Why is Website Design So Important?

Think about your favorite shopping website.

Is it easy to use?

Does it look professional, or is the website design distracting?

Are you able to find the information you need quickly and efficiently?

These are elements of good website design. Website design is important for businesses and individuals who are trying to get more business, or to increase their awareness, leads, and sales.

Two aspects of website design are organization and aesthetics.

On a website, everything should be organized well and be put where it makes logical sense. Each page and its content should be labeled clearly, and navigation should be easy and consistent.

Aesthetics is another important aspect of website design. The design should not only be pleasing to the eye, but it should also be functional. Images and colors are great for a call to action, but should be used sparingly and professionally.

In short, it’s important that your site is visually pleasing and well organized. People who use your site need to be able to find information quickly and without complication, otherwise they may take their business elsewhere. A professional, well put together website can mean the difference between sales and no sales.

Looking for more? 

Visit SEO Ann Arbor’s website today to learn how we can help you grow your business by designing a great website for you!

How To Begin Designing A Website - Best Website Design Practices

In today’s ever-changing technology landscape, designing a website can be intimidating. If you’re struggling to learn how to make your website look great, we have a few tips that can help you!

First: understand your audience’s needs. A great website design not only provides information, but does it in a way that makes sense. Understanding your target audience, creative themes, and other goals is important.

Second, planning can be boring, but it’s necessary. A site map should be developed early to better define what content will be on the site and where it will go. A good site map will make the site easier to navigate for customers and clients.

Finally, the website design itself should be clean cut and simple. Aesthetics are important, but not at the cost of clarity. Remember, the customer goes to your site first and foremost to find the info they need. Professional photos and graphics look great, but shouldn’t be so cluttered on the site that they take away from your goal: to raise awareness, create leads, and hopefully, increase sales.

Looking For More?

Visit SEO Ann Arbor’s website today to read more about website design and to see how we can help you grow your business!

Top Tips for Effective Web Design

Do you have a website?

Are you looking for a way to increase the traffic to your site?

Are you worried that your site doesn’t look as professional as it could?

Do you want to make sure potential clients and customers trust your website?

Having good and effective web design seems like a no-brainer, but the truth is that many businesses lose business because their websites aren’t well designed. Don’t make the same mistake!

To make sure that you have the most effective web design possible, follow these simple tips!

1) Have a clear purpose: Make sure that each page on your site has a specific purpose. Part of web design involves fulfilling a need for your customers, and the easiest way to do that is to give them a site that’s easy to navigate.

2) Don’t go crazy with fonts: It is easy to get carried away when designing a site, but remember that your customers need to be able to quickly get the information they want. Stick with a maximum of 3 separate typefaces, and remember that the ideal font size for easy online reading is 16px.

3) Colors and images: Take time to think about the color scheme of your site. Contrasting colors for the text and the background will make reading easier for your visitors, and vibrant colors should be used sparingly. Choosing the right images for your site can go a long way when it comes to marketing and the overall image. High quality photos are best.

4) Mobile Friendly: Making sure your website is “responsive” is probably not something you worried about before, but with some new changes Google has made, this new element of web design is critical. Responsive design allows your site to be viewed on all devices (including smartphones and tablets) at a high resolution.

If you’re unsure about your web design, ask someone else to use your site and see what they think. Getting an outside opinion can help to see your site from the customer’s point of view, and can let you know what you can improve. Or, contact SEO Ann Arbor for a free website evaluation! We can help with website design, SEO, PPC advertising, blogging and more! Visit us at www.SEOAnnArbor.com or call us at  877-815-6974.

5 Best Web Design Tools

To attract visitors to your business, you make sure that your office or storefront is pleasing to the eye.

Why should you approach online business any differently?

If you’re unfamiliar with web design, this can seem like a daunting task.

Don’t be afraid of web design! There are many people just like you who are looking at web design with a critical eye in order to make their businesses more successful.

Here are five great web design tools (according to quickonlinetips.com) that are sure to make your website function better, look better, and grow your business. The best part is that you won’t need to learn a bunch of HTML or CSS to make it work!

1) Firebug – Firebug is a web development tool that lets users edit code on any live site. This program also provides diagnostic and debugging tools to make fixing problems easier.

2) Colorzilla – Colorzilla is an add-on for Firefox that lets the user pick out individual colors on websites instead of trying to eyeball the exact shade of blue, for example. This will also give you the code you need to use that color on your own site.

3) Colour Lovers – This site is for sharing palettes or patterns and is great for users who are looking for free to use background images or header images. This site also provides design tools for users to create their own.

4) Pingdom – This site loads your website in real time including all images and other aspects of the code. When it tests your site, it will test your load time and give you stats on how long all your objects take to load. This is important because, as you know, 20 seconds on the internet can seem like an eternity!

5) Foundation 3 – This program essentially acts as a blueprint for all your web design projects. Foundation 3 will help you design your website in a way that will make it responsive, or able to be viewed on a bunch of different mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Of course, any web design tool requires a bit of knowledge of coding. If you’re unsure of how to approach better web design, we can help you! Contact us at SEO Ann Arbor for a free website evaluation and we’ll be happy to help you make your website function as well as possible!

