Using Big Images On Your Website

You may have noticed an increased use of big pictures and images on websites lately. This trend has developed as a result of websites becoming more and more visual while text is becoming shorter and more focused on a specific call to action or message.

Using a large photograph or illustration will not only add visual appeal but, chosen wisely, will help market the products and services of your site more effectively. If you have a photography site using large pictures to showcase your work should be a given.

Here are a few sites designed by HIT Web Design that highlight the use of large pictures and images:

http://photosbyaw.com/

http://fenoffstonehomes.com/

http://phoenixbuildersnorcal.com/

Using large photos and images that relate to your business not only make what you do easily identifiable they a great way to showcase your work. Redesigning you site and adding large pictures and images can add visual appeal to your site and if your site is text heavy remember the old saying a “picture is worth a thousand words.”

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Personalizing Your Website

One trend in music, artist, and personal blog sites that is really exciting is adding personalized elements such as hand drawn illustrations to the site. The reason personalized elements have caught on with these types of sites seems obvious, it helps create more of a connection with visitors to your site while also showcasing your own creativity.

Hand drawn personalized elements are definitely not suitable for all industries, but used appropriately they can really add to the overall feel of a site and make it stand out. Daytrotter, a music site, has been using hand drawn pictures of their daily musical guests for years now, and uses many other hand drawn elements to give their site a relaxed feel.

Most of these sites that use these kind of elements are trying to portray a young, hip feel. If you are in an industry such as art, music, retail, or even if you are just trying to appeal to this demographic then maybe this is a design element you should explore for your site. These sites trend to be very focused on the actual design elements as a means to create and keep interest in the site.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Font Trends In Web Design

Over the last few years we have started to see some interesting developments in how fonts are being used on todays websites.

For years web designers have been using primarily sans serif fonts because they tend to be easier to read on a computer screen. With increased monitor resolution this is no longer the case, and some serifed fonts are now beginning to be used more frequently by web designers in the body of the text . Serifed fonts are not just for headings anymore.

Probably the biggest change when it comes to fonts is big fonts. More and more sites are using large fonts to help call attention to important information on the site. One example of a site HIT Web Design has done using this large font trend is http://pumpkinpetals.com.

It is a well known fact that visitors will spend very little time on a site looking for what they want and using a large font that will catch a customers eye to convey an important message can help them find the information they are looking for and keep them on your site. Use large fonts effectively by using them sparingly and keep your message short and to the point.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Keeping Up With Current Web Design Trends

It is important to have a modern, visually up-to-date website. New trends are constantly developing in the world of web design, and these trends not only make a web site more visually appealing they also help their over all effectiveness.

Designers are constantly trying out and testing new things to improve a websites appeal, navigation, interactive, and effectiveness. This includes where important text and pictures are placed on a site, improved design with dynamic navigation buttons, proper use of whitespace, and much much more.

Many of the trends we have seen in the last few years have changed the way we look at websites now. It is easy to spot a website that was created even just a few years ago, and these sites can easily be dismissed by the web savvy web user.

Our next several blogs will look at some of these new trends as well as give examples. If you feel your site is in need of a redesign to update its look HIT Web Design has several designers that can help give your site a modern look that will attract visitors and customers to your site.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

The Call to Action

Have you ever shopped at a retail store that didn’t have someone working behind a cash register? Of course not! In most stores, cash registers are easy to find. They have a light with a number on it, a sign that says check out or pay here, or some other way of letting you know where you can trade your money for a service or product.

Most websites are selling a product or service—not all of them have a store page. Each page on the website should have a purpose (usually selling something).

The “purpose” for each page can also be called the call to action. Placing a call to action on each page gives the website’s customer a place to trade their money for a service or a product. The call to action may be “give us a call to find out more information!” It might be “To sign up for an appointment, please fill out the form below.” You may be trying to get the potential customer from the home page to the services page. No matter what the call is, you should work it in to every page of text. If there is no call to action on the page, then why even have the page on the website?

