It’s a frequent discussion when designing websites…

Why can’t I use a really cool looking font everywhere on my site?

The answer is simple…You can, IF you make everything an image, or you go with an all Flash website (not recommended for SEO). Why is this? Again, simple, but not widely understood….Not every computer in the world has those cool fonts installed on it.

Scenario: So let’s say your using a really neat handwritten style font you have called “Ex Ponto Pro” because you want your site to look like a handwritten letter. On your machine it looks fabulous! However, you decide to check out your site on your son’s laptop, and then you see it….a substitution! His laptop doesn’t have “Ex Ponto Pro” installed on it, so it’s substituting that font with something it has…and boy is it UGLY! The whole idea of your site is completely moot because the font’s not right!

Solutions: There are two ways to fix this issue. They can and should be combined.

(1) Create Images. You can make every page full of textual images, increase your load time and lose all your Search Engine Optimization, or you can choose certain sections that you really want to stand out, and change those text areas into images. Keep in mind that images do not carry the same “weight” with the search engines as text (even with detailed alt tags), so you should make every effort to only use non-keywords (or keywords that you repeat frequently) in your textual images. (example for me would be: design, graphics, purchase, contact, about, email, etc.).

(2) Use Browser Safe Fonts. Using these commonly installed fonts will mean that your site content will look the same no matter who is browsing, and what type of computer they are using (PC or Mac).

List of Browser Safe Fonts:

Arial
Book Antiqua/Palatino
Comic Sans
Courier New
Georgia
Lucida Console
Tahoma
Times New Roman
Trebuchet MS
Verdana

Verdana happens to be my personal favorite, because there is a very significant difference between bolded and normal…why bother to bold something if it’s not going to stand out?

Once you understand this very important aspect of web design, you’ll be able to make the decisions necessary to create your “killer” website!

I’ve written before about using your tagline (or slogan) in your logo, so most of you know that I’m against it in the logo in the first place (The Memorability of Your Logo). But another good point to bring up when it comes to the internet is whether to use a text tagline, or an image.

It’s actually a very easy question to answer. Does your tagline include any of your keywords? If that answer is yes, then your tagline should be text and should be placed in your website header.

This was a lesson I learned early in my internet career. When I went online in 2002 with my Stationery shop, I decided that my creativity meant that I could design and implement my own website. I had a logo for “Classic Creations Stationery & Gifts” and so I used it. Within 6 months of starting my website, I had learned a lot about keywords and SEO. I realized that “Classic Creations” could be anything and while it was important to my current catalog customers (for finding my site), my crucial keywords were “Stationery and Gifts”. Thus, I made the decision to use them as a text tagline in my page header. Of all the things I did back then, that was the smartest! My traffic tripled within the days and weeks following that change!

If your tagline is something akin to “Your One Stop Shop”-there are two issues at play here…

ONE: it obviously is not important to your SEO, so use an image with a cool font.

TWO: WHY aren’t you using keywords in your tagline and taking advantage of the benefits it will provide to your Search Engine Optimization??? Just adding one word would make all the difference: “Your One Stop Stationery Shop”. And suddenly the text “stationery” is on the top of every page of your site.

Something very important to consider…