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It can be an engaging experience to land on a new website and have it immediately give you a specific feeling about a company. Whether that feeling is friendly, cutting-edge, young, professional, etc., it’s important that your site has personality. Your site should not only tell users what you do, but it should tell them HOW you do it.

Your business needs to stand out in a sea of options. Being unafraid to layer your site with your personality can help to do exactly that. Make the content, design, animation and imagery all work to give your site a distinct feeling.

Focus On Content

Start with the content. Well thought out content will give you the foundation for the feeling you’re trying to give. I think a common mistake is thinking that all businesses need to be constantly professional on the web, but that can often come across as stuffy or old-fashioned. Obviously, not all of the information your site gives can always be fun & exciting, but finding creative ways to lead into these topics can make all the difference.

When you do get to items that are complex, it’s important to realize that and to do your best to make them simple for your users to understand. Take time and be thoughtful about how to best sort this content and explain it clearly.

Design Space

Next take a look at your overall design. Your site needs to reflect your brand and your content. Jumpstart your user’s imagination right when they land on your site!

Features like video banners or hero images are a great place to make a statement & set a tone. Videos are great because they can easily evoke a feeling about how you operate. They can also get a lot of information across in a short amount of time.

Don’t be afraid to spend a bit of space on design features. Not everything needs to be an advertisement or call to action. It’s an old marketing idea that everything needs to be crammed above the fold on your homepage, but that makes for a messy user experience. Give your site some room to breathe and let the user get a good first-look at your business.

Instead of cramming everything into a small space above the fold, sort items by importance. Today’s users are used to a fair amount of scrolling. Ask yourself these two key questions when laying things out: “What are my user’s most common goals on my site?” and “What are my goals for a user to take action on?”. Compromise so both sides can easily get what they want when sorting things.

Images Tie It Together

Choices of imagery can also be a powerful tool when putting together your website. Being aware of your average customer can guide you while picking imagery. Your image choices need to thematically mesh with the personality that you’ve been building with the rest of these elements.

When choosing a direction to go with your imagery, try to find something that ties them all together. Do you live in an interesting area? You could try using images of local locations & landmarks! Or is there a strong unifying color associated with your brand? Treat the images in a way that showcases that main color! There are many possibilities! Be creative and try to find a way to make your images on-brand with your site.

Tying all of these different elements together will create a feeling across your site that’s unique to you. Don’t be afraid to stand out! Sometimes winning the battle between you and your competitors will come down to personality. Show your users that you’re more than just another business. Show them you have some personality.