Do you want to maximize the impact of your local business site?
Website design amounts to more than aesthetic preferences. Especially if you have a local business site that you want to use for converting leads into customers. In these scenarios, the website design can make or break your online business.
The right website design features all the necessary elements that help to lead your visitors into the sales funnel. You should check all the elements of your site to assess how efficient they are in boosting revenue.
In the following article, we’ll list the top design principles for maximizing the impact of your local business site. You’ll learn about the practical website design tips that help you create a solid online presence.
#1: Practice Goal-Oriented Design
Before you create any design, make sure that you know what you want to achieve with your site. Maybe you want to generate leads for a service offline or you might want to sell your products online. Whatever the goal is, make sure you have one in the first place.
The design choices you make should serve the site’s purpose. Different goals and conversion units will lead to the use of unique design principles and digital marketing methods.
#2: Choose the Right Colors
Many business owners feel that picking the colors for their websites is an arbitrary choice. In reality, colors play a crucial role in how the site visitors feel about your products or services.
One of the basic principles sees reflecting the color schemes you use offline. But that might not always work out. Some colors may not work as well online as they do offline. Or your business offline doesn’t have any distinct brand colors at all. You have to design your site’s color scheme from scratch in these cases.
#3: Opt for High-Quality Visuals
Your local business site will benefit from high-quality images and videos. When you have images with poor quality, visitors will stick around for a shorter time and will judge your business as less professional and reliable.
High-quality images can boost the conversion rate of your site. And people are more likely to feel that your business is trustworthy and professional. However, you don’t have to necessarily pay big dollars for high-res images. You can use free services like Pixabay and Unsplash.
#4: Declutter Your Pages
Too much information is less than ideal. Your visitors can easily get confused and they could abandon your website quickly, which raises the bounce rate in turn. Aim to have as much information as necessary, but nothing in excess.
Website copy is only one component that could clutter your site. For instance, irrelevant social widgets and various gimmicks can negatively affect your site’s performance for retaining users.
Ensure that there is a balance between graphics and text on your website. Too much of either element can offset the delicate design balance and turn the user experience into a less desirable form.
#5: Focus on SEO
Optimizing your site for Google and other search engines is essential. Doing this will help the people in the area to find your local business online. Smart design solutions maximize the potential of SEO. Safari SEO Agency state that the importance of website design considerations has been greatly heightened by the 2021 Google page experience update which changes the way that Google looks at website design and usability for SEO rankings.
- Optimize your site’s blog posts so that search engine robots can “read” it more easily; for instance, include appropriate headers in the articles and alt tags for images
- Create an XML sitemap that shows the location of pages on your site to Google bots
- Make sure your website works and looks great on mobile
- Ramp up your content creation efforts to earn more links for the site
#6: Allow for an Easy Navigation
Navigation should be one of your top priorities. This is especially true in the age of mobile internet use. It’s important to provide convenient and easy navigation for your users who access your site via smartphone or tablet.
Keep top-level navigation menus to 4-6 tabs at most. Organize all of the related pages under these top-level categories. Make sure that this menu with its sub-categories is convenient in smartphone browsers as well.
Refrain from adding too many menus on your site. Having one (or two, at most) central point of access is enough for most local business websites. The content on the website isn’t that complicated to warrant for more complex solutions.
#7: Go for Simple over Complicated
A simple design is the way to move forward. You want your users to easily access all of the important pages and posts on your site. Having too many complicated design elements on your page will distract your visitors from the purpose of your website.
A simple design is also easier to fix when there are any problems with the code or updates to the content management system (CMS). And these websites could possibly rank higher on Google because faster sites receive better positions on search results.
#8: Write Short but Sweet Content
Short sentences and paragraphs are better. Some business owners post content that resembles long essays. This is a sub-optimal approach to website design. People have very short attention spans today. You need to write content accordingly.
You may feel that your services or products deserve more praise or background information. Instead of writing about your offering, use the principle of “show, don’t tell”. Embed images that showcase how your product is used in real life.
In a Nutshell: Design for Your Local Business Site
Design affects the performance and profitability of your local business site. It’s an area that needs a steady focus and work in order to serve your needs.
Here are the top design principles for your local business site:
- Keep your website’s pages simple and free of digital clutter
- Set a concrete goal for your website before working on any design
- Have only high-quality photos and videos on your site
- Ensure convenient and easy navigation, including mobile users
- Choose colors that work nicely in a digital environment
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