Typography in Web Design: Why Your Font Choices Actually Matter

Most Dubuque business owners don't think about fonts. They're either using whatever their website builder suggested by default or they picked something that "looked nice" without understanding why. And honestly? That's fine for a lot of businesses. But here's the thing: typography—the fonts you choose and how you use them—quietly influences whether people actually read your content, trust your brand, and take action on your website.

Typography isn't about artistic expression or design trends. It's about making your content easy to read, reinforcing your brand, and removing friction between visitors and the actions you want them to take. Bad typography makes people leave. Good typography is invisible—it just works.

Let's break down what actually matters about typography for Iowa small business websites, minus the design school theory you don't need.

Readability: The Only Thing That Actually Matters

Every typography decision should start with one question: can people easily read this? Decorative fonts might look cool in your logo, but if visitors have to squint or re-read sentences, they'll leave. Your website isn't art—it's communication.

Here's what makes text readable on screens: sufficient size (at least 16px for body text), adequate contrast between text and background (dark text on light backgrounds or vice versa), and appropriate line spacing (text crammed together is exhausting to read).

Test this yourself. Open your website on your phone. Can you comfortably read the body text without zooming? If you're over 40, ask someone in their 60s to try reading your site. If they struggle, your text is probably too small or lacks sufficient contrast.

Readability isn't about making things bigger for people with vision problems—it's about reducing cognitive load for everyone. Easier-to-read text means people actually consume your content instead of skimming and leaving.

Serif vs. Sans-Serif: Does It Really Matter?

You've probably heard that serif fonts (like Times New Roman, with the little "feet" on letters) are traditional and professional, while sans-serif fonts (like Arial, without the feet) are modern and clean. There's some truth to this, but it's not a hard rule.

For screen reading, sans-serif fonts generally perform better because they're cleaner and easier to render at small sizes on various screen resolutions. That's why most modern websites use sans-serif fonts for body text. But serif fonts work great for headings or when you want a more established, traditional feel.

For Iowa businesses, consider your industry and customers. Law firms and financial services often use serif fonts to convey authority and tradition. Tech startups and creative agencies lean toward clean sans-serif fonts. Home services and restaurants can go either way depending on their brand personality.

The key is consistency and readability, not whether you picked serif or sans-serif. A well-chosen serif font beats a poorly-chosen sans-serif every time.

Font Pairing: Don't Make This Complicated

Most websites use two fonts: one for headings and one for body text. Design theory says you need complementary fonts that create visual interest without conflicting. In practice? Pick two fonts that look good together and move on.

The easiest approach: use the same font family for both headings and body text, just with different weights (bold for headings, regular for body). This almost always works and maintains consistency. Google Fonts like Open Sans, Roboto, or Lato offer multiple weights and work well for this approach.

If you want more contrast, pair a serif heading font with a sans-serif body font, or vice versa. Popular pairings that work: Merriweather (serif) for headings with Open Sans (sans-serif) for body text. Montserrat (sans-serif) for headings with Lora (serif) for body text.

What doesn't work: using three or more different fonts, pairing decorative fonts together, or choosing fonts that are too similar to each other. Keep it simple and focus on readability over creativity.

Hierarchy: Making Important Things Look Important

Typography hierarchy means your H1 headings should be bigger than H2s, which should be bigger than H3s, which should be bigger than body text. This sounds obvious, but I've seen countless Dubuque business websites where everything is roughly the same size, making it impossible to scan and find key information.

A typical hierarchy might look like: H1 at 32-48px, H2 at 24-32px, H3 at 20-24px, and body text at 16-18px. The exact sizes matter less than the clear visual difference between levels.

Why does this matter? Because most website visitors don't read—they scan. They're looking for specific information: your services, your prices, your location, how to contact you. Clear hierarchy helps them quickly identify sections and find what they need without reading every word.

Use bold or color strategically to create additional hierarchy within body text. Important sentences or key benefits can be bolded. Calls-to-action can use a brand color to stand out. Just don't overdo it—if everything is bold or colored, nothing stands out.

Line Length and Spacing: The Invisible Readability Factors

Line length is how many characters appear on each line of text. Too long, and readers lose their place when moving to the next line. Too short, and reading feels choppy. The sweet spot is 50-75 characters per line for body text.

Most business websites make text too wide, especially on desktop screens. Your paragraph shouldn't stretch across the entire width of a large monitor. Use a maximum width container—usually around 700-800px—to keep lines at a comfortable length.

Line spacing (also called line height) is the vertical space between lines of text. Too tight, and text feels cramped and hard to follow. Too loose, and it looks disconnected. Generally, aim for 1.5 to 1.7 times your font size for body text.

These factors are subtle but crucial. Text with proper line length and spacing feels effortless to read. Poor spacing makes the same content feel like work. Small changes here can significantly improve how long people stay on your pages.

Mobile Typography: Where Most Sites Fail

More than half your visitors are on mobile devices, yet many websites barely adjust typography for smaller screens. Text that looks fine on desktop becomes tiny and unreadable on phones.

Mobile typography needs special attention: slightly larger body text (18px often works better than 16px), more generous spacing between tappable elements, shorter line lengths, and bigger heading sizes to maintain hierarchy despite the smaller screen.

Test your website on an actual phone, not just by resizing your browser. Can you read body text without zooming? Are buttons and links easy to tap? Does text wrap properly without awkward line breaks? If not, your mobile typography needs work.

Don't assume responsive design automatically fixes typography. Many responsive templates scale fonts down too aggressively on mobile, prioritizing fitting everything on screen over actual readability. Override these defaults if necessary to maintain readable text sizes.

Brand Consistency: Typography as Identity

Your font choices contribute to brand recognition and perception. Professional services need fonts that convey trust and competence. Creative businesses can use more distinctive fonts to show personality. Retail and restaurants need clear, welcoming typography.

Whatever fonts you choose, use them consistently across your entire website. Your heading font should be the same on every page. Your body text font shouldn't randomly change. This consistency—even if visitors don't consciously notice it—builds trust and professionalism.

If you have existing brand materials (business cards, brochures, signage), try to match or complement those fonts on your website. This creates cohesion between your physical and digital presence. Customers should feel like they're interacting with the same business, whether they're looking at your business card or your website.

That said, don't sacrifice readability for brand consistency. If your logo uses a decorative font that looks great at large sizes, don't force that font into body text where it becomes hard to read. Use it for headings or accent elements instead, and pair it with a highly readable font for content.

Accessibility: Typography That Works for Everyone

Accessible typography isn't just for people with disabilities—it makes your site better for everyone. Sufficient text size helps older users, people viewing on small screens, and anyone in bright sunlight. High contrast helps anyone with imperfect vision or less-than-perfect screen quality.

Minimum accessibility guidelines recommend 16px body text, a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between text and background, and avoiding color as the only way to convey information (because colorblind users can't rely on color alone).

Test your text contrast using free tools like WebAIM's Contrast Checker. If your text fails, either darken the text, lighten the background, or both. Light gray text on white backgrounds might look elegant, but it's nearly impossible for many people to read.

Accessible typography also means using actual headings (H1, H2, H3 tags) instead of just making text bigger and bold. Screen readers rely on proper heading structure to help blind users navigate your content. This is good for SEO too—search engines use heading structure to understand your content.

Common Typography Mistakes That Cost You Customers

All caps for long text: Short all-caps headings work fine. Entire paragraphs in all caps are exhausting to read. Capitals slow reading speed because we recognize words partly by their shape, and all-caps text has uniform shape.

Centered body text: Centered text works for short headings or callouts. For paragraphs, it's harder to read because your eyes have to search for the start of each line instead of returning to the same left margin. Stick to left-aligned text for body content.

Too many font weights and styles: Using regular, italic, bold, and bold italic all on the same page looks chaotic. Pick one or two weights and use them consistently. Bold for emphasis, regular for everything else. You rarely need italic on screen.

Decorative fonts for body text: Script fonts, handwriting fonts, and decorative display fonts are great for logos and short headings. They're terrible for paragraphs. If someone has to slow down to read your text, your font choice is wrong.

Text over busy images: Placing text directly over photos often creates readability problems. Either add a semi-transparent overlay behind the text, use a solid color background, or choose images with clear, simple backgrounds where text is placed.

How to Evaluate Your Current Typography

Open your website and honestly assess: Can you easily read all the text on both desktop and mobile? Is there clear visual hierarchy showing what's most important? Do your font choices match your brand personality? Does your site look professional and trustworthy?

Ask someone unfamiliar with your business to find specific information on your site. Watch where they struggle. If they miss important content because it doesn't stand out, you have a hierarchy problem. If they squint or zoom, you have a readability problem.

Compare your site to competitors and businesses you admire. You're not copying them—you're calibrating your expectations. If every competitor has larger, more readable text and you're using 14px gray text, you're probably behind.

Remember: good typography is invisible. Visitors shouldn't notice your fonts—they should just find your content easy to read and understand. If people comment on your fonts (positively or negatively), that might actually be a sign something's off. The goal is effortless communication, not artistic expression.

Getting Typography Right From the Start

If you're building a new website or redesigning an existing one, work with designers who understand practical typography for business websites. At Sleepy Cow Media, we focus on typography that works—readable on all devices, accessible to all users, and aligned with your brand personality.

Typography isn't about following design trends or showcasing creativity. It's about making sure every visitor can easily read, understand, and act on your content. Get that right, and everything else—conversions, credibility, customer satisfaction—becomes easier.