If you're new to creating a Wix website, it can feel a little overwhelming in the beginning. There are many fabulous, mobile-friendly templates to choose from, but chances are that you're letting the template dictate your design and content, rather than creating a site that works best for you.
As a Wix Legend Partner, we've learned ins and outs of Wix, and would like to share some tips with you in the hopes that it makes your build a little easier!
Making Your Wix Website Attractive
One of the big pitfalls we see business owners fall into is picking a template that does more than they need.
As they begin populating the template with their content, they feel overwhelmed and either begin to strip away sections, or go the other direction and try to include content for every section because it's there in the template.
Before we dive into a list of tips, let's first talk about a few key design principles:
1. Psychology of Color
The colors you choose to use on your website matter! Colors can help influence how people feel, and the actions they choose to take.
For example, a green button has a higher chance of being clicked than a red button.
Let your brand's colors work for you rather than against you by picking a complimentary selection that supports your industry, call to actions, and overall feel of the site.
2. Visual Hierarchy
This means arranging your website elements so a visitor gravitates towards the most important elements first.
A good website should help guide a visitor to complete a desired action in a way that feels natural.
The first text a visitor will see is usually a headline. This should be set as your H1 tag, and should describe what you do and who it's for followed by a call-to-action button.
The content you choose to include above the fold (before a visitor has to scroll down to see more) will be given a higher priority over other content. This is why it's also important to include other key information in your header and navigation. Contact information, special announcements or promotions, and links to your key pages should all be prominent and easy to engage with.
3. Mirroring
We have neurons in our brain that mirror what someone else is doing. Through the images we choose to include within our design, we can actually help influence a visitor's mood.
Showing happy people can make them feel happier and more hopeful. Keep this in mind when choosing the images you include on your website.
Try to find ones that either show your target audience in their problem state (how they feel now before working with you/purchasing from you), or in their future state (how they'll feel in the future after having worked with you/purchased your product).
4. Social Validation
When making a decision, we try to gather information as quickly as possible. One of the ways we do this is by looking at what others are doing.
Testimonials from clients and customers can help someone who is on the fence about doing business with you decide to pull the trigger and get started.
Even if you have a new website and have not done business yet, include testimonials from colleagues that speak of your character. This way, a client/customer will better know what to expect from you.
5. Consistency
Consistency builds trust. It sets expectations and tells a visitor what to anticipate on the next page, or during future interactions with you.
Make sure you use consistent colors, fonts, branding and images. This will help you look more professional, and provide a better overall user experience.
Don't fixate on being different for the sake of being different.
Visitors will prefer a layout they are comfortable with and will engage more than if they have to figure out the ins and outs of a complicated design.
Tips to Improve the Look of Your Wix Website
Look at competitor's sites and similar industries for inspiration - You don't want to copy someone else's design, but this a great way to find out elements you like or don't like for your own website.
Start with a simple site layout or choose a blank template - This will help you keep things simple because you can always add to your site after you launched. It's better to get online and start making money and gathering data then delay your launch because it isn't "perfect."
Customize the color theme and font family - Remember the importance of psychology of color and be sure to limit the fonts you choose to no more than 3. You can also choose a font that is more friendly to visitors with disabilities by picking a sans serif font for one of your fonts. If you're not sure what fonts to use together, Google the color you want to use + "color scheme" this will give you a nice variety of color scheme to choose from that compliment each other. You'll want to have a balance of light and dark colors so you can use some as background colors to add variety.
Use professional, quality photos - Nowadays, iPhones can take a great picture, but if you're struggling to take your own photos, use Wix media or professional stock photos instead. Quality photos will elevate the look of your brand.
Use strips to utilize more space - Strips can be set to full-width and when used with columns are a great way to organize your content, and incorporate more information across the width of your website. They will also make future updates to your site easier as they do a better job of grouping content.
Don't be afraid to use colorful backgrounds - With strips you can set images and videos as your background. This is a great way to break up content and draw a visitor's eye to a specific section.
Incorporate graphics with a transparent background - Unless you have a white background on your website, your graphic is going to look better with a transparent background. Luckily, Wix has this option available within the Media Manager.
Optimize your site for mobile with the mobile editor - Using strips will help make your content user-friendly on mobile, but that doesn't mean you're done. Be sure to use the mobile editor to ensure your content looks good on smaller screen sizes.
Focus on Making Progress Over Perfection
It's easy to get hung up on the aesthetics of your site. The more you look at it and work on it, the more you start to obsess. Your launch date gets pushed and before you know it you've been working on your website for months.
Take some of the pressure off yourself when creating your new website by focusing on getting online as soon as possible with the essentials (what you do, who it's for, why they need it, why trust you, and what to do next). You can always do more tweaks and updates later, but the sooner you get online, the sooner you can start learning, gathering data, and making money!
What do you feel you're getting hung up on? Tell us about it at info@border7.com, or post a comment below!
