Here's how you do it.
1. Use Bright Color
- Use a bright color for accents – such as buttons and calls to action – with a minimal (white) style design.
- Use a bright color overlay on a hero image or video to add visual interest. Adding photos to your site is super easy — just drag and drop images from the build tab in the Editor. Add a color overlay or Instagram-style design with one of the included filters for a custom touch.
- Use a trendy color from the Material Design palette, to add bright, fun element.
- Use a monotone palette with a brand color to emphasize your name.
- Use a gradient to draw users across the screen and toward a direct call to action. You can add a gradient right in the Weebly builder as well. Just click on the section where you'd like to use a gradient, click edit background and then gradient. Adjust the settings to colors that match your style or brand.
Light Eyez uses a bright – and trendy – mint green throughout the site design. The color provides an overlay for buttons and shows the user where they are in the navigation menu (and in the site outline, in general). Color helps users move through the content and down the page.
2. Keep Content Fresh with a Blog
A blog can be the perfect solution.
Great blog content establishes your authority in a field, ups your website rank in search results and gives potential customers more details about your products or services.
Blog content should always directly relate to the main goals of your website. Publish updates on a regular schedule – try weekly or daily – so that users keep coming back for more. Once you get in the habit of writing a blog, you'll be amazed at how quickly the content ideas come to you. (Pro tip: Make sure posts are 300 words or more so that Google will “read" the content and include it in search results.)
Back to Beloved shares a monthly blog that showcases new products and integrates with social media. A blog can attract new users and reintroduce your latest products to fans.
If you don't already have one, you can add a blog to your site using the Pages tab. (Just click the + and select blog; then you are ready to add posts.)
3. Consider Custom Graphics and Imagery
The tough part of getting custom visuals for your website is that it can be expensive — make sure to figure this expense into your business plan. If you are on a tight budget, consider using your smart phone to take product photos.
While you can use some stock photography, it should be interspersed with custom images. And don't make the mistake of using just any old photo. Images need to be high-resolution and of great composition and quality. There are too many good-looking websites out there for customers to waste time looking at bad photos.
You can add single images, photo galleries or even slideshows with just a couple of clicks. (You don't have to know any code or have superstar web design skills to add custom elements in a hurry, just like the product photography for Gaucho-Sur.)
4. Add Some Personality
Start by deciding what you want the personality of your brand to be. Is it formal and direct, light and humorous, fun and childlike? Something else altogether? Imagine your brand as a person: How would they speak? What do they look like? Incorporate those ideas into the website design. Write copy in that way that connects with users from the start.
Allku Pets adds personality with pet photos that show off a variety of products. You know this brand is whimsical and fun, with hilarious images from the tongue-out dog to the pooch sporting sunglasses.
5. Make the Website About the User
What do they want to know or see? How have you solved their problem?
Wine Down SF does that by asking a question that its website visitors might have, and then leading them to the answer. It's attention grabbing thanks to big typography and a problem-solving question and answer.
Write copy and create visuals that speak directly to the needs of your customers. You can find a lot of insights into what they wants by looking at current website stats and social media analytics. Are there specific types of content or posts that users respond to more than others? That should provide a clue as to what they want from you.
It's easy to edit and change copy in the Editor. Just click and type. Remember to use active verbs and language that conveys the benefit of your website to users. Use headers and subheaders to make the layout more visually appealing.
6. Customize Design Elements
Make sure to add custom colors and typefaces to templates. Drag and drop elements to new locations. Any customization — no matter how small — sets your design apart from the template.
Think of it like this: If you buy a photo frame, the first thing you do is take the included image out and put your own picture in there. A website works the same way. As soon as you pick a template, start making small changes to ensure that it looks and feels like your brand.
Note how StayJax uses a message box in a color from the logo. That's a simple custom element that makes the design feel unique, and anyone with a Weebly website can do it in a few clicks. To choose custom theme colors, click on the theme tab in the dashboard and use the color picker or enter a hex code to get the exact colors you want.
Conclusion
Start with just one of the ideas above to make a new first impression today.