusts you or not. If there's even a doubt about the legitimacy of your business and your website, visitors will leave. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to demonstrate the trustworthiness of your business:


Featured Reading: How to Build Trust & Grow Your Business


tips on what to put in your website

Question 5: Tell me about your product.

This last one isn't so much a question as an expectation. Visitors want details about your product in an easy-to-digest manner. That means bullet points, not text blocks. Images and video demonstrations. Short paragraphs of no more than 3-4 sentences.

As web users, we're used to scanning pages to get the information we want. We save our dedicated attention spans for e-books and news articles. When we're looking at products and services, we want access to all the relevant information, and we want easy and fast.

Final Word

A well-designed homepage with an easy-to-understand navigational structure, intuitive sales funnels, and clear, compelling content is what your business needs to knock out your competition. If you think your homepage is falling short, give us a call. We'd love to help you out.

So how much does it really cost to build a WordPress website?

This is the most asked question we get from potential clients. For a pretty straightforward answer, you can check out our pricing page for what it could cost for Thrive Design to build your new business website.

That does not explain, however, what goes into the cost of building a WordPress website. We'll break down common WordPress website cost factors so you can get a better sense of where that price is coming from.

What goes into the cost of a WordPress website
What goes into the cost of a WordPress website.

How much does it cost to build a WordPress website?

Most people know that WordPress websites are free. It's one of the biggest marketing points for WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

This leads many people to ask if WordPress is free, where is the cost coming from?

The cost of a WordPress website can be broken down into four categories:

Web Hosting

Website Hosting

A website host is responsible for storing your website files and ensuring that your site is safe, secure, and the content is ready to be delivered whenever a client comes knocking on your digital front door. They are also responsible for keeping your website online and responsive.

In other words, no matter when or where your visitors are coming from they will be able to access your site.

If done right, the hosting plan could be the biggest part of your website's cost breakdown. You want to go with a hosting service that's reliable and can handle security breaches and downtime in a manner that will get you back up and running securely as soon as possible. They should have adequate server space and a way to ensure that another site's problems don't infect all of the websites using that server and that host.

This means that the hosts with a cut-rate hosting cost are not going to, forgive me, cut it.

If your website is built in WordPress we recommend hosting with Kinsta. It's truly the best company we've worked with.

cost to build a wordpress website

Domain Name

A domain name is the website address that your customers type in to get to your website. It usually starts with a www. and can end with anything from a .com to a .net, a .co to a .org. You can even use a geographic-specific URL to show your customers where your company is located.

(For example, businesses based in the United States can have a URL that ends in .us and those in the United Kingdom can have one that ends in .uk.)

You will need to register your unique domain name before building your website. As a business owner, this is a critical step to ensure that you get a domain name that works for your business. This will need to be renewed every year. The average cost for domain name renewal is only $15 or $20/year to keep your business's website at the same web address.

Design of WordPress website

Design

When WordPress advertises itself as free but what's not free is the website design. If you have coding skills, you can design your own WordPress site. Otherwise, you can hire someone to design one for you or you can purchase a pre-made theme from their massive database.

While a pre-made theme is a less expensive way to go, theme cost can run upwards of $200 for a premium theme. Free WordPress themes are great for beginners, but they often don't have the necessary feature or content capability for business owners.

Luckily for you, WordPress has a massive theme library populated by theme developers all over the world. You can usually find a theme that fits your business's needs and the functionality you are looking for. It's easy to modify the theme later with a plugin or two, so the key is to find a theme that fits the overall feel you want your website to have.

These themes will come with loads of elements that you can use throughout your site. However, don't be tempted to use each feature that comes with each theme. It's easier to add elements to your website than take them away so start small.

Check out the Theme Library, check out the reviews of the themes, and don't be afraid to demo the option you are interested in on your site.

WordPress plugins and development

Plugins and Extensions (Apps)

A WordPress plugin is a small bit of code you can add to your theme to add in functionality or extra features that are not already included. For example, if your theme doesn't support blog posts, you can find a blog plugin to ensure you can have all the feature content you're looking for.

You can find many free plugins out there that can deliver these additional features. If you're looking for a premium plugin, developers charge anywhere from $50 to $200 in price. These charges can be one-time or recurring. Premium plugins are great if you are looking for premium features, such as an eCommerce plugin or one for contact forms, or a more robust service, such as a search engine optimization plugin.

