You’ve been putting a lot of work into your website, and you want to make sure your website is the valuable business tool you know it can be. Whether you’re looking for clients or supervising a successful company, your website is an excellent lead generator. Tuning it up can only make it more effective.
Brand Identity
Humans overall are visual creatures. This focus on the optical means you have only a few seconds at most to make a stunning first impression or the visitor leaves. This fast decision makes professional, consistent branding vital for your web design since many visitors don’t stick around long enough to read a word. This coordination in graphic design, website accents, and content proves you’re serious about your job.
Once you’ve snagged your visitor, it’s also vitally important to keep messaging clear. You do not want to give your potential customers whiplash by jumping around to different topics or changing how you address them on each page. Either of those scenarios makes it more difficult for potential clients to believe you can provide them consistent success.
Core Pages
Every website needs a minimum core of four pages included in the web design. Most sites start with just a home page for the wide-angle view of your site. Then you added an about us page to tell your story and build trust. The next requirement needed to be a contact us page, which made your business information prominent. Without that, your customers give up in frustration. Last, you need a page explaining what packages you offer or what you do, so your customers know your company is perfect for their needs.
Another consideration with core pages is the background pages. While these may lack pretty graphic design features, in many places they are a legal requirement. A terms of service for the website itself is vital for preventing misuse and protecting your company. Privacy policies are also essential and legally required in many parts of the world, including the US. Additionally, if you have any intention of doing business in Europe, you must have a cookie policy and the necessary coding to match.
General SEO
While search engine optimization (SEO) may sound like a delayable backend project, not doing it will hurt your business long term. White hat SEO requires time to build since you cannot just buy 50 backlinks to boost your ratings. If you desire to rank number one in search results for something, say “website design Rockford”, you’ll need to make a long-term plan of client-focused content to get there. Additionally, you’ll need to pick your SEO battles since it’s a lot harder to rank on generic keywords like “graphic design” than it is on local ones like “website design Rockford”.
There are several backend orientated strategies you can employ to boost your SEO ranking without affecting what your potential clients see. Web design for SEO can mean anything from filling in the alternative text on all images to checking out your site’s crawlability.
Accessibility
You have the power to make small changes to your web design to make it easily accessible. Little things like making sure you use Header 1, Header 2, and more in order or enabling high contrast mode make a world of difference to someone with disabilities. Many businesses do not take these little extra steps and doing so may earn you customers for life.
In general, you can start with your page layouts. Keeping pages clean makes it easier for everyone to digest, even if you love a million pieces of graphic design. Additionally, check out your navigation. Ask yourself if you would have an easy time finding each page if you had no clue where it was.
Social Proof
Trust is vital in the relationship with your clients regardless of your size. Generating reviews and displaying them as well as case studies and other forms of social proof score major points with your potential clients. Highlighting these testimonials in your web design with pictures is a fantastic way to demonstrate your success and build that trust. People also trust testimonials more if you do some graphic design magic and include a picture of the person. Just remember, it is illegal to make up testimonials. If you have certain award or accolades, be sure to display those as well. We’ve displayed one of ours below to give you an idea.
Responsive
Responsiveness is another consideration since your site will appear on dozens of device models simultaneously. Not only does this require site hosting on a reliable server with no downtime, but it also means it must adapt. Web design today needs to account for more than half of the traffic on the web coming from mobile devices, and it’s not enough to trust your site looks good on small screens.
Additionally, loading speed is a huge consideration for your consumers. If your web design doesn’t load instantly, many consumers will turn back. Consider downsizing your graphic design elements, removing auto-play options, and adjusting add-on scripts so your site loads lightning fast.
List Building
Another vital piece of your business is your mailing (or emailing) list. This list allows you to keep in touch with the customers who genuinely love your business via email marketing and newsletters, which in turn means they’ll buy more from you. Generally, you’ll need an opt-in form spread across your site so people can join. If you want to grow your list quickly, consider creating a free digital download that gives your clients value with its own page for your customers to opt-in. Even if you’re a small business, a list makes an enormous difference.
Social Media Information
Sometimes, the testimonials aren’t enough, or a potential client isn’t ready to buy. Either way, you want them to have access to more information without extra effort. Social media profile links are a fantastic way to supply this access, and they fit neatly into your web design. After all, you want your customers going to your company’s profile and viewing the graphic design in your feed, not fumbling around trying to find the page.
Security
One of the most overlooked considerations is security in web design. Today, potential customers turn back from sites when browser extensions tell them it’s unsecured. You can ensure that customers reach your site by enabling HTTPS in your settings. You also have the choice to verify what’s called DNS. Verification lets customers know that you do own your website. These small security updates are guaranteed to help your traffic.
That’s your 9 must-haves of an effective website. If you’re looking to have your business website tuned up, audited for effectiveness, or built fresh, don’t wait to contact us at BrandDad Digital. Our experts are ready to work with you and give your business the website it deserves.
