When creating a content for your website, you need to figure out how to use these basic elements effectively. I will be writing about how to effectively use these basic elements that make up the content of a website
Here are the 3 basic elements of website content:
- Text
- Image
- Video/Audio
In web development, the whole idea of HTML and CSS revolves around these elements; their proper usage and placement will give your website an exceptional look and feel, and a good user experience that it deserves. Your intent of having a website is to build a relationship with your visitor/customer by the content they see on it.
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TEXT
In some scenario where a picture is not available to tell your story, you might be tempted to write a lengthy article to drive home your point. But that is not necessary, you need to make the articles on your pages to be as short as possible – if you are describing an event or a product, try as much to go straight to the point without explaining unnecessary details.
When using text, try to be as precise as you can. At times we are tempted to write lengthy article but that is counter-productive because your visitors will move on to something else because no one has time to read such, expect if you are writing a blog post on your site.
People prefer reading shorter lines.
Avoid using lengthy lines because people prefer reading shorter ones, so for optimal reading speed, an average of 50 – 80 characters per line will ideal.
Also to reduce reading fatigue, put sizeable space in between lines of your paragraph, use bullet points and shorter paragraphs. Don’t use fancy and tiny fonts but bold and readable ones, and size 14 -16 is fair to the vision of your visitors.
IMAGE
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it’s better using them to tell your story. They are visual descriptions of your brand and products and not using them properly will have negative impact on your website. According to Econsultancy, about 40% of users will abandon a site if it takes more than 5 seconds to load. That means you have some fractions of seconds to convince visitors to look at your site.
Also read 4 things you need to consider before starting your website.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it’s better to use them than text. They are visual descriptions of your brand and products and takes up to 95% of a page size. According to research, about 40% of users will abandon a site if it takes more than 5 seconds to load. That means you have some fractions of seconds to convince visitors to look at your site.
With this in mind, the way you use an image is important to the performance of your website. The size (in megabytes or kilobytes) of each pictures on your website pages will determine how fast each page will load. To resolve this problem you can use a photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop to reduce picture size without affecting the quality.
Talking about quality pictures, if you are not a good photographer or cannot afford one, there are sites where you can get high quality pictures for your web projects:
VIDEO
A picture is a single image while video is a series of images played in sequence. Video is the most efficient way to engage your visitors, because they are watching your story as it unfolds. This is the best way to relate with your visitors but the drawback of this element is that it is the largest (in megabytes or gigabytes).
Placing videos on your webpage will not only drastically affect the load time of your page, it will consume more storage space on your server and your bandwidth allocation (if your website is on a shared hosting). To resolve this challenge, you should host your videos on video repositories like YouTube, Vimeo or Google Drive, and embed them on your page. This will enhance the viewing experience of visitors.
For a product pages, an electronic press kit (EPK) can be embed into these pages and the visitor can have a better understanding of the product. For bloggers, embedding your vlogs will create an emotional connection with your viewers, and their response rate will be higher compared to using pictures or articles.
Ultimately, arranging the sequence of your information and the layout of your images and videos without unnecessary distraction especially on your homepage is a great way to present your content to your visitors.