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website Design

SEO Ann Arbor Website Design Tips

Website Design is an easy thing to get wrong. There are plenty of businesses out there whose website designs are holding back their business! Having a bad website can lead to slow loading times, confused visitors, fewer sales, and less business. Don’t let your website keep you or your business from its full potential!

1. One Topic Per Page!

Having a cluttered website design means that people will get confused and not enjoy using your website. You need to make sure that each page is only about one topic. This not only helps to make your website more easily navigated by customers, but it also helps out your search engine rankings. Talk about a win-win! It’s a good idea to occasionally check how your website is organized and make sure that everything is clear and well organized.

2. Keep it Simple!

Your website should be sleek, well organized, and easy to navigate. Everything should be clear and fool-proof. Minimalism is almost always the best option, because too much stuff without any real direction is bound to confuse most visitors. The simpler your website is to use, the more people will enjoy using it.

3. Check out your competitors!

This is one of the best ways to make your website design better. Check out your competitors’ websites and make a list of what you like and don’t like. This is an important step to figure out what others in your industry are doing well, and how you can improve your online presence. Researching competitors also allows you to see what your customers want and expect from a website. 

Looking for more?

For more tips on how to improve your website design, read the full list of SEO Ann Arbor Website Design tips. We have tons of other great free information for you to check out and help your business’s online presence. Whether you want to learn about SEO, Website Design, Social Media, or anything else related to digital marketing, we’ve got the tools to help you! Give us a call at 877-815-6974 or visit us SEOAnnArbor.com

Social Media Ann Arbor: Getting Started

Social Media Ann Arbor: Getting Started

Scenario: You run a small business in Ann Arbor, and you've heard that social media is important for your small business to succeed. So, you set up your company’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, et cetera, and set them all up to use in HootSuite (Learn more about that at SEOAnnArbor.com)

So, you’ve signed up, filled out your company’s information, and uploaded your company’s logo for the profile picture. Now what? You have 0 followers, and you’re not sure what content to write. You’re low on time since you’re busy running a business, and maybe writing isn’t your strong suit.

1. Have your employees, friends, and family follow your page

This is how most small businesses get their first likes on social media. It’s a small favor to ask of the people around you, and gives you a good head start.

2. Email your contacts

If you’re a business owner, more than likely, you already have a list of email contacts from previous customers. Put it to use! Don’t be afraid to let your contacts know that your business is now on Facebook.

3. Add Icons to Your Website

This is one of the simplest and easiest steps you can take. Not only does it add an additional link to your social networks (good for Google results) but it allows for people using your website to see that your business is also using social media. It gives them a quick link if they are interested, and helps to gain followers.

What Next?

Those are the first three tips! But take note, #4 is the most important! What is it? Well, for that you will have to go to our website and find out!

Finish reading Social Media Ann Arbor: Getting Started on our website! And be sure to check out the rest our Social Media Management tips too!

Social Media Ann Arbor: Local Social Media

Social Media Ann Arbor: Going Local

    Social Media in Ann Arbor. It’s an interesting idea. In the infinite universe of the internet, how does a small, local, brick-and-mortar store succeed, or even get noticed? Many people think that social media for a local business is like being a needle in a haystack, or yelling in a crowd where everyone else has a megaphone. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

    So, exactly how does a local business survive in a massive community of bigger players?

Here’s the secret: It isn’t that hard!

    You would be amazed at how well small businesses do online. You may not get the same recognition as Coca-Cola or Ford, but you can absolutely get a good number of followers and gain popularity.

    As you may know, Google, Facebook, and all the other major search and social websites have gotten smarter over the years, and they know that people search for local businesses. So, when you search for something in Google, local results are often the first to show up, not just results that don’t apply to you. Facebook also suggests pages that might interest you, including local companies followed by your friends.

    Plenty of small businesses even forgo having a website, using only Facebook for their business. Facebook offers the customer similar information and gives more interactivity for your visitors. It’s also easier to update content for people who aren’t web savvy.

    A local restaurant doesn’t serve customers nationally, so it doesn’t need to speak to a national audience. A Thai restaurant in Ann Arbor doesn’t need to be found by people in Wyoming. All the major social networks and search engines know this, so someone in Ann Arbor searching for Thai restaurants will most likely find the social media profiles of local Thai restaurants in the search results.

    There are a few things you need to do in order to gain these positive results, such as categorizing your profiles correctly, linking to and from your website, verifying your local listings, and keyword optimizing everything, but the important thing to remember is this: Yes, your business can be noticed!

    If you have any questions or concerns about social media in Ann Arbor, web design, SEO, AdWords, or anything else involving your business’s online presence, give us a call! Our number is 877-815-6974, or contact us Here. Or, if you’re interested in learning how to do some of this web stuff yourself, we have a lot of great, free information and guidelines at SEOAnnArbor.com to help get you started.