We live in a truly amazing time. Even ten years ago, if you wanted to advertise your business, it would be VERY expensive. You’d spend tens of thousands of dollars on outbound (interruption) marketing. The business would invest in billboard ads, TV commercials, newspaper ads, direct 3^rd class mail, radio ads, magazine ads, and more. All of those were not targeted ads, they were done with the hope you’d reach someone who maybe just maybe wanted what you were selling. This annoyed a lot of people and wasted a whole lot of your earned money.

Today with the internet and smartphones things have certainly changed. Now a business can be very surgical in how it spends its precious advertising dollars. Instead of an outbound (spray and pray) method of advertising, a business can focus on inbound (attracting only customers who need your business) marketing. With the right website and digital marketing plan, you can deal with interested warm leads for your business and cut down on the window shoppers. It’s like fishing with dynamite. Customers say, “I’m so lucky I found your business.”. All the while, you knew they were coming to buy from you!

With the right plan, precise marketing, and doing what your business does best, a business can succeed on a global scale with very little investment!

What elements go into a good website design?

• Solid navigation. Your homepage (or landing page) should be able to quickly guide your (potential) customer to the information they are looking for.

• Clear call to action.
• Build trust.
• Proper layout.
• Good SEO (search engine optimization)
• Fast load time.
• Mobile friendly.

Solid navigation

Your homepage (or landing page) should be able to quickly guide your (potential) customer to the information they are looking for.

Your landing pages need to focus on the customer viewpoint. Remember, your website is NOT all about you or your company. It is about showcasing your products or services in a manner that resonates with your audiences. Your landing page should be clean and simple. Don't let customers get distracted by untidy visuals. Create easy-to-scan texts (headings, highlights, bullet points, pictures, easy to read fonts) so that they can easily find what they need.

Clear call to action

What is a call to action?

A call to action is a combination of words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action, such as "Write Now", "Call Now", or (on Internet) "Click Here".

A call to action should be short and sweet. An effective call to action is between two to five words.

There should also be a sense of urgency: If you want your customer to download something, "Download Your E-book Today" is a good example

Build Proper Trust

Design is the main reason why people don't trust certain websites. This is a very valid point. We are a visual species and everything we see has an impact on our emotions, decisions and perception. If you find your website could use a boost in trust from visitors, there are a few things you can do:

Include links to media coverage

Display logos of prominent clients

Showcase your social media followers

Avoid cheap looking or low-quality photography

Avoid pre-made website templates

Proper Layout

How do you find yourself reading pages on a website? Most internet users look at pages in an F-shaped pattern. Horizontally designed sited encourage a Z-shaped reading pattern. Because site visitors like to skim through subheads, bullet points and they only concentrate on the first two paragraphs, focus your website design with these areas in mind.

Good SEO (search engine optimization)

Top positions on the search engine result pages receive most of the impressions and clicks, so ranking in these top positions can result in significant traffic increases for your website.

The digital landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years, but SEO remains an effective and important marketing strategy. SEO is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies because it targets users who are actively looking for your products and services online.

To make your website easier to navigate for the search engines, SEO simultaneously helps to make your website more navigable for users as well.

Fast load time

When it comes to building traffic and keeping visitors on your page, load time plays a primary role. According to Google Analytics, 40% of Web users leave pages that take more than three seconds to load. On average, websites take about 2 seconds to load, but less than one second is optimal to see a big increase in traffic.

Mobile friendly

We live in a mobile age. You can barely have dinner with friends and family without some of us constantly checking out our mobile phone.

Imagine this: a friend sends you a link via text message or email and when you try to open that link on our mobile device, you are presented with unorganized garbage.

This will kill any chance the company has to convert you into a customer. If the user can’t easily browse and read the content on your website from their mobile device, they will leave uninspired.

Unique Content

Your site must be an encyclopedia about what your business specializes in. The information on the site must be custom, unique, and your own. It must educate your customers, as well as communicate what your business brand should mean to them. It can not be stale either. To really make an impact on potential customers and to get ranked for whatever your customers search for, you need regular fresh content on your site. While search engines do like an older established site, they don’t like sites that haven’t changed in months or years. Your site has to remain current and relevant, for your customers as well as the computers that show the site to them.

This is where we shine. We use both the legacy web design process, and are certified in the Growth Driven Web Design method.

With older Web Design methods, a business would only address their website once every 2 years. Typically, only motivated by the website no longer getting leads nor generating business. We are experts in planning and implementing the traditional method. Using this method, we will make sure your business will get the longest life out of your investment.

Growth Driven Web Design

Whereas traditional web design projects require massive effort in a short period of time, and then need to be repeated every one-and-a-half to two years, growth-driven design a much more consistent process that requires a continuous and predictable level of effort on an ongoing basis.

This approach avoids the pitfalls of traditional website design projects and makes budgeting easier while also dramatically improving the performance of your website.

The Benefits of Growth Driven Website Design (GDD):

• Launch a new design in far less time for far less cost (50% faster and 50% cheaper, on average).
• The ability to measure, learn and optimize based on real data
• The power to tweak and change the website as buyer behavior changes
• There is no large up-front cost investment, as cost is spread out over months
• Continual improvements ensure your website is never entirely out-of-date
• Return on investment since your design is based on user data

How much work needs to be done to create the launch pad website; And What ongoing level of effort is going to be required to achieve peak performance for your website design.

Expect to spend upwards of 20 percent more on a growth-driven design project than you would on a traditional web design project. But along with that, recognize that you'll get upwards of 20 percent more in terms of results.

No matter what you decide, our business will be the support your need. We believe in education and honesty. Our goal throughout the sales process is to make sure you know what you’re investing in. It’s also to make sure whatever you choose is the best choice to help your business grow.

Most business owners think a website is just a digital flyer or billboard ad for their business. That’s also why most websites fail at getting new customers. There’s so much more that goes into what makes a good website design for your business. You might be thinking, “How can I get more customers without wasting time, money, and effort?”. Well that’s where a good website designer comes in.