Web icons have become very important nowadays; they help visitors to navigate websites with ease. Considering how technology has transformed the world, every business needs to have a functioning website. Since technology has made life convenient, it is easy to add some design elements such as icons to improve your site’s performance.
You must have come across web icons when interacting with various sites; these are symbols or icons placed on web pages. They can either be set as links or for decorative purposes. If you need to use these design tools, be sure to check Free Icon Vectors by Vectorfair.
Advantages of Using Icons On your Website
Many advantages come with using web icons; here are some reasons that should compel you to start using them on your website.
Ease of Navigating
Icons help people to navigate your website easily. Similar to how road signs aid in directing the traffic, using icons in your site can significantly boost the user experience in your site. When you browse sites that are relatively new to you, the symbols on the website can point you in the right direction. For instance, when you see a magnifying glass, you know that it is a search function. On the other hand, a shopping cart indicates that the site has items for sale.
Marketing and Branding
When icons are well incorporated into your website, they can aid in reinforcing the image of your business. Some of the design elements that can be enhanced through using images include logos, design, style, and theme.
Site Performance
Since symbols help the user interface of a particular site, your website would also rank high in various search results. The use of icons enhances the website by allowing ample room in the content. It makes it easy to read and navigate; consequently, search engines such as Google and Bing will rank your site high in their result pages.
Universal
Since the inter-web community has become highly integrated, people from various parts of the globe can access websites with varying languages. Using icons allow people who speak different languages to navigate your site with much ease. It’s because icons are universal and can be well understood by the majority of people nowadays. It is a feature that would increase the traffic and performance of your website or company since more people would have access to it.
How to Use Symbols on Your Website
If you are considering to use icons, there are some points that you should have in mind to observe the correct practices. The following is a guideline that will help you make the most out of icons.
Common Icons
The very first rule of using icons is to select ordinary symbols. This is an area that does not pay much attention to uniqueness. Ensure you stick to images that are well known and the ones that are widely used.
Test Icons
Even though symbols help with the beautification of your site, it is not the main purpose. Additionally, icons that are obvious to you might not be apparent to your audience. Thus, ensure you test the symbols on your site by asking a few users to examine them out. This will give you a clear perspective of what works and what needs to change.
Clarity
Too much of anything is not always good; thus, you should avoid using too many symbols on your site. The only time you should be using icons should be moments when you want to enhance the clarity of a point. Cramming your site with symbols will only slow it down, thus reducing the overall performance. A good rule of thumb is to remember that icons complement the content of your site. They should not replace it.
Final Thoughts
Symbols have become very instrumental in websites these days. Although the points discussed above are few, they can help you observe the right practices of using symbols.