3 Things Too Large On Your Website

Know what a rookie move is? Making your logo, social icons, or headlines too large on your website lets others know you DIY’d it!

Is your logo too large on your website?

Think of it this way, a website user has an idea of where they’re at. They either searched for something that you popped up for (congrats on the SEO!), clicked a link from another website, or met you and decided to stalk you online - either way, they know where they’re at.

What’s more important is the messaging you place on the hero section (aka the first area you see when the page loads) of the website. That needs to be on point with a call to action. Try to tell me what you do and who you do it for with a next step. The logo can’t do that.

Side note: if your logo has a tagline, remove it because it clutters everything. If the tagline is super awesome, place it in the hero section.

Side note number 2: If you place an alternate logo on your header then place your logo on the page - that’s too much. You’re not helping the user memorize the business. You’re wasting valuable website real estate.

As an example, when you walk into the store, no one is shouting the store name in your face. They greet you (hopefully happily) and tell you about a current promotion (the CTA).

What’s more important on your website? Your social media or selling our services on your website?

If you’re on social media (I mean, who isn’t. It’s 2020.) you know what it’s like going down the rabbit hole. You peek your head up and realize it’s 1 am, the wine bottle is empty, and you just spent all that time checking what old high school buddies are up to - or that could just be me.

The point? Social media distracts and the larger you make your icons, the more likely the user will click. Then they’ll forget all about what they were doing on your website. Instead, put those icons in the footer or small on header.

Want a social feed area? Keep it in the blog side bar or towards the bottom of a page. Bonus points for NOT putting it on your services page or NOT making it easy to click into the social platform. Why? You want to avoid as much distraction as possible.

Side note: Want to control the social media feed even more? Use the images you love on your website but instead of a feed, just upload them for a curated look.

Your headlines could be getting too large.

I tend to love large fonts but I’ve seen some that are just WOAH-IN-YOUR-FACE. Headlines are a tricky thing, especially the Heading 1. You want them to be quickly seen and read but sometimes they can get overwhelming. Here’s a few things to check on:

Font-size

Is the size too large? I.E. every single thing on mobile is hyphenated or it gets too hard to read. It really depends on the typeface (design of the font) but I typically keep the H1 (AKA heading 1) between 40 and 50. If you can target mobile to avoid getting words hyphenated, do it. If not, reduce the size overall.

Script fonts

These are super cool but can get too large with all their curls, tails, and elements. These are a bit trickier because you generally want these a bit larger to make it easy to read but on mobile they may be too large. I either target mobile or try to only use them as detail elements on a website.

Depending on your brand, these website elements could be made larger.

Buttons

Not only do a lot of DIY bosses forget to sometimes add a call to action button, sometimes they accidentally hide them. You want these buttons to be easy to see and read. Check the color scheme AND size of your website’s buttons. If you’re scrolling really fast, can you catch all the buttons?

Icons

I know, I just ranted about icons for 4 paragraphs. I’m talking about icons that explain a process or even the ones above columns. These visually push the message along. It takes a more “designerly” eye to check but if you feel like the icons on the website aren’t helping the message move forward when people are scrolling make them a tad bit bigger.

Body font

Some DIYers make their website headlines large and forget that their body text is itty bitty. I like making body text about 16 to 18 pixels and sans serif to keep everything easy to read.