In the early days of the internet, most websites displayed financial data by using boring plain text and block colors, but that has all changed. Nowadays, visuals are used to show important data in a way readers find easy to digest.
If you fill your site’s pages with complicated financial data, it is highly unlikely that most of your visitors will spend time reading all the content. CSS, plugins, and HTML5 have helped web designers make data look exciting and easy to follow. The average internet user won’t spend all day reading text on your site, instead, they will want to be able to scan through the different pages and almost instantly know what the content is all about.
Use Tables To Display Financial Data
You can use a table to organize and display financial data on your website, which is great for displaying data on a site in a user-friendly, structured way. You can arrange all the financial data in separate rows and columns so the visitor can grasp what is on display. You might want to use gridlines, but you don’t have to. Tables will make comparing financial data easy. Tables are used by many web designers to convey complex information, which makes delivering information overload possible.
Finding the right tables that will suit your website’s design can prove tricky. A lot of people create tables with applications like Google Sheets and Microsoft office, but if you want to make a dynamic table that looks great on your site, you might want to invest in a WordPress table plugin instead.
What Are The Benefits of Using a WordPress Table Plugin?
Presenting a table is a great way of displaying complicated financial data, but without a WordPress plugin, the table won’t be supported by WordPress Visual Editor. Of course, manually adding tables is an option, but the process can prove extremely tedious and time-consuming, so most people opt for a different approach.
Luckily, there are several plugins readily available that allow you to create beautiful-looking tables that don’t require any coding. So before you start brushing up on your HTML skills, consider investing in a plugin. Most plugins allow anyone working on the site to make changes to the table’s content. If you plan on using tables extensively, then you should equip your site with a reliable table plugin. The best plugins will allow you to create and edit simple and complicated tables in a short space of time. If you need to update the table regularly, using a good plugin will help, even if the table has hundreds of rows.
How To Choose the Right Plugin
Unfortunately, building WordPress tables even with a plugin can cause a lot of frustration. Not all plugins allow users to do the same thing, so here are a few things you should look for before investing your hard-earned money:
- Is it easy to use: If you invest in a high-quality table plugin, you will want to make sure that it is easy to use, especially if there are others making changes to the table. Some plugins have a range of pre-built tables, which helps you create tables in minutes.
- Can you upload data from different applications: If you use Excel frequently for financial data, you will want a plugin that allows you to upload the data onto your site from Excel. There are several plugins out there that let users upload XML, CSV, JSON, and Excel files. So make sure that it syncs with whatever application you are currently using.
- Can you ‘Drag and Drop’ data: Lots of plugins have a ‘drag and drop’ interface which makes putting data into different areas of the table child’s play.
- What does the table support: Of course the table should support basic text, but you might want it to support media, custom links, etc.
- Can you build tables from scratch or are you forced to import tables or use some of the pre-built tables on the plugin?
- Will the table automatically sort itself?
A lot of developers give potential customers the opportunity to download a free trial version or a lite version of their plugins. This way, you can try the plugin without spending any cash. Consider downloading a few reputable plugins to see which one you like.
Is the Table Mobile Friendly
A lot of internet users use their smart devices to connect to the web, which is why it is so important to make sure your tables are responsive. Finding a plugin that incorporates different responsive technologies is key to creating a functioning table. Make sure that the table is compatible with both iOS and Android devices, so users can read the table’s content without having to pinch the screen on their mobile device. If the mobile user has difficulty reading the table’s content, you can expect them to leave your site and possibly visit one of your competitors. On top of this, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it can have a devastating impact on your website’s ranking on Google and other major search engines.
If the table isn’t ‘mobile’ responsive, you can expert the table to squish all the content together, which might make it impossible for the user to make sense of it. A responsive table will resize the content so it suits whichever browser you are using.
If you are wondering whether or not your site is mobile-friendly, test it out on several different devices, including iPhones, Android devices, laptops, and tablets. Google has a tool that allows web designers to type in their domain name which will provide you with details on whether your site is mobile-friendly or not.
Does it Look Good?
Some people spend years developing and maintaining their websites. Most web designers are well aware that content that doesn’t look good on their website can damage all of their hard work, so it is critical that the table fits in with your current design.
You must also make sure that the table is easy on the eye. Small websites that rarely present financial data in tables on their site often create tables with Microsoft Excel. They take a screenshot of the table and upload it to the site. Although the process is simple, and maybe you’ll get away with it if you only publish a single table each year, however, it won’t look good on your site, and it’s highly unlikely any of your visitors will notice it. Even if it does catch their eye, there is a very slim chance that they will spend time reading the financial data on display. Just because the content might seem boring, doesn’t mean it can’t be presented in a beautiful way that stands out.
Conclusion
Tables are a superb way of getting your point across. Although you can’t expect all the site’s visitors to read the content inside the tables on display, a well-presented easy to follow table will prove extremely beneficial, especially if you are publishing important financial data. Plugins have helped ease the process, but don’t assume all plugins have the same functions and features, so take your time when finding one that’s right for your website.