8 Visual WordPress Web Design Tips

WordPress’s customisability is one reason it is the most popular choice for building a website. However, WordPress web design can be overwhelming for a business looking to build or rebuild its website. Whether you’re building a new WordPress website or refreshing an old one, there is so much to consider when designing your website. We’ve compiled a list of tips, tricks and advice to help you with planning and building your new website.

1 – Choose your WordPress theme carefully

Choosing a suitable theme is crucial and challenging for a WordPress website’s design. There are over 30,000 different themes available for WordPress! This number does include different child themes, but there are thousands nonetheless. How can you choose a suitable WordPress theme? Start by defining the purpose of your website and writing the list of features you need. Many themes are purpose-built for a specific need. For example, Flatsome is designed with Woocommerce in mind. And Divi is excellent for visual-heavy websites. Plus, WordPress’s theme page has a Feature Filter so that you can narrow down the options. 

2 – Consider purchasing a premium theme

There are some great free themes out there, and they’re fine when you’re on a budget, but they can have some issues. Using free themes puts you at risk of poor quality code, lack of support, few regular updates, or outright abandonment by developers. Additionally, premium themes have more features, help your website stand out, and have better technical support. So, if you can fit it into your budget, consider looking into a free theme.

3 – Assign colours to make your WordPress web design easier

When you start your WordPress web design, assigning an accent colour and extra colours will make your life a lot smoother. During the build process, you will assign colours to all sorts of elements. Whether it’s a border, text colour, background colour, etc., you’re going to be using colours constantly during your build. By going to your theme’s settings, you can generally set your accent and extra colours. Assigning these colours will make them readily available to you when choosing a colour for an element on your website. The same goes for our next tip:

4 – Use easy to read fonts

Difficult to read fonts are just going to scare away your visitors. First impressions matter on websites. If a visitor has a hard time reading, they’re going to leave your website. If you’re not very techy, you can choose a theme with an easy to read default font. Otherwise, you can set the font under your theme settings after you’ve installed it. 

Furthermore, avoid using more than one or two fonts on your website. Otherwise, you will confuse or overwhelm your users. Generally, in WordPress, you will set a font for your headings and another font for your paragraphs under your theme’s settings. 

5 – Use relevant and high-quality images for WordPress web design

Using your own images or high-quality stock will help your WordPress website stand out. Internet users are all too familiar with stock photos, so it’s best to use unique, high-quality, brand-relevant images for your website. Use pictures to help communicate the messaging on your website. 

6 – Make your call-to-action standout

Having your call-to-action (CTA) front and centre is the best way to get your users to take action. Without a CTA, website visitors often don’t know what to do next. Making your CTA stand out using the brightest colour, boldest font, and the most compelling copy will maximise the chances of a customer taking action. Also, you want to make sure to stick to one CTA per page. If you use multiple calls to action, you will confuse your users. 

7 – Have a clear structure for each page

Structuring your website page logically for your visitors is key to receiving interaction. There’s no one way to design a page correctly, but planning elements such as headings, text, lists, and images ahead of time will ensure your webpage is easy to follow. Also, you want to make your business’s offering super clear above the fold. “Above the fold” is the first part of the page a visitor will see, without needing to scroll. It needs to make your offering clear immediately by using compelling text, images and a call-to-action. Divi, for example, makes it incredibly clear what they offer – “The Most Popular WordPress Theme In The World And The Ultimate WordPress Page Builder”. Don’t over-complicate your WordPress web design; keep it simple with a structure. 

8 – Mobile-friendly is non-negotiable for effective WordPress web design

Even though most themes are mobile-friendly, and WordPress, in general, is excellent on mobile, it may still be necessary to mobile-optimise the website manually. With more than half of people browsing the internet on mobile, optimising your website is required. Once you’ve got your website looking the way you want, make sure you check it on mobile and make any changes necessary to make it work. Generally, you can set different rules for mobile and desktop experiences. 

Bonus Tip: Don’t get too attached

A great website will last a long time, but not a lifetime. There will come a day when it’s time to redesign your WordPress website to keep up with the times. The challenge is, where do you start? If you need help with your WordPress web design, get in touch with the team at WP Butler. We can help you give your website a fresh look and have it running better than ever. Click here to fill in our form or call us now on 1300 739 301.