One plugin that you should definitely invest in is one that adds a security feature. WordPress is the #1 content management system target for hackers so you need to be prepared. Developers have put out many great security plugins that you can find on WordPress.org.

With the security plugin, you also need to have a plan in place to backup your site regularly. If your hosting service doesn't offer an option for free, daily backups, you will need to add a backup plugin on your site. There are many quality backup plugins available for free so it's definitely worth investigating.

When to call a web designer

When should I call a professional?

So if there are pre-made themes and tens of thousands of plugins available, you may be asking why you would pay someone to build your WordPress website, especially when freelancer rates and the design costs can be very high.

There are six reasons you should trust a professional with ensuring the design and functionality of your site to a design professional.

#1: No need to learn new skills. No matter how drag-and-drop easy WordPress makes developing websites, there are still specific skills you will need to develop in order to ensure a high-quality finished product. This is especially true if your site needs any sort of advanced functionality.

#2: You're guaranteed a modern, professional website you are proud of. Web designers and developers are experts at creating designs that accurately represent your company. They have the knowledge and expertise to create designs and motifs that you may not be able to come up with on your own.

#3: Two words: responsive design. Responsive design is key for guaranteeing your visitors have a good browsing experience on all devices: desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. While there are mobile-responsive themes available, if you start adding in plugins and extra features, it's easy to lose sight of how the whole site will look across devices.

#4: They can help manage your site once it's launched. We know we love managing clients' sites once they're launched because we are invested in making sure that our work always looks the best it can.

#5: They know what your visitors don't know. I know that's a confusing way to put it. Think of it this way, you know absolutely everything about your business and have had that level of knowledge for years. Your visitors do not have that knowledge. When you are building your own site, you may overlook something that your visitors need to know because it seems so obvious to you. Working with a neutral third party can help ensure that your site has all the information your visitors need to know.

#6: They know what you don't know. Looping back to #1 on this list, web designers have a wealth of experience building websites that you don't have. This knowledge allows them to recommend ideas and help you avoid making mistakes you might not even know to look out for.

Final Word

Once you add together hosting costs, design costs, plugin costs, and the cost for your domain, it may be a good idea to throw in getting some quotes for a professional design. The extra upfront cost could save you time and stress in the long run.

Whether you are launching a new product, a new brand, or just taking your brick-and-mortar store online, an online store is a critical part of your digital success. eCommerce website design can incorporate many different features, take place on many different platforms, and may involve switching web hosts. All of this can make it difficult to budget for creating your very own eCommerce store.

So how much does an eCommerce website cost?

5 Elements that Impact Cost of eCommerce Website

5 Elements that Impact Cost of eCommerce Website

(Before we dive in, all of the prices shown here are just estimates based on the current market. Your needs, project scope, and specific project details will determine your final cost.)

eCommerce Platform

What platform you choose.

eCommerce website platforms and content management systems range from the simplest plug-and-play Shopify eCommerce store to the incredibly customizable Magneto and Magneto Enterprise. (These latter two are not user-friendly for business owners who lack technical expertise and will need a third party to get set up.)

What eCommerce platform you choose has a big impact on your initial setup costs. Each platform comes with different licensing fees and costs. If you decide to get help setting up your store, at a minimum, you are likely to spend $5,000 on store setup, training, and configurations.


Featured Reading: 14 essential eCommerce website design features


Design Choices

What design choices you make.

Your eCommerce web design choices will also impact your upfront cost. Themes can cost anywhere from $0 to $250 and then you can expect to spend another $1,000 to $2,000 making minor changes and customizations. (Think customizations bigger than logo changes within the theme but smaller than a full custom design.) There may also be a monthly cost for the use of the eCommerce software. Generally, your theme will not have a monthly cost.

If you are looking for custom features or a full custom design with more functionality, costs can escalate quickly. Whether you need more advanced features or a custom theme, you can expect costs to start around $10,000 and go all the way up to $100,000 depending on the specifics, requirements, and depth of the development process.

eCommerce Custom Programming

If you need custom programming or functionality.

Additional features can be added through modules or extensions that you can add to your eCommerce store, just as you would your WordPress website. Using out-of-the-box products such as these can keep your costs down if you need additional or advanced features that your base theme doesn't accommodate.

As with your site design, adding in custom programming or custom development will get very expensive very fast because you'll want to go with a well-established eCommerce agency to develop custom code for your site. If you throw in custom code from your brother's friend who dabbles in web design, you're more likely to end up with something that breaks with your first expansion which will lead to higher costs later on.

