Why spending time on the details can make or break your website

Have you ever heard the saying, “Don’t sweat the small stuff?” That may work in some cases, but we believe that details are of the utmost importance on a website.

A common mistake when creating a website is to not spend enough time on the details. Whether due to time or budget restraints, or just lack of experience, minor steps in the website creation process often get rushed through or left out entirely. This can be a costly mistake—those details can make the difference between a good website and a great website. Focusing on the details will help you stand out from the competition and create a more positive experience for your users.

So what are some of those details? Read below the five aspects of a website where details matter the most and how you can benefit from making improvements in each area. Use this list as a guide to pinpoint any missed opportunities on your website.

1. Brand identity

Your website should reinforce your brand and match other marketing materials. Carrying over brand details to your website will help it appear as a cohesive part of your overall brand identity. Take into consideration the following elements and ensure they follow any branding guidelines for your company:

Logo usage
Colors
Typography
Imagery/graphics
Content tone and style

Details matter: Your website should reinforce your brand and match other marketing materials. Tweet this

2. Content optimization

High-quality content on a website is important. It promotes professionalism and ensures that users are getting the information that they need. It’s also important to spend time optimizing content by paying attention to the following details:

Keywords. Naturally integrate your target keywords throughout content to boost search engine optimization.
Tone/voice. It’s easy to overlook details like the tone of your content, but this should align with any company standards and other marketing materials.
Background content. Fine-tune “behind-the-scenes” content such as metadata or ALT text for images in order to fully optimize your content and improve the user experience.

Details matter: Spend time optimizing content details like keywords and tone. Tweet this

3. Design enhancements

Design details can have a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of a website. Even users without an eye for design can tell when something just feels “off”. By spending time on all aspects of a website design, all the way down to the minute details, you can improve the overall user experience.

Keep the following in mind when looking at design details:

All design decisions should be purposeful and strategic, from choosing colors to determining image placement.
Paying attention to details can make a difference in how users browse your content. Content and design should work together seamlessly in order to get users to the right information.
You can use subtle design details like movement and animation to make your website feel more interactive and intuitive.

For some examples on how design details can make a difference, check out the showcase Little Big Details (https://littlebigdetails.com/).

Details matter: All design decisions should be purposeful and strategic, down to the minute details. Tweet this

4. User experience

A small change can make a huge difference in the success of your website. Consider this: BestBuy.com adjusted their checkout process to allow users to skip the sign-up process, and that small change alone brought in an extra $300 mllion per year [source].

As you can see, improving the user experience doesn’t require an overhaul of your website. Making small adjustments to seemingly unimportant details – like the color of a button or the placement of an error message – can be enough to see a positive change. Oftentimes, these type of details are overlooked or not given strategic thought, and opportunities to help your user better navigate your website are lost. The easier and more intuitive you can make a process for your users, the better results you will get.

Details matter: A small change to the user experience can make a huge difference in the success of your website. Tweet this

5. Testing

Once a website has been designed and developed, it is tempting to get it out in the world as fast as possible. However, the final steps in wrapping up a website project are some of the most important – specifically finalizing and testing.

Implementing a detailed quality assurance process will result in a more functional website with less issues. Spend time testing and reviewing details such as links or even spelling. A website without errors, functionality or otherwise, will come across as more professional and trustworthy to users.