Website Wisdom
I hosted the third EFA Clubhouse conversation today. Our attendance was lower than the past two times, but that’s OK. We had a good chat about websites and some of the principles of web design. Here are my notes.
Welcome to the Editorial Freelancers Association Clubhouse room! Today’s topic is websites – do you need them, what they should contain, strategies for design, where to host them, etc. To join the conversation, raise your hand by tapping on the hand in the lower-right corner. You’ll receive an invitation to the stage, and when you accept it, you can join me up here to chat.
Once you’re on stage, activate your microphone by clicking the mic in the lower-right corner where the hand had been. When you’re finished speaking, click the mic to deactivate it.
Principles of web design
A website without pleasant aesthetics, fast-loading images, accurate contact details, and good content, fails to engage customers. Over half of visitors (52%) expect “About Us” information after landing on your homepage. A whopping 86% want products/ services information on the homepage. (source: Crafted)
Mobile optimization
Mobile devices drove 61% of visits to U.S. websites in 2020, up from 57% in 2019. Desktops were responsible for 35.7% of all visits in 2020, and tablets drove the remaining 3.3% of visitors.
Globally, 68.1% of all website visits in 2020 came from mobile devices—an increase from 63.3% in 2019. Desktops drove 28.9% of visits, while 3.1% of visitors came from tablets. However, desktop devices remain very important, as they drove 53.3% of total time on site in the U.S. and 46.4% of total time on site globally.
“Mobile's share of total visits continues to grow at a steady pace, but desktop devices still have the most total time on site.” (source: Perficient)
High contrast! Avoid gray font on white background. It’s hard to read. Similarly, avoid thin fonts because they’ll disappear between the pixels.
Create an intuitive path. Don’t make your viewers make too many decisions.
Accessibility
SEO (source: RuthAnn Bowen, WIX Designher)
Google reads page titles first. Use keywords in titles.
Meta description – use keywords, why they should click on it, call to action
Alt-tag your images – opportunities to tell Google who you are and what you do
Minimum of 500 words per page. 3 to 5 keywords per page.
Get them there – keep them there – get them to go where you want them to go
1 to 3 Mb images for speed
When people land on your website, you want them to feel like you’re in their head.
You have 3 secs to show you’re someone to like, know, and trust
Don’t have more than six tabs in header
Google My Business – great way for people to contact you. Also, free.
Google Developer - loads of information about SEO fundamentals
Closing: Thank you for this great conversation! Please follow all the speakers on stage, and tap the house in the upper corner to be alerted to the next time this room is open.
Our next event will discuss writing and editing for Diversity, Equity, and Belonging, as well as Conscious Language on March 28. I’m also working on a discussion about editing for audiobook narration.
After the chat ended, Marla Brown contacted me with the following screenshots and note:
For anyone who has Wix for their website and wanted to know where to find the privacy stuff that was mentioned at the Clubhouse event, this is how i found it, then I followed the guide they provided and example they gave. Then I copy/pasted as it said I could, adjusted the wording slightly (i.e., put in editing in place of another word they had), then adjusted how you find it and such. … It’s not a “do it for you.” When I did it, it took me a few hours of playing around w/ all of it and checking to see how it looked, how I wanted people to find it, etc.
A screenshot of Wix.com's menu of privacy policy-related content for web developers.
A screenshot of the Wix.com Privacy & Cookies tools page.