What web host you choose

What web host you choose.

We've said it before and it holds true here, too. The cheap option for your web host is never the right option no matter what product you are selling.

Sure. There are companies out there with web hosting plans with a monthly cost of $20/month or less but you will end up paying more than that with hidden costs and the poor website performance that usually accompanies these plans.

You will probably end up paying around $250/month as an ongoing cost for hosting before you will grow out of a typical SaaS solution. A custom eCommerce business solution will require more in-depth hosting that could start around $300/month. You will want to make sure that whatever host you choose can provide true credit card and payment option security to ensure you keep your customers' trust.


Featured Reading: How to Move Your Website to a New Host


How many pages you need

How many pages you need.

Typically, eCommerce sites will have a larger page volume than regular, lead-generating websites. That's because these sites have a much larger volume of content than regular websites.

Your product offerings will most likely determine the number of pages that your eCommerce website will need. Product images, product descriptions, product categories, payment pages, and any other content pages (important for search engine optimization) you need will all be taken into consideration when determining a site layout and number of pages.

It's important to remember that paying a higher upfront cost for more pages to ensure that your highlighting your products in a way that will make them sell will pay off in the long run. This is a one-time cost for pages that will bring in revenue for the life of your business.

Final Word

eCommerce website design is not a one-size-fits-all topic. Your company, your team, your product will all determine the kinds of cost estimates you get for building your site. If you need help with your eCommerce project, give us a call. The core feature your business needs is the ability to see your product online. At Thrive Design, we can help your team realize that dream, improve your conversion rate, and see your transactions grow.

The time has come to hire a web designer, or web design firm, and you have no idea where to start. Sure, regular interview questions can help you when it comes to whether a candidate will be a good fit, but you need to dig deeper into their web design knowledge.

Your website is the online face of your company so you want to make sure you hire someone that has a strong understanding of not only design fundamentals, but also basic web development concepts. You want to hire someone whose design aesthetic is similar to that of your company, or someone who is at least familiar designing with that aesthetic.

This guide will give you the ten questions you need to ask when you are looking to hire a web designer, or web design firm, for your next big project.

Top 10 web design questions for 2021 and beyond.

The questions we’ve compiled here go beyond the standard “why do you love web design” and “what were your responsibilities in your last job.” Those are great but they don’t really tell you anything about the individual or company beyond what you probably read on their website or resume.

In this list, we’re diving into the more meaty questions you should ask. These are the ones that you can use to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. They will help you really learn more about their experience, knowledge, and design philosophy; things that will help you really narrow down who you want to work more with.

Now, without further ado, here are the 10 questions you should be prepared to answer in web design interviews this year.

What project are you most proud of?

This allows your candidates their time to shine. You can tell a lot about a designer from their favorite projects or case studies. But be aware of projects that are outdated. If they are more proud of a website they designed in 2012, they should have a REALLY good reason why.

Giving them the opportunity to talk about a project in an open-ended fashion gives you the chance to see where their priorities lie.

Is their favorite project one that gave them creative free-reign? Is it one where they worked really well with a client? Is it one where they didn’t have to work with anyone else?

How a designer talks about work tells you as much about them as their work itself.

Tell us about your experience with HTML and CSS.

Good web designers have a deep knowledge of web design principles. Great web designers also have some knowledge, maybe even some experience, with web development principles.

Many web design jobs require designers to do both design and some development. When you’re interviewing for these jobs, it’s also good to ask more specific questions about things like H1 tags and the differences between HTML elements and tags to really dig into a designer’s knowledge.

It’s easy for candidates to fake a deeper level of knowledge or experience on their resumes or websites but, when the rubber meets the road, they need to demonstrate that they really are comfortable with these languages.


See related: What is Web Design vs Development?


A client emails you to tell you they hate your design. What do you do next?

This question will show you how a design candidate deals with two, fundamental aspects of working with clients like yourself: how they deal with feedback and their communication techniques. You should be looking for both of these elements in their answer.

A terrible answer would be one that refuses to broker any compromise with the client because the designer is the expert and they know best.

A great answer would demonstrate that they are not personally attached to their designs and they don’t take negative feedback personally. But it should also show that they can communicate WHY they made the design decisions they did.

Whoever you hire needs to be able to communicate the benefits of the design elements they include but also are open to finding alternative solutions that can fill the need but still make the client, you, happy.

