The concept of designing a website sounds simple and relatively straightforward. It requires a basic layout and intentional choices regarding colors and fonts. However, reaching your site objectives such as increasing the traffic that visits requires strategic planning. 

Strategizing involves:

• Identifying your target consumer.
• Defining site goals.
• Developing a branding scheme.
• Optimizing content.  

A quality, attractive, and functional web design will entice prospective customers and convert them into a loyal New York City audience. Many business owners are under the misperception that a site should be “packed” with detail.  

In fact, prospects will interact further when the site is concise and efficient with valuable and relevant content. It should focus on the user experience.  

Engaged prospects are less likely to be distracted or stray in an effort to find a crisp site with a more precise and powerful message, something that should be apparent with each component. Visit How to Create a Business Website | Tips | Simply Business for the do’s and don’ts of website design. 

Key Elements for Achieving Quality Web Design 

Surprisingly, roughly half of the small business community has a website. Many business leaders have false notions that few people use the web to search for information on local businesses and that a site would have little effect on their company’s growth and success. 

In reality, most customers search online for goods and services to meet their needs. Small business leaders often avoid designing a website because they’re uncertain how to approach it. The idea of web design seems complex and costly. 

Fortunately, experts in web design NYC use tried-and-true practices to boost brand recognition and reputation and enhance the user experience. Follow to learn the key areas to focus on to achieve these objectives. 

The Site Strategy 

A well-thought-out website plan should identify the target consumer and outline key objectives. When you have an idea of who your audience is, you can better prepare valuable content. You can do this through blog pages, landing pages, social network profiles, and on. 

This content should be readily accessible to the audience using a distinct page hierarchy that prioritizes theme and value. The home page is a critical element placed at the top level. Other pages that fit here include “About Us,” “Contact,” “Goods/Services,” and “Blog/Resources.”  

Engaging and relevant content will be included, and the whiteboard will enhance the setup. By incorporating breadcrumb navigation, prospects can seamlessly navigate throughout to find key details that satisfy their needs.  

Simple Elements 

A complex and crowded site will overwhelm and confuse prospects preventing conversions. An effective web design that positively impacts your audience must be clear and concise with simple elements.  

A minimal scheme will include only a few, no more than three colors that coordinate with the brand, taking advantage of whitespace.  

Simplicity allows prospective customers to discover your purpose and the message you want to convey as they navigate throughout the site. Click to learn what constitutes good or bad design. 

CTA – Calls to Action 

CTA – calls to action should be direct, clearly indicating the action you want users to take, such as “call us for an estimate today.” 

Once page structure is established, content sections can be outlined, and well-defined CTAs can be implemented with pop-ups incorporated to encourage conversions. 

Responsive Design 

Many small business sites neglect the small device when designing their website forgetting that a considerable portion of traffic is mobile. Not only should you consider desktop usability, but the site should also be optimal for mobile use before anything is published. 

Prospective customers will leave a site that’s not mobile responsive; it appears unprofessional and can hurt SEO. Despite having tight resources with your small business, a mobile-responsive site allows access to a broader audience. A site that considers mobile users could achieve growth from this increase in traffic. 

Social Sharing Icons 

Expand brand awareness and with buttons that allow prospective customers to obtain additional details about your business via social networks. Details such as location, customer testimonials, images, and so on will be readily available to users. 

A priority as a business owner is to produce fresh, valuable and engaging social content for media feeds and blogs setting this element apart from stagnating top-level pages such as the home page. These stay the same over the long term. 

Organic Search Optimization 

The algorithm with search engines is complex and includes hundreds of ranking criteria websites must meet to rank highly. A small business can optimize its site for organic search despite the level of competition and complexity involved. A few SEO strategies include: 

• SEO elements such as keywords and metadata should be included. The primary keyword should be seamlessly integrated into the header tags, metadata, any tags, the body copy, and the URL. 

• Each update should focus on keywords with a unique primary keyword with each update. You will optimize each page with this primary keyword. Keyword research will help you find low-competition and high-volume keywords. 

• Copy length is integral in SEO.  A sufficient test gives data to website crawlers to assess and index for search engines. 

404 Page 

A primary element for an effective website design is a 404 page. A 404 in massive bold print will appear when users type an incorrect URL, when the server is down, or when a webpage moves locations; it’s easily among the most visited web pages. 

Many small business owners opt for an “oops” page, but a 404 page offers companies opportunities such as: 

• To add a lead form 
• To infuse personality 
• To offer discounts or promotions 
• To provide helpful resource links 

Final Thought 

These website design and development ideas guide small businesses in New York City toward the objective of an effective site. Company owners can be successful in this endeavor if they intentionally strategize. The process takes considerable time, patience, and effort.

If you can’t sacrifice the time away from core operations, reaching out to a professional web designer is wise to help achieve your desired goals.