In the age of instant gratification, it is more important than ever to attract visitors to your website and draw them in from there. One way of doing this is by having a well-defined typography layout. In this post we’ll talk about attracting visitors to your website with typography, holding their attention with elements of typography and setting up a hierarchy that is relative to the importance of your website.

Attracting Visitors With Typography

The first and probably most important way in which typography can help your website attract visitors is by having a well-designed logo and brand. A well-designed logo should be simple, yet distinguished enough so that it’s word-mark speaks clearly and tells the viewer this is the brand and this is what we’re about.

The second way in which typography can attract visitors is by giving your website an associational value. What I mean by this is: if you wanted to start a website that sells popular items to young adults, you wouldn’t really want to use a typeface that is viewed as being highly classical, such as Baskerville. Generally speaking, you would want to use a typeface that speaks to a younger adult visitor – something they can associate with and subconsciously feel comfortable reading.

A third way of attracting visitors through typography is by clearly defining your site’s main navigation so that it stands out and says, “these are all the general subjects we offer on our website”. This can be applied by using a slightly different typeface that is easy to read and complements the overall look & feel of the website.

Holding Your Visitors Attention

Holding your visitor’s attention is no small task, but no less important than attracting them to your site in the first place. Ultimately you want your visitors to feel comfortable enough to return another day. This can be done by applying three elemental rules to your web site’s typography:

  • Contrast
  • Size
  • Space

Contrast

Having well-defined text is of the utmost importance in web design. Content should be easily defined and have enough contrast so that it doesn’t fade into the background. Also, think in terms of reading a book; you want to make your content easy to read for long periods of time. It might not be a great choice of designing a dark background with a lighter color text. Some viewers might find it hard to view while reading for longer periods of time.

Size

The size of text definitely matters when designing for the web. You don’t want to strain your visitor’s eyes by making the text too small to read. Your visitors should feel comfortable reading your content whether they have glasses or not.

Space

Comfort is the key issue here. Give your type some room to breathe. In doing so you’ll give your site more focus; the reader won’t get that stifling claustrophobic feeling. Line space is important to remember as well. Paragraphs that are compressed will not only be less readable but will also hinder the overall user experience.

A Web Page’s Hierarchy of Importance

Giving a web page a hierarchy of relative importance is the semantically correct thing to do. By doing so, people experience a sense of instant gratification, a way of finding information fast and easy. Using varying typeface and or size between your titling and paragraphs is a great way of achieving this. If this is done consistently throughout a website, it signals to the reader that these titles are the important topics and these paragraphs are supporting details.

So, when you are thinking in terms of being able to attract more visitors to your website, don’t disregard typography; it can work for you or against you.