Your website acts as your online ambassador for your business. It can do serve as your brochure, assist with queries, and close a sale even if you and your team are sleeping. While it can help your business serve many purposes, you should invest more time and effort in building your site to optimize its potential.
While it is normal to get way excited when you are building your site, it can also be overwhelming. One of the features that make people have a hard time is when choosing what website theme to incorporate.
Your website theme is the overall style of your website – color schemes, style elements, and layout. Either you choose to create your website theme, or your bank on the thousand pre-made templates available on the market, picking one can be a hard task.
Your website theme represents your brand and can have direct impacts on the user of the experience of your visitor. Thus it is essential to integrate the most useful theme for your site.
So, if you are having a hard time deciding which theme you’ll incorporate, here are some of the dos and don’ts you have to remember.
Things TO DO When Choosing a Theme
1. Audience First
It is vital to always think about your audience when you create your site. As a business owner or as a website designer, your point of view might be different from your target audience.
Get to know your audience preferences and make it as references when choosing a theme for your website.
2. Take Note Of the Features You Want
Creating a website is not a walk in the park, and it requires your full effort as it can make or break your website. Before picking the theme that you want, take note of the features that you think are essential for your business’ home online.
Put yourself in the shoes of your visitors, and if you have to visit the site for the first time, determine what features you want to see.
3. Make Sure It Is Responsive
There are billions of websites out there, and if your website is unresponsive to whatever device your visitor is using, they will leave within the first few seconds. This case will affect your bounce rate and your SEO strategies that make sure your website has a high ranking in search engines.
Having a responsive design is crucial as it means your site will be easy to use and will have a fluid-like feel when used by visitors. Find themes that make this vital feature possible.
4. Keep It Simple
Websites used to be flashy, loud, and fancy. Many companies have opted to integrate this into their site several years ago to capture the interest of your audience. These days, websites that work best have a minimalistic approach.
Look for themes with flat designs as this will give your website a clean, polished look which users are now leaning on.
5. Take Your Time
Launching a website can be very exciting, and sometimes, you might be too eager to set it out right away that you just utilize the first theme that you get your hands on. Launching your site and aiming to have a working website is different from each other.
Take your time to carefully plan out the theme that would suit your business and would attract your target audience.
Things You Should NOT DO With Your Website’s Theme
1. Don’t Use Many Colors
Some business owners still believe that the more color in their website’s theme, the more attractive it can become.
However, it is not the case for modern websites. Many colors on your website will make it clash and appear to be loud. Many users are not into these kinds of websites these days. Having too many colors glaring to your target audience will make your site not gain traction as you hope it would.
If you have a hard time picking the right colors, always remember the rule of thumb. Use only not more than three colors.
2. Avoid Long Paragraphs
Aside from the use of colors on your website, avoid many texts in the overall theme of your website. Today’s readers have a short attention span. When you have a longer text or paragraphs in your site, many users and readers will leave your website and leads to an increase in your bounce rate.
If you are providing an article on your website that usually comes with long paragraphs, break it into readable chunks. Use a clean white background so the text will not appear bulky and will still appeal to your readers and visitors. Make sure also to have a proper flow for all of your text placed on your website.
3. Shy Away From Using Too Many Fonts
Your website theme is not all about colors. It also involves the fonts you use, and one of the takeaways is to avoid using too many fonts. Setting your site with too many fonts can make it appear chaotic and unprofessional, which can affect your online authority.
Like the use of colors, try to use a maximum of three kinds of fonts in your website.
4. Poor Navigation
No matter how beautiful and colorful your website is, if it has poor navigation, it will not attract the amount of audience you want to. Find and choosing a theme that is not only pleasing to your target users but will also provide them with better user experience.
Final Thoughts
A large number of people are visual learners. It comprises 65% of the world’s population. These people are the reason why you need to make your website attractive.
However, choosing a theme for your website should not only be after the look but also it should be functional and well serve to whatever purpose you intend your website to be.
Ramon has been writing about technology trends, entertainment, and gaming ever since he left the busy world of corporate HR Tech behind. He currently writes about software and user experiences for Softvire Australia – the leading software e-Commerce company in Australia and Softvire New Zealand. In his spare time, Ramon writes science fiction, collects little yellow men and plastic spaceships.
