Monthly Archives: March 2017

web design trends

Choosing the Right Web Design Trends for your Website

One of the key requirements for a successful career in any creative industry is the ability to keep up with trends. These eminent changes are a product of experimentation, modification, and innovation. In the web design industry, there are multiple new trends and styles nearly every year.

While every business hopes to be on the cutting edge of website design trends, it is important that you work with a San Diego web developer that understands the practicality of some of the latest design techniques for your type of business and audience, and only make use of those that make sense to your brand. Making the right decision can mean the difference between improving website usability and sacrificing profits.

Here are some ideas that a skilled web developer in San Diego can use to identify the most ideal trends for your website:

1. Web design is not art While art communicates feelings and provokes emotions, design helps people pursue action. Everything in web design, from content to imagery to navigation must serve a meaningful
purpose. Many old websites have accumulated large amount of clutter over the years. So the first step when redesigning an existing website is to perform a content audit and remove whatever does not aid in the customer journey. If building a website from scratch, the web developer should start by identifying the top tasks, wireframes, and sitemaps as a way to emphasize clarity.

2. Use actual numbers to build credibility A San Diego web developer that has built 50 websites appears more credible than one who has “year of experience in the industry”. Similarly, an agency that has stores/offices/big clients in 5 different cities appears more established than one claiming “nationwide” presence, especially for clients looking to work with a local business.

3. Personalize pre-made themes Coders are increasingly using available CSS frameworks and grids as a basis for their web design projects. They are great for beginner web developers looking for inspiration, and allow established agencies to streamline their work. While frameworks have been accused of contributing to bloated code, they drastically reduce development time and feature device responsiveness, which makes them ideal for most personalization projects. Moreover, developers of paid templates continuously iterate their products based on customer feedback, giving you access to a professional website fast with moderate customization.

4. Stock images versus realistic images While some professional websites can use stock images without diminishing credibility, web developers must know when to use real images that highlight the product or service. An effective image is one that is genuine and relevant. An authentic image could be a product image, a believable story about people benefiting from the product/service, an image showing your expertise or superior quality of product, or an image showing ethics – green, charitable, organic, etc. These could be great alternatives to overused stock photos that could make your site appear outdated.

Final Note While a web developer should be enthusiastic about trends and how they can benefit a client, it is important to choose the elements that showcase the business as credible, ethical, and passionate about their work.

website-design-for-visability

4 Unique Ideas to Give your Website Year Round Visibility

One of the advantages of working with a reputable San Diego web design company is that you have unlimited access to an ever improving range of features aimed at providing a more powerful experience for your audience.

A professional website is one of the most effective tools for informing your audience about the products and services you have developed. This is particularly important if you are targeting a local audience, because more and more consumers are conducting online searches to compare items between different businesses before making a purchase decision.

Upgrading your website allows you to:

  • Build a strong brand and online presence – An innovative design can make your business look professional and establish you as an industry leader in your area of operation
  • Save more time and energy – Newer technologies make it easier to organize your content, schedule content posting, optimize your content, and perform a myriad of other essential tasks that enhance your lead generation and conversions
  • Improve your return on investment – Improving the interaction and engagement with your website visitors improves customer conversion and retention, increasing your sales.

Choosing the right San Diego web design company can help you transform your website into a revenue-generating powerhouse by implementing strategies such as:

1. Market Landing Pages Landing pages are unique pages of content on your site that are specifically created to appeal to your market segment. So, if you are serving multiple local markets spread across San Diego, you can use landing pages to focus and work on your specific markets. Market landing pages are also great for improving your website SEO.

2. Add videos Most websites today feature blogs that offer informative content to introduce company offerings and expand on the commonly asked questions. This content can be tailored for consumption in different ways, including infographics, photos, and videos. Videos are particularly great for SEO and showing your consumer how to benefit from your product/service. You can embed a single video on your website homepage, or create a page that is dedicated to videos so you can share more video content.

3. Use forms to create an email list You may consider adding a simple form on several webpages requesting your visitor’s name and email address in exchange for receiving a weekly newsletter that adds value to them –
coupons, offers, how to’s, etc. A successful form strategy will not only help you stay in touch with prospects who are yet to make a purchase, but also provide meaningful content to existing customers so your brand stays fresh in their minds.

If you start with the traditional newsletter strategy, you can advance later to placing multiple campaign-driven lead generation forms on different webpages.

4. Post testimonials User reviews, and more specifically, positive feedback from real clients, gives your company and business automatic credibility. Testimonials can either be placed on their own separate webpage, or throughout your website for each item.

Keep in mind that a multi-functional website can only be successful with careful planning and patience, testing different approaches over time to create a working strategy. A reputable San Diego web design company can help your customers/prospects find you online, identify your brand, and trust your ability to deliver what they need.

Quick Quote