Building and maintaining a website can be tricky, especially since there is only so much time in a day. If you’re ashamed of your website, that’s okay. The beautiful thing about the internet is change is right at our fingertips. Here are a few tricks you can use to spice up your website today.

1. Figure out your target audience.

Your target audience is a group of various individuals that connect with your content because of their shared values and attributes. A helpful way to figure out your target audience is to create audience personas.
An audience persona is an imaginary person you get to create entirely in your head that you think would read your content. The more characteristics you give them, the better.

Check out this website called nomeatathlete. As you can see, it’s a website for athletes that don’t eat meat. That’s the target audience. When it comes to building an audience persona, there could be an imaginary character named Josh, who is just beginning his vegan journey but is worried about eating the right foods for his wrestling career. He needs to maintain muscle but also does not want to eat animal products anymore.

Now, content can be created specifically for Josh, your imaginary audience persona who could very well exist in real life and might just want to visit your website.

It’s helpful to create 2-3 different audience personas.

By taking time to figure out your target audience and writing directly for them, you’ll notice an increase in website traffic and activity.

2. Is your design boring or alluring?

Your website design is the first thing that will captivate your audience’s attention. Here are a few ways you can make your design pop.

• Animation -Include some moving parts on your website. Animation is a great way to grab your audience’s attention and create a visual story. Check out the animation on Handwrytten. It’s subtle, simple, yet it grabs your attention almost immediately.

• High-Quality Images – Include images such as a photo gallery or on individual pages. People love pictures. We are very visual creatures in that way, so provide beautiful imagery on your site.
• Color – Yes, you want to add color to your website. Sometimes, just a splash of color will do. Overwhelming visitors to your site with many different colors that make no sense together might not be the best call. Subtle color pops throughout your site are the way to captivate your audience.

Check out the website Milkable. Notice how they utilize the colors of blue and white to captivate the milk imagery. When I scrolled down, I noticed a yellow color that really stood out and made me want to click the link. Color is very, very powerful. When first starting on your web adventure, less is more.

3. Include an ‘About Us’ page to build a connection with your audience.

As humans, we need connections with other humans to survive. The rules of the game don’t change when it comes to the internet. It’s so essential to build a relationship with your audience, let them know who you are. Be authentic in yourself and your website. Including an ‘About us’ page is a great way to let people know who you are and what your website is for. Throw in a picture of yourself too! This will allow readers to feel as if they know exactly who is talking to them throughout the website.

4. Keep it Simple.

Don’t overcomplicate your website. KISS, keep it simple, silly! Google actually performed a study that showed website visitors don’t like an overcomplicated design; it’s a pretty big turn-off from your site. You can keep it simple by sticking to a standard layout. More and more websites are also doing away with the sidebar for a cleaner effect.
Most website visitors will not stay on your site long.

The average time users spend on a webpage is anywhere from 10-20 seconds, then poof. They are gone. If your website is simple, chances are users will hold their attention a bit longer. Once users stay past the 30-second mark, they will likely spend more time on your site because your site holds value to them.

Simplify your site. Make it easy to read. Make it fun to navigate. This is your website that you get to create! Have fun with it, and remember, nothing is permanent. Everything can be easily changed and altered.