How to Keep Your Website Clean and Minimal
It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of minimal, clean websites and general design.
Creating websites in this style is my favourite thing, because my clients always end up with a beautiful, classic look for the website that will stand the test of time.
But something I get asked frequently is how to make your website look like this when you have lots of content and things to say about your business. It's an important question with several solutions, so I thought I'd share some of them here...
Plan out your pages and be ruthless
I talked a bit about planning your visitor's journey and how to map out your pages in my 'Creating the Ideal Website User Experience' blog post, but I'll reiterate here how important it is to carefully plan what pages you'll include in your site!
Firstly you should consider exactly what your website visitor will want to know and prioritise your content. Do you really need a whole page for FAQs or could they be added to your About page or Contact page? Do you really need a whole page dedicated to testimonials or can they be incorporated throughout your Services page?
Incorporate plenty of 'whitespace'
'Whitespace' refers to empty space around your content (not necessarily white; it could be black or whatever your background colour is!) that gives impression that the images and text on your website has plenty of 'room to breathe', and isn't all cramped in together. Psychologically to a website visitor, this adds a calming effect to your website, and ensures your audience won't feel overwhelmed by information.
Mostly this will be down to your website designer to incorporate, but there are ways you can help too - by keeping paragraphs short, adding in plenty of 'spacer blocks' if you're using Squarespace, adding paragraph breaks around images within your content etc.
Put extra info in downloadable pdfs
If you've got important information that your clients will need to know before working with you, but that looks too bulky or formal for your website, why not add it to a document and have it as a downloadable PDF on your website?
I do this on my Website Design page where visitors can just click a link to download my Squarespace information pack.
Making sure your PDF documents are beautifully branded and fit in as an extension of your website is really important! I offer PDF/document design to my branding clients, but can do it on an ad hoc basis too, so feel free to get in touch if you need help!
Set up a blog to link to
What about if you've got lots to say on a certain topic? Or want to talk about your products or process in more detail regularly? It can be a bit clunky to keep creating PDFs for each topic, so in this case I'd always recommend setting up a blog on your website!
Here you can write in detail about all the topics you want to, and keep your website visitors up to date with news and announcements for your business too. You can link to relevant blog posts within other pages of your website too, to keep your content in those pages to a minimum.
Let your imagery do the talking
One of my favourite ways to keep websites looking slick and clean is to use imagery to say what you want. If you can add an image slider or gallery of photos that show your product's manufacturing process, rather than trying to explain it in writing, it makes it so much nicer and easier for your audience to take in!
If you can get your personality across in some great photography on your About page, you can cut down the text because those images will speak for themselves.
Be available on social media
You've probably planned to include a contact form on your website for your visitors to ask questions, but in this day and age people can be impatient and want a speedier response.
If you've kept the information on your website to a minimum, some potential customers may have a few more questions for you before they want to 'commit' to filling in your enquiry form or buying from you. Being available to answer questions on social media is a great way to show you're active and 'on it', as well as keep the content on your site less overwhelming.
