How To Create Brand Consistency On Your Website
A key part of any website is making sure the design reflects a business’s brand identity.
I’m sure you have visited websites before where the logo seems to be the main reference to the business yet the rest of the site seems to be styled (or not styled) completely differently. In terms of marketing, this lack of brand cohesion often creates feelings of distrust and questions credibility which could result in a lost sale or booking. Making simple tweaks to your website design can reinforce your brand and create a polished finish that will show your customer that you are the real deal.
Here are 5 quick ways to bring brand unity to your website design.
01. Social media block
Adding a social media block to your homepage is a great way to not only direct people to your accounts but also introduces another aspect to your business’s personality. Depending on how your feed is styled it can also create a great aesthetic.
02. Brand colours
A bit of an obvious one but adding your brand colours across your site will tie it neatly together. Of course, this doesn’t have to mean big chunks of colour or bold coloured headers, subtle pops of colour can also add the same effect in a more restrained way, perfect if you prefer a more minimalist look. Play around with an accent colour on your social media icons, buttons , header fonts or announcement/cookie bars to add a personalised touch.
03. Backgrounds
I personally love adding background patterns to index sections as I feel it gives a page real personality. Depending upon the kind of pattern or image you use you can be as bold or paired back as you like but it just adds a little more depth and can help reinforce your business’s brand style.
And these are easily added without any custom code. Simply go into the settings section attached to each page/index section (indicated by the gear icon), select media and upload an image/pattern of your choice or find an image via the Unsplash image finder option.
04. Logos and Variations
Logos are obviously a major identifying factor of most brands but they don’t just have to be limited to the header logo section. Adding a logo to the footer is a great way to reinforce the brand as is using different logo variations and sizes. Equally if you have interesting submarks and icons these can add a great flair of personality in an unexpected way or to illustrate certain sections of text. The key is balance and not using them everywhere.
05. Fonts
Deciding upon a couple of fonts to use throughout your website helps unify all the pages together. If you have a particular font you use as a logo for your business this can also be used to great effect to highlight key info, signal something lighthearted or add a personal message. Squarespace offers three heading fonts and one body font so it is worth using these to maximum effect if you can.
I usually try to stick to a larger, bold heading one that creates a statement and is authoritative and attention-grabbing, followed by a smaller main headings font for the header two style. I tend to use Header three for upper case smaller headings to use as signposting and guide the visitor through the site, like prompts. The body style is the font that the majority of the copy is in and allows for easy reading within a larger body of text. The easiest way to think of it is using them in size order to denote importance of information. This is very important for SEO and is how search engines scan your website before ranking it. You can read more on best practises for SEO when organising your website here.
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Body Text
And finally, one extra thought, images often play a key part in website design so I always make sure that any images used work together both in style and tone.