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Branding is very important for your business

What people think of when Brand is talked about can vary but the brand plays an important part of your website design and the information within it. Things to consider:

  • Colours
  • Fonts
  • Layout
  • Text

All of these things should be looked at over your entire business, every business card you hand out, the flyers, brochures, and ebooks you give out as well as your website should all look like they belong to the same company.

I am sure we have all received a business card then when we visit the website it looks completely different, with an entirely different look and feel to it. If you take a little time, though not too much, to consider a few things then everything will tie in and look cohesive.

Colours

It can be difficult to decide on colours, I personally start with one colour I really like then use tools to help me find a palette that works. https://coolors.co is a website that help you to find sets of colours. You can then save them and export with their colour codes.

The same colours can be used in your website, on you printed materials and in your email.

Fonts

Fonts are the text format that you use, it can be difficult to know which ones go together. Some people will use the same font for headings and paragraphs.

Google fonts help, they are free to use and if you select one it will tell you which fonts will go with it.

The type of font is actually important. Is your business formal or relaxed? If it is a relaxed and modern business but the font is stiff and old fashioned then you are giving mixed messages.

In google fonts you can search by type, like handwriting, calligraphy or script. You can even type in your own text to see what it will look like or with their generic text.

The fonts can be downloaded and installed on computers so you can use with your letters and in other programs. Some online software has google fonts available as well.

WordPress has themes that use google fonts and if the theme does not there are plugins that can be added to use them.

Layout

This may not seem important but goes with text. If you have a layout that is busy and confusing or overwhelming but you want your business to seem clear then you are again sending mixed messages.

If your business is loud and manic and that is your brand then your website layout should not be sparse and minimalist.

Navigation is with layout, if people cannot get around your site and find what they want quickly they will leave.

Text

The text is the most important part and there is a lot to consider, but do not let this be overwhelming, some of what to think about:

    Language – the language that your clients will understand
    Tone – what tone do you want to use, reserved, casual, etc?
    Information – what information does your perfect client want from your website and what do they need?

Overall

Having a brand can help with all of this, even if you only look at what your perfect client is like and what they like. For example if your client is young, loud and talks using modern saying then you probably want to make your brand reflect that. Modern casual fonts with text that uses modern sayings, trendy colours.

If your perfect client is retired then using modern sayings that teenagers would use may not work but using language they use and understand would.

Once you know these things creating business documentation and marketing becomes easier, standard fonts, colours and tone of text, you only have to worry about the actual words!

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What is Alt Text and when should I use it?

You may never have seen the term Alt Text, it is alternative text and is in the settings of pictures. For those who cannot see the pictures, if the picture does not load or if they use a text to speech tool to hear the webpage, knowing what the image is might be useful.

If the image is there as decoration and does not have any value to information then you can leave the Alt Text blank or enter text to show that it was a decorative picture.

If the picture or graphic is really important, such as a graph with the number of people who you have helped who would say your service/product is wonderful, then it is important to put in Alt Text.

Remember when entering text that the person probably cannot see the image or if they can, they may not be able to see the detail of it. The Alt Text information needs to be descriptive enough that the image does not need to be there.

To make it easier, image that you cannot see the site at all, what information could someone tell you that would explain the image?

You can add Alt text to images in WordPress but also in other programs like Microsoft Word. This means that if you create a report and someone receives it and uses the text to speech feature they would be able to hear about the images in the document.