In many cases, a call to action is associated with contact information. Because of this, you probably want to include contact information in a visible spot on the page, not buried beneath (or mixed with) a lot of text.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

The Benefits of Not Using Stock Photography on Your Site

Anyone can spot a stock photo—the attractive models, the great lighting, taken from that perfect angle. All these things might make a great picture, but they also tend to be very generic and, in some cases, fake. Using pictures of your own employees and products can help your site in several ways:

Trust
Studies have shown that images of real employees are often more effective than images of models. They add a level of realism and improve peoples' feelings of trust towards your company. With so many websites and so many people competing for everyone's business, trust is an important way to stand out from your competition.

Relate
Stock photographs are typically very generic and it is difficult to find ones that can actually relate to your website and products. People can relate more to photos of real employees and customers using your product or services.

Marketing
The purpose of your site should be to help market your business or products. Taking good quality pictures that actually relate to the content on your site will help improve your site's ability to market your products and services more effectively.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Effective Website Copy is Easy to Read

No matter how much copy you have, make sure that the copy you are using on your site is easy-to-read. One good practice is to read your copy out loud. Are there places where you stumble as you read? If so, fix them! If customers don’t understand what you are attempting to tell them, they’re not going to stay on your website. Correcting spelling and grammatical mistakes will make your copy easier to read.

Another good practice is to keep your line length around 65 characters wide or shorter. That may mean splitting the pages of your website into two columns. When a column of text is too wide it becomes difficult for readers to find their place on the next line and appears too hard to read.

The content that you use on your site should lead the customer to purchase a product or service. The copy on your landing page should focus on leading your customer to make a purchase. Your other pages may contain additional information—something to educate the customer, but if your primary purpose is to sell something to the customer, focus on the product or service you are offering.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Is Less Copy More Effective?

When you are creating copy(text) for your website, keep in mind that most users want information as quickly as possible. If you keep your copy trimmed down to only necessary information, visitors are more likely to stay on your site. Too much copy will look daunting to the visitor, who, in most cases, won’t stay on your site.

According to a 2006 study by Clicktale, only about 20% of visitors will scroll to the bottom of a webpage. If you need to have a longer page, try placing a picture at the bottom of the page so that only the top portion is showing. This will naturally entice the viewer to scroll down to see the lower half of the picture and will increase the chances of your text read. Try to keep your pages short enough to eliminate the need for scrolling.

There are times when long copy is more appropriate. Products or services that are complicated, technical, or pricey generally require more copy to effectively sell to visitors. If your products/services fall into one of these categories, don’t be afraid to use longer copy.

Join us tomorrow for more tips website copy.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Focus on What You Want Visitors To Do

When a visitor pulls up your website, what do you want them to do? If you are a small business owner, the answer is obvious: you want them to purchase a product or service. How do you get them to do that? There’s a lot that goes into it, so let’s start with one helpful concept: Focus on
What You Want Visitors to Do.

Should visitors to your site:

• make a purchase?

• fill out a form?

• click on a link?

• contact your company?

If you aren’t sure what you want your visitor to do, how will they ever know? Starting with the very first line of copy on your website, your content should lead your visitor to the goal you have in mind.

Make effective use of your homepage. If you want a customer to make a purchase, then your home page should focus on the products or services you are offering. If you have multiple products or services, you will want to make sure your customer can purchase multiple products or services as easily as possible: this means you will want shopping cart functionality on your website.

If the purpose of your website is to generate sales leads, don't put a form on your "Contact Us" page and hope visitors stumble across it. Instead, make it a dominating feature on every page. You’ll also want to make sure that the copy on the page further persuades the visitor to fill out the form.

If you want your visitor to click on a link, then don’t bury the link in a large paragraph of text. A colorful “Click here for more information" button is an easy way to get your customer to click on a link and end up where you want them to be.

No matter what you want your visitors to do, your contact information should be in an easy-to-find place on every page. What if your visitors have questions about a product? What if they can’t get a form to submit correctly? Do everything you can to make it easy for your visitors to do what you want them to do.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.