What is the most exciting trend or the next big thing in web design?

Trust us. You do not need to have a specific trend or the next big thing in mind when you ask this question. This question isn’t about looking for the right answer. This question is about getting at how up-to-date the candidate is about design trends and innovations.

It’s important to find someone who has a strong opinion on this topic and can easily talk more in-depth about it. You’re looking for someone who has an informed opinion and doesn’t give a generic, non-answer answer.

This isn’t a question where an “Oh man. There are so many exciting developments I can’t choose just one. It’s a great time to be in the industry” answer will cut it. A better answer is "It's important to use wire-frames before development starts, and good use of lightboxes will really make a design stand out." A quick Google search on your end beforehand can show you whether their knowledge is up-to-date or not.

What would you do differently on our website?

Now don’t expect to get free, actionable knowledge with this question, especially if you are interviewing a firm you would like to hire. But any designer you are interviewing should at least have a passing knowledge of your site and where improvements could be made.

You also want to be sure you are hiring someone that is comfortable giving criticism. A web designer that’s not going to tell you what they think is wrong with your ideas or website isn’t going to be much help to you if you’re hiring them for their expertise.

Walk me through some of your recent projects.

A designer’s portfolio should showcase a wide variety of skills and they should be able to speak thoughtfully about each of their websites. Great designers should also be able to talk about the results of each of their projects.

How much did the client’s conversion rate go up after they redesigned their page? What was the impact of the new landing page they built for another client?

Look for well-rounded designers that are focused on results. Bonus if they are able to talk to the collaboration process they went through with each client on each project.

What are your pet peeves in web design?

Another industry knowledge question. Recognizing bad design is just as important as creating good design. It also will help you figure out if your design aesthetic fits in with theirs. While there are a number of elements that everyone recognizes as bad design (we’re looking at you flashing images and low-contrast backgrounds), there are some elements that are debatable, depending on your aesthetic.

For example, it’s ok to not like maximalist design but it’s important that they are able to back up their opinion with something more than “it looks cluttered.”

Maybe they’ve had clients who have had an increase in their retention and sales numbers after debuting a sleeker, more refined website. Maybe they’ve read studies that showed that website visitors prefer a more minimalist design.

Whatever it is, look for designers that can back up their pet peeves with results-oriented opinions.

Tell us about your experience with UX.

As the fields of web development, web design, user-interface design, and user-experience design get more and more intermingled, you need to find a designer comfortable discussing the common principles of the field even if they don’t have hands-on experience with them.

If you have a UX designer on staff or on contract, listen for how the designer talks about collaborating with UX designers. If you don’t have a UX designer in your back pocket, talk to the designer or design firm about their familiarity with the principles and how they incorporate them in their design.

What elements would you use in an optimized site?

Optimizing sites for SEO and responsiveness purposes is a key part of a web designer’s job. Make sure the designers you are interviewing are familiar with these processes and know-how to best design websites for optimization purposes.


Related reading: SEO Seattle


Where do you go for inspiration?

Answers to this question could go in two directions: atypical areas that they get design inspiration or specific web design blogs and industry experts they turn to for specific web design inspiration.

Where designers get their inspiration can say a lot about a designer and their process. Do they like to unplug and go on hikes to clear their mind and find inspiration in nature? Do they have favorite painters or designers they go back to time and again when they’re not feeling the creative juices? Who are their web design idols?

This can tell you more about their design aesthetic. Are they more artistic and talk more about artists and design or are they more web-oriented and talk about their influences in the web design world? Or are they a delightful mix of both?

Final word.

Hiring the right web designer can make or break your website project. You want to make sure you find a designer who shares your design aesthetic or, if they don’t, are prepared to work closely with you to ensure you are happy with the outcome.

An interview gives you a great opportunity to find someone who is not only a great fit but who has the experience and expertise that will help you achieve everything you want online.

Thrive Design is a customer-centric web design agency from SeattleContact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! Find us on Clutch, UpCityLinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.

Category: Web design seattle

Question: How do you know the content you publish online is getting indexed? That it is showing up in Google?

That’s where a sitemap helps. A sitemap is a map of your website. It shows search engines where all the information about your website is available. And it is the sitemap that shows search engines that you have something new published on the website that is worth indexing.

