Even if you don't directly sell products and services online, your website is one of the most important tools for long-term business success. When prospective customers research products and services like yours, when they want to know more about your company or where your business is, and even when they search for expert answers to questions in line with your industry, everything needs to point to one place: your website.
Consider how much of your digital marketing orients (or should orient) around a central website:
A lot of marketing energy focuses on projects like those listed above. But without a strong website that operates quickly, provides value, and is pleasant to use, all that effort won't lead to meaningful conversion rates. So before you start creating new marketing campaigns, devote time to auditing and improving your website—or building one if you don't have a website at all.
If you're not sure where to get started, Decographic is a digital marketing agency located in Miami that specializes in web design and web development as part of our online marketing services, for clients all over the world and our local South Florida market.
Read through these four essential elements of strategic web design, and then reach out to schedule a consultation about remaking your website so it provides more value.
Mobile devices outweigh laptops and desktops—as of this year, over 60% of web traffic is through devices like smartphones. That means you need a website expressly designed to be convenient and easy to navigate on a very small screen and with taps instead of clicks.
In many ways, mobile sites are already more advantageous: shoppers can tap your number to call you, set your store as the destination on their map app, and pull up your menu or catalog as they're walking in the door. But the overwhelming shift from desktop use to mobile devices means a mobile-first site is no longer a matter of choice; it's a matter of necessity.
Professional web design services are crucial in either transforming your site to be mobile-first or building a new site. This is because you need to accommodate a very wide range of phone screen sizes, OS systems of varying ages, and even types of devices. Web development professionals can build your website so it automatically resizes buttons, menus, and images so it's easy for everyone to use.
Is your website accessible? Many small and local businesses stop at simply asking if their websites are navigable—that is, do the links work, are there minimal 404 errors, and can someone familiar with the Internet get what they need from your website with a bit of searching around? But if your website is simply functional enough to meet the needs of the average user, you're leaving large portions of your target market unserved. You might also be breaking regulatory requirements.
In the United States, commercial websites must be accessible to all users, including users with disabilities. The ADA sets standards and requirements so a website is suitably accessible and accommodates disabilities such as visual impairment, audio impairment, and limited physical mobility.
For example, your website needs to have suitable color contrast between the fonts and backgrounds—or at least an accessible mode that improves contrast and readability. Videos should have captions or text to capture any audio information; they should also have subtitles with descriptions to capture visual information. Many websites also need to be compatible with programs that allow users with disabilities to give commands for navigation and interacting with fields.
As a starting point, businesses can learn more about WCAG 2.0 standards and review their websites for any areas that fall short. Then, consider adding opportunities for multilingual services and interactions. You can also work with a professional web design service that prioritizes WCAG standards and overall accessibility.
A website is your opportunity to showcase your brand and the unique value your business provides. But every business needs to carefully weigh uniqueness against convenience when you're building out your design plans. It can be tempting to aim for unique website styles and infrastructures that take visitors on an adventure. Unfortunately, however, that doesn't match the interests of most online shoppers.
Instead, there are core elements that need to be fully standardized, even boring and predictable. These include how your navigation is laid out, where your contact information can be found, interaction with your online ordering system or shopping carts, and even your newsletters and blog. When online visitors can't immediately locate what they're looking for, they quickly become confused or frustrated—mobile users, especially, are looking for convenience rather than cleverness.
Instead of building out completely unique widgets and pathways, funnel your creativity into images, videos, text content, and memorable messaging. This helps your online audiences. It also helps search engine bots crawling across your website decide how to sort through your website for relevance and value. In the background, this also translates to a standardized site map and all the meta elements that aren't blatantly apparent on the front end or back end of your site but which play a large role in its success.
Similarly, it's important to have a very simple website. You want animations, but only the animations that enrich the experience of online visitors without slowing down your website. You'll want to have a lot of content (such as articles, videos, and even separate store pages for every location), but you want the content to fall into a simple, organized hierarchy.
Talk to your web developer about the organization that runs throughout your website, widgets such as appointment schedulers or online menus, and any other added functionalities. They can build a cohesive whole rather than complex and fractured pages. You can still have all the advanced tools and resources you want your customers to have, but the underlying infrastructure needs to be clean, fast, and simple.
Designing a great website isn't just as simple as designing a beautiful website. Instead, it needs to be engineered or reengineered to follow best practices for site speed, accessibility, navigability, and convenience. At Decographic, we provide our clients with strategic web design options that prioritize performance and long-term ROI.
Reach out today to get a professional review of your website from our Miami web design experts, and start improving it to do more.