Website Design

Use Website Design as part of your multi-channel marketing campaign!

A website is a powerful business asset that promotes your services, attracts your customers,
and sells your merchandise. It is a combination of shopfront and hang-out space depending on
the content and experience you provide. Your Website Design should align with your strategy,
and media. Varga can help you make sure it does!

Web Design and the Role of the Web Designer

Designing websites use processes to create the look and feel of a website on desktop browsers and mobile devices. A website designer is a person or team that does the work to make your web design pages or app look and feel the way you want your customer to experience it.

The web design page has two components – appearance and function. Website developers have the skills to blend both to produce a website that works for users by giving them a seamless and enjoyable visit.

Getting the Right Look

Web pages designers use the visual element of appearance, layout, and content. The appearance is a blend of colors, fonts, and images.

Color has a psychological impact, and skillful web designer pages use the colors that promote and emphasize the brand rather than ones that clash or send over the wrong message. An appropriate color attracts and encourages brand loyalty. Selecting the right color to express brand personality is where an experienced web designer makes a difference to a web design that attracts attention for all the right reasons.

Fonts need to assist the user in understanding the message. As a minimum, it needs to be clear and easy to read. People understand the world through visual information (predominantly), and the choice of font has a subliminal impact on the viewer. The font style for the body text and headings contributes to how your customers feel about your design. Webpages rely on visual information to influence visitors.

Images are more than a few photos to brighten the page design. Web images, including icons, animations, and infographics, attract attention. The images build an impression of your business in terms of values and offer to a potential customer.

Layout refers to how the elements appear on the page. The web designer needs to consider what looks good for a desktop, tablet, and phone. The layout covers blocks of text, headlines, images, and shapes.

A web designer uses layout the way an artist uses composition to draw the eye in and direct attention with subtle use of shapes and lines. Alternatively, a poor design has potential customers glancing and clicking away. Also, like an artist, a web designer uses space to make the whole better than the sum of its parts. A Japanese chef will never make the mistake of filling a plate until it overflows – a maximum of 75% full lets the dish shine. Empty space is a vital element that enables your design web pages to showcase the content. Content crosses over the areas of appearance and functionality. Content has to give the customer what they need in terms of information and interest, but it also needs to be attractive and easy to navigate.

Doing the Right Things

The web development services pay attention to how the web pages work for the user. Functionality requires careful consideration:

• Speed – no one has time to wait and search engines prefer to list fast web pages above slow ones
because that pleases the searcher.
• Navigation – you want to know where to go to get what you need with minimal detours along the way.
• Fun stuff like animations attract the attention and persuade visitors to hang around and click on
that button.
• Don’t take away control from the user; everyone prefers to choose what they are doing on a website and
not feel hijacked.
• Site Structure is essential for people (they like easy to navigation) and crawlers (they have a job to do and want
to do it fast).
• Consistency across all formats because people like to use their phone and tablet for browsing, buying, and
information gathering.

We offer Website Redesign Services

Your website isn’t working for you, and you decide that you need a complete redesign to give your customers a better experience, increase traffic to your website, and ultimately sell more. A website redesign is different from a website refresh. It is a teardown and replacement process involving code and functionality. A regular website redesign keeps you relevant for today’s market and may be necessary for some good reasons:

Changing Technology

Technology keeps improving and developing as people try to make their websites better, and web developers find new ways of working. They create tools and techniques to make them perform faster and keep data safe. The technology you used when setting up your website may need updating, and this may mean a complete overhaul.

Make It Faster

Think about how long you wait for a website to load, too long, and you click away looking for an alternative place to go. If your website is cluttered, filled with dense images, and old themes without the latest technology, then it is going to be slow to load and fall down the search engine rankings – speed matters.

Design Trends

Following design trends does not mean jumping on every passing bandwagon. It does mean staying current with the way your customers like to experience your website – like restaurants, hotels, and shops a website needs remodeling to avoid becoming dated and unappealing.

Mobile Friendly

Tablets and smartphones change the way people access the web, and your web pages need to look great on every type of device currently in use and future innovations. If your original website isn't mobile-friendly, you may lose existing customers and fail to attract new ones.

Brands Like People Change

If you look at a film from the fifties, sixties, or any other decade you are struck by how different it all is from today – hairstyles, cloths, the kitchen appliances, the food, and everything else. Nothing stays still, and that includes your brand and how you present yourself. Your business is a living, breathing, and evolving entity, and your branding will reflect internal and external changes. Your website needs redesigning every time you rebrand to fit your new look an persona.

Plugins and Third-Party Web Apps

Integrating helpful and engaging features keeps your website useful and engaging. They also help you run your online business more efficiently. The range of possible plugins to integrate with your website is immense, and new releases happen regularly. You may need a website redesign service to take advantage of the best website apps and plugins for your business.

Make It Safe

Your customers have an expectation that you keep the data they share with you secure and following good practice and legislation. You also want to protect your website from malware and cyber-attack. Data protection is a necessity, and that means staying up to date with the best technology ad software. Periodically you need a website redesign to integrate the latest security features seamlessly into your operation.

Improve Ranking

SEO is not only the words and content you use but can be influenced by how your website performs and functions. Speed of loading ad ability to display on a mobile phone also impact where you place in a search engine results page.

The average cycle for a website redesign is every two to three years. Sometimes you can get away with a website refresh, but technology and software change quickly, making it more straightforward to redesign rather than tweaking small parts of the website completely.

SEO Website Design

If the website doesn’t have excellent SEO, then it is unlikely that any searcher will get directions to your website from the commonly used search engines like Google and Bing. Designing your website with SEO in mind means using a web developer who pays attention to the details and provides the search engine crawlers with easy to digest content.

Site Navigation

Search engines find it difficult to crawl and rank a site with flash objects. Flash objects are also unfriendly for users with disabilities. If you want to use Flash, you can provide an HTML accessible alternative for the flash content. Alternatively, check to see if CSS or JavaScript can give you the same effect without giving the crawlers indigestion.

Crawlers read HTML Documents

You want to keep your HTML documents free from Scripts – externalize them, so they don’t cause obstructions in the web design pages. Use a straightforward structure for the document with clear, informative headings and enough content to feed the crawlers with information about your web pages.

• Clean up your URLs by keeping them neat and relevant – most systems let you customize
your URL for user-friendliness.
• Block pages on your website, so crawler bots don’t try and index them if these are pages that don’t add value
to your content offer.
• Avoid duplicate content but keep the pages fresh and ‘alive’ with additions and changes = perhaps links to and
quotes from recent blogs.
• All images need an alternative description – make sure it is informative as it counts towards an assessment
of relevance.
• Make each page description (metadata) different, so it gives the search engine a map to the structure.
• Use heading tags to layout the document clearly – headings count more to a crawler than equivalent words
in the text.
• Use clean code – code with redundant bits that don’t contribute to the content, make the page sticky, and slows
down the crawlers.
• Use content with short, crisp sentences written in clear, relevant language. This type of content works for
humans and bots.

SEO web design concentrates on ensuring that the web pages function well for search engine purposes because this increases the website’s visibility.

Is Web Design included as part of SEO services?

SEO is an ongoing process that you need to pay attention to every day to maintain your ranking and visibility on the internet to your target audience.

Web design is a process of creating the appearance and function of your web pages. It is possible to buy in SEO as part of your web design process, and this feature is desirable because the web design pages help or hