How to add emojis to your website
Emojis are an easy way to add some fun to the text on your website. In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to find the emojis you can add and then give you a few examples of ways you could use them on your website in a tasteful way (without going totally 😜 and turning off potential customers).
The history of emojis
As explained in this article, the original emojis were invented in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita for Japanese users. After Apple hid an emoji keyboard in the first iPhone in 2007 to surprise its Japanese customers, emojis quickly became popular all over the world. These days, you have several hundred to choose from on your computer. You can also learn about emoji meanings and copy them from the giant catalog of emojis: Emojipedia.
Adding emojis to a line of text
Both Mac and Windows PC computers have emoji pickers built in. When you are in a line of text, use the keyboard combinations below to bring up the emoji picker and select an emoji. The image will be added as the next character in the line of text. It will be the same size as the text style assigned to that portion of text.
Viewing emojis on a Windows PC
Click the Windows key + period (.) or semi-colon (;) to open the emoji picker.
Viewing emojis on a Mac
Click Ctrl + Command + Space to bring up the emoji picker.
Places to use emojis
Emojis add a touch of fun and expressiveness to a line of text, but should be used sparingly on a website. And if your business is a serious one, it might not be appropriate to use them at all. Use your good judgment. 😉
Here are some places on a website where a little emoji bling might work. Let me know if you think of other places as well!
Blog posts
Depending on the tone and content of your blog posts, you may find that adding a few emojis at points in your blog posts is appropriate. Just like with social media posts, an emoji conveys some extra emotion that heightens the message in the text. If your blog posts are lighthearted and casual or if you share something of your personal feelings in them, emojis won’t be out of place. 👍
Announcements
If you have an announcement about an upcoming event or a notice that needs a little visual emphasis, an emoji can be used as a small but eye-catching graphic. Here’s an example of a phone emoji I used to highlight the addition of a phone pledge for a community fundraiser.
Example of an emoji used for visual emphasis in an announcement
Confirmation messages
If it works for the personality of your business and your website, you can add emojis to confirmation messages, like those that are shown after signing up for a mailing list or submitting a Contact form inquiry.
Example of an emoji used in a confirmation message
About pages
Some of my clients have started businesses inspired by personal journeys that they share on their About page. If your business and your website share something of who you are and have a more personal feeling, you may find that adding a few emojis to your About page is fitting.
Example of an emoji on an About page
Website footer
Emojis can be used as a graphic cue to accompany text links typically used in footers, such as an email address, a contact link, or a scheduler. If footers already have a social media icon bar with small images, other emojis in the footer complement them.
You can add an emoji next to any line of text. The example below shows how I added emojis to the Navigation Title for the footer navigation items so they show up automatically with the page names. Footer navigation is a feature available for some Squarespace 7.0 templates, but you can simulate footer navigation in Squarespace 7.1 by writing text and creating links that go to other pages and adding emojis next to the text.
Example of emojis in a footer
Which icons will work for your website?
Select emojis for your website that match the tone and feeling of your website overall. Try to avoid choosing emojis whose colors clash with your website colors.
And if you’re looking for popular emojis, you might find it helpful to know that these were the top 10 emojis used on Twitter in both 2021 and 2020, according to this article.
Go ahead…Spread a little cheer
Adding a little cheer to your communications is good for you, as well as your readers. Whether you do it with words, emojis, or both…the smile you pass along will surely make its way back to you.