Why do you need a sitemap (plugin)?

best wordpress sitemap plugins 2020

Before WordPress, sitemaps were mostly manual. One would have to update them after publishing every new post. But now sitemaps are mostly automated. You get a new link in the sitemap as soon as the information is available on your website. Now that you have the sitemap available, submit to Google search console Bing webmaster, and similar search engines. All this is made possible through the sitemap plugins. WordPress offers a few dozen sitemap plugins to help you index your websites faster. But for a newbie, it gets difficult to choose the right one. So, we made a list of the best six sitemap plugins that you can use in 2021.

In essence, a sitemap is essential for every website regardless of the content publishing platform it uses.

Best sitemap plugins for WordPress.

Here are the best sitemap plugins for WordPress available that you can use to index your websites faster.

WordPress SEO by Yoast

The first plugin on our list is WordPress SEO by Yoast. Yoast is the best on-page SEO plugin, and it also offers the sitemap functionality. You just have to enable the sitemap functionality in the plugin, and then generate its sitemap. Moreover, it will update that sitemap whenever you publish anything new. Another advantage of Yoast is that you won't have to use another plugin, saving you time and space. To activate the plugin, go to your dashboard > Yoast Plugin > SEO > XML Sitemap. Now enable the sitemap functionality. Check the enable field and set the sitemap to meet your needs.

yoast

Once you have enabled the sitemap, refresh your website. To check if the sitemap is available on your website, enter your site URL in the browser followed by '/sitemap.xml'

Example: siteurl.com/sitemap.xml

Yoast lets you create sitemaps for the pages, posts, images, and videos. You can also exclude any one of them from the sitemap with the options available on the Yoast menu.

Yoast also supports multisite systems. So, if you have a multisite setup, you can only install the Yoast plugin, and it will be installed for all multisite websites.

All-in-One SEO Pack

Next, we have the All-in-One SEO Pack. It is another great SEO plugin that can help optimize the on-page of the website. It also offers the option of generating an XML sitemap. It has over 2 million active installations and is considered one of the best SEO plugins in the WordPress plugin directory.

It is also used for website optimization.

all in one seo pack

To activate the sitemap in All in One SEO Pack, you will first have to activate the SEO plugin. Once the SEO plugin is enabled, click on plugin > features manager > Sitemap > Activate Sitemap.

screenshot of the xml sitemaps from all in one seo pack

When you activate the sitemap option, it will automatically create a sitemap and enable it. You can test the sitemap with the '/sitemap.xml' URL in the browser.

Source: All in One SEO plugin

Google XML Sitemaps

The Google XML Sitemap option is for those who do not want an on-page SEO plugin but still want a sitemap. The Google XML Sitemap plugin has over 2 million active users. The advantage of this plugin is that it doesn't take much space, and the options are pretty self-explanatory. Even for a newbie who doesn't know how to handle technical queries, the Google XML sitemap is a no-brainer.

Google XML Sitemaps Plugin

To enable the Google XML Sitemap plugin, go to your Site Settings, click on XML Sitemaps > enable it.

It lets you generate sitemaps for Pages, Posts, Categories, etc. You can also change the priority for posts and pages so that they get indexed faster. It can generate both HTML and XML sitemaps for your website. Once the sitemap is enabled, check it by adding '/sitemap.xml' at the end of your site URL in the browser.

basic options when config plugin

WordPress XML Sitemaps & Google News

The Better WordPress Sitemap plugin is another great plugin to index websites faster. It lets users index media, posts, and pages. Users will not be limited to only 50,000 XML links in the sitemaps - which this plugin had imposed previously. They can generate as many sitemaps as they want and of as many links as they want.

It is entirely automatic. You don't have to manually index each link as it can be indexed automatically whenever a new post is published. The best part about the Better WordPress plugin is that you can use it to index posts, pages, and even ping Google News and other search engines through your sitemaps.

It has over 40,000 active installs and is considered one of the simplest XML sitemap plugins in the market.

Rank Math Sitemap Plugin

Rank Math is considered as the 'swiss army knife' of the SEO industry. It is just like Yoast and All in One SEO plugins and offers all the functionalities of an on-page SEO plugin. But you can also use it to create sitemaps for your website. Rank Math has over 200,000 active installations. This means it is a well-sought plugin in the SEO community.

rank math seo sitemap plugin

A few reasons to use Rank Math SEO plugin over others in the list is because of the wide variety of features it offers. You can generate an XML Sitemap, or you can also add rich snippet functionality to your posts, pages, images, videos, and or other elements. It also lets you show all these elements in the sitemap separately.

Moreover, you can also generate different sitemaps for Product, Pages, Posts, Categories, Tags, Forum, and more. It is one of the best plugins to use for WordPress based websites and blogs.

WP Sitemap Plugin

WP Sitemap Plugin lets you build an XML sitemap for your WordPress website with the click of a button. It is a great plugin for anyone who is just looking to generate sitemaps for their websites and nothing else. This plugin gets the job done. You can generate sitemaps of media, posts, and pages. It also offers video, products, categories, forums, and much more in the paid section of the plugin. It has over 200,000 active installs and is growing.

WP Sitemap Plugin

With the WP Sitemap plugin, there are no limits. You can generate as many sitemaps as you want. You can also see the crawl and sitemap statistics right through the plugin options. It won’t create XML sitemaps. It can only generate HTML sitemaps for your website.

Sitemap & sitemap plugin FAQs

Can these plugins generate dynamic sitemaps?

Yes, all these plugins offer dynamic sitemaps that automatically add new URLs after they are published on your blog. You don’t have to monitor them actively.

How many sitemaps should I have?

You need only one sitemap for your website. The sitemap should include pages, posts, and other media. All of the above plugins let you do that.

What should be included in a sitemap?

A sitemap should include all the information available on your website. This includes posts, pages, categories, media, forums, products, and anything else that you want search engines to index.

Do you need an XML sitemap or HTML sitemap?

Both works. Most use XML sitemaps specifically for search engines and HTML sitemaps for visitors. But Google doesn’t have any strict policies that only XML sitemaps should be submitted.

Final Word

Sitemaps are an essential part of any website because it let's search engines find your content. If they can’t find your site content, it won’t rank higher in search engines. All of the WordPress sitemap plugins we mentioned above are perfect for anyone who would like to generate sitemaps for their posts, pages, media, and other forms of online content.

These WordPress sitemap plugins let you index websites faster in search engines and get more organic traffic by ranking the indexed pages for relevant keywords.

Thrive Design is a customer-centric web design and development agency from SeattleContact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! Find us on Clutch, UpCityLinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.

If you’re interested in trying out user experience (UX) design without committing to a full-blown degree, then these five free courses might be the ticket.

These online courses will help lay the foundation for an exciting career in professional UX web design covering concepts like navigation and feedback loops.

What is UX Design?

FREE UX Design course

UX design is essential to any company's product (or website), whether they are trying to sell something or not. When a designer thinks about an idea in terms of UX it considers everything from the beginning through branding and usability testing so that you have a better experience with their work!

While many people use “UX design” interchangeably with “UI design” or “usability,” it’s actually much bigger than both of those concepts.

UX design is an umbrella term that considers UI design and usability but thinks about a product’s development from start to finish including branding, design, usability, and function. A product or website that you think is great went through a UX design process that thought about the entire process of acquiring, owning, and troubleshooting before it was ever produced.

There isn't a good answer to what makes good UX design. However, your website has 15-30 seconds to show you are professional. Having a solid UX is a requirement.

It's hard to imagine a world without good UX design. We need it for our products and every day interactions with people we know or don't even notice, but there is no single step-by-step process that can guarantee you'll have an enjoyable user experience throughout your product’s life span!

Luckily, you CAN determine what makes a great UX design course and there are many scattered across the internet.

In no particular order, here are our top 5 free courses that you can take this year and get your UX design on.

Top 5 Free UX Classes

1. Skillshare’s Online UI/UX Classes

Skillshare is an online learning community where working professionals can create courses teaching the things they do best and have a dedicated section for UI/UX design.

There are general introductory UX courses on topics like mobile design, prototyping, or web development but also incredibly specific ones such as resume designing with Adobe XD or how to use Illustrator CC.

And like the other courses in this list, all of these classes are free!

See Related: How To Choose The Right Web Developer

2. LinkedIn Learning’s “Become a User Experience Designer”

One of LinkedIn’s newer offerings to those looking to branch out in their career is a paid training arm that offers a variety of classes to help you advance or change careers. Happily, your first month is free or this class would not have made this list.

This course clocks in at just under 12 hours of curriculum-guided content, unlike Skillshare where you are putting together your own learning path. What we really like about this course is that it begins with an optional, hour-long overview of the UX field and what careers are available, which is perfect if you’re a beginner.

3. Udacity’s Product Design Course

Udacity is a website that offers a combination of paid and free courses designed to teach the skills that technology companies recruit for, and that includes UX design.

Granted, UX design is combined in a module with UI design in this course, but it is a great two-month-long course that will help you get that great idea out of your head and into this world. In addition to UX/UI concepts, you will learn about actionable metrics that you should be measuring as well as Google’s insanely popular Design Sprint process.

4. California Institute of the Arts UI/UX Design Specialization

If you haven’t discovered Coursera yet, welcome to your newest addiction. Coursera compiles free, online courses offered by universities around the country and puts them all in once place, just for you.

CalArts has offered up not just a course in UX design, but a series of four courses that leads you to a specialization certificate in UI/UX Design and a project you can add to your portfolio. Imagine that on your resume. Additionally, when you enroll in this specialization, you are eligible for an extended free trial of a full product suite of UX tools from Optimal Workshop.

See Related: What Does Responsive Web Design Mean?

5. Georgia Tech’s Introduction to User Experience Design

Another Coursera offering, this 8-hour, 5-week course from Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing is the perfect beginner course for someone who wants to dip their toe into UX design.

Coursera user and course grad MC says it better than we could: “This is an insightful introductory course to User Experience Design. While it is just an introduction, the lessons and the examples provided were comprehensive, leaving you with a thirst for more.”

Our Favorite UX Course

User experience design is too important to leave to chance. Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. When you want to get started learning UX design, but want to come away with tools and skills you can immediately put to use, this "UX Made Easy" mini-course is the perfect solution.

For $27 (which is just about as low as free) this course shows you how to make UX design an integral part of your planning and design process. You will learn a solid UX framework to see the world, and your projects, through an entirely new lens. This course is broken into two modules with 11 videos and 13 downloadable files for you to practice everything you've learned. If you're not sure about making the investment, you can preview the first three videos for free to see if this course is for you.

Final word.

You may be looking for a career change or just want to learn more about the field of UX design and how it can help you in designing your own mousetrap. These courses are an excellent starting point on this journey that will not only catch mice, but also provide valuable knowledge.

Are you in the market for a new website? Contact Thrive

Let Thrive help you create a website with proper UX to bring a better web interface for your customers. We have decades of design experience and know-how in the field, which enables our designers and developers to create websites that are optimized for easy navigation by users at all levels.

See Related: What Is A Wireframe In Web Design?

Thrive Design is a customer-centric Seattle web design company. Contact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! Find us on Clutch, UpCityLinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.

Category: Web design Seattle

You rely on your website to generate business in some form or fashion. Depending on the type of website you have, that may be through generating new leads, raising your profile and perceived authority, or processing sales. If your website isn't accomplishing any of this, it's time to take a look at your business strategy and incorporate steps to optimize your site's conversion rates.

When you're looking to convert more of your visitors into customers, starting with your web design can give you some easy wins. If customers are turned off by your website design, that can have a significant impact on conversion. By focusing on website design, businesses can see lots of benefits from conversion, especially in the amount of business they get from visitors landing on their website.

How to ask for online reviews

What is 'conversion rate optimization' and why does it matter?

First off, let's take a second to define some key terms.

"Conversions" are when visitors take a desired action on your website, such as filling out a contact form, downloading a lead-generation PDF, or buying a product.

"Conversion rate" is a mathematical formula that can tell you the percentage of users that are taking a specific, desired action on your website. To calculate your website's conversion rate, divide the number of users that take the action you want to measure by the number of total website visitors.

"Conversion rate optimization" refers to the systematic practice of increasing the number of website visitors who take a specific, desired action on your website.

The more users that take an action on your website (that you want them to take), the more leads you'll find and the more business you will get. Converting visitors into customers is usually the number one reason our clients are looking for a new website. Focusing on improving your conversion rate is a great way to improve it without having to invest in a complete website redesign.

9 ways to use web design to improve your conversion rate optimization.

You don't have to be a conversion expert in order to improve your website's conversion rate, especially if you are only looking to move the needle a little bit. (We would definitely recommend talking to us, however, if your conversion rate is significantly lower than you want or need it to be.)

You can find success with a conversion rate optimization process that just focuses on small tweaks you can make to elements of your web design.

What is padding

1. Use negative space wisely.

Negative space is the white space on your website. Increasing the padding around elements and increasing the margins of your page will give each element its own breathing space and allows visitors to take each element in before moving on to the next. Websites without a lot of negative space risk overwhelming their visitors which will cause them to click away faster.

2. Use specific calls to action.

Visitors to your website don't know what you want them to do once they get there. Writing specific, clear, and concise calls-to-action (CTA) will let those visitors know exactly what they need to do to become customers. These CTAs should line up with the actions you want your users to take.

For example, if you want your customers to download a PDF, adding an action button that says "Download now!" is a great way to show people what action to take. Same thing if you want them to make a purchase. Adding an "Add to Cart" or "Click here to purchase" button will significantly increase the number of users who take that action.

Website speed

3. Make sure your website is fast.

Speed is key when you want users to stick around. Not only does website loading speed impact your search rankings according to Google's algorithm, but it also impacts users' first impression of your site and whether they stick around or not.

According to recent studies, the average load time for a website is 3.21 seconds on a laptop or desktop. When the page load speed increases from one second to five, the probability of a user "bouncing" off increases 90%. A load time delay of even a second can reduce your conversions by 7%.

Customers landing on your page want the information fast. When you ensure that your website loads fast, you will see a corresponding increase in conversion rate optimization.

Online reviews how to get

4. Limit visitors' choices.

Getting your visitors to take the actions you want them to take is easier when they don't have a million options to choose from. By limiting the number of choices your customers are faced with when they hit your site, you are closer to guaranteeing success with your conversion rate optimization process. While you don't want to take away all of the choices your visitors see, giving them fewer options gives them a clearer path to conversion.

5. Apply the Rule of Thirds.

The Rule of Thirds is usually thought of as a photography principle but it can be applied to web design with great success as well.

To apply the Rule of Thirds to your website, first, divide your site into thirds horizontally and then divide it into thirds vertically. This will give you a grid with nine equal squares and four intersections. The four intersections are where your visitors' eyes will be drawn naturally.

When you put important images, calls to action, or information at these intersections, it can create a more impactful design that gets your visitors to focus more on the important elements. This amount of focus can boost your conversions.

6. Responsive design 

Customers landing on your site through their mobile devices want to have the same experience they would have landing on your site via their desktop. Focusing on responsive design can have a huge impact on your conversion rate.

More and more, consumers are searching primarily through their mobile devices and are more likely to recommend your business if you have a solid mobile website. Google is also incorporating responsive design into the factors they use to determine search rankings. So responsive design is useful for both conversion rate and search engine optimization.

redesigning with a web design agency

7. Use human faces.

Even if the face is unfamiliar to your visitors, having pictures of people on your site will elicit emotional responses that can influence how they feel about your product, service, or call to action. Human faces can also show people where to look.

For example, if you have a picture of someone looking at your headline or call to action, visitors landing on your site will also feel compelled to look at that same element.

8. Make your copy compelling and easy to read.

The biggest factor in whether a website visitor completes the action you want them to and impacts your conversion rate is whether they can comprehend what you want them to do. If you are using a font that is hard for visitors to read, they're not going to stick around long enough to complete an action.

Additionally, your website copy needs to compel them to take that action by showing them what will happen if they don't, eliciting emotional responses that move them to act, and persuading them of the benefits they will receive after taking the action.

6 things your website needs to thrive.

9. Use data-driven decision-making.

Your website can only convert so many visitors if you're not actually offering them things they want or need or you don't actually know how they're interacting with your website. That's where data comes in. 

After you've implemented some of these best practices, you can begin to measure user behavior to continue to boost your conversion rates. The best place to begin is with heat maps that can show you how your visitors are consuming your content.

Next, you can start asking your existing customers what they like, what they want more of, what problems they need help solving, and what isn't cutting it in regards to your products or services. This can give you and your business strategy even more insight into your audience and can help you develop services you may not even have known people need.

Final Word

Taking steps to optimize your site's conversion rate can have a huge positive impact on your business goals. Adding this process into your business strategy is a great way to begin to see more benefits from conversion.

If you need help, have questions, or need an unbiased eye in looking at your website to improve your conversion rate, don't hesitate to give us a call. We'd be more than happy to take a look at your site and help you improve your conversion rate.

Thrive Design is a customer-centric web design company from SeattleContact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! Find us on Clutch, UpCityLinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.

Thrive is a Seattle web design company focused on helping you grow. If you believe in what you do, have a proven offer, and would like to increase your online presence and authority, let’s chat.
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