When you’re building a website, there are a few things that are absolutely key to creating the perfect combo of design and strategy. Going into every website design, I have a Master List of 7 non-negotiables that absolutely MUST be built into every website.
If you’re DIYing your website and want my full list of 7 Website Must-Haves, I’ve created a simple checklist (it’s actually check-able!) so you know exactly what you need from the get-go!
Just drop your info below and I’ll send it right to your inbox!
Of these 7 Website Must-Haves, one of the most simple (yet most often overlooked) things is something called whitespace.
What is whitespace?
To put it simply, whitespace is the blank space on your website. Whitespace is any space on your website that is free of images, text, buttons, or other design elements.
Despite its name of “white” space, whitespace does NOT have to be white. Instead of thinking of whitespace as the space that’s white, I encourage you to think of whitespace as simply blank space.
*cues T-Swift lyrics*
Now that we know what whitespace is, let’s talk about why your website needs it…
Why whitespace is important to your website design
Whitespace is important to your website design for a couple of reasons.
1. WHITESPACE HELPS GIVE THE READER SOME BREATHING ROOM
Often times one of the scariest parts of building a website is incorporating whitespace because we worry that it feels empty and in order to make it feel more “full” we need to squish everything closer together.
10/10 do not recommend doing this!
But I get it…
Personally, I think part of this concern stems from way-back-when when we were all writing school reports and taught that we had to pack everything in as tiiiiightly as possible.
The problem in doing that with your website is that packing everything in super close makes your website feel really overwhelming to readers, and causes them to lose focus.
Which leads us to the next reason whitespace is important to your website design…
2. WHITESPACE HELPS READERS FOCUS ON WHAT’S IMPORTANT
This one’s simple.
Think about it this way: If you have 2-3 things in front of you, which do you pay attention to?
Well, you would have to decide…
But if you have ONE thing in front of you, you have no other distractions and that one thing is going to have your full attention.
By kicking this fear of “too much whitespace”, you can confidently put ONE thing in front of your readers at a time instead of #allthethings, which allows your readers to pay better attention to everything you have to share.
3. WHITESPACE HELPS THE EXTRA-IMPORTANT THINGS STAND OUT
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure everything you’re sharing is important… but there’s likely going to be some extra important things that you really want people to see. One obvious example of this is CTAs (calls-to-action) such as buttons.
Buttons are such a powerful way to get someone to take an action, such as sending you a message or making a purchase. But if your button is hidden amongst the clutter of a chaotic website, it’s going to be harder for people to see, and therefore result is less actions taken.
Once again, whitespace is the hero of the day for this issue.
By including whitespace around your CTAs, they’re more likely to stand out and get people to actually do what you’re asking them to do.
Whitespace is your friend
DIYing or improving your website doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
Incorporating whitespace into your website design is a simple way to immediately improve your overall design, and all it takes is adding in a whole lot of nothing!
Don’t be afraid of whitespace… I promise your readers will love it! And while we’re talking about things your readers will love 😉 – don’t forget to snag your copy of my 7 Website Must-Haves Checklist by dropping your info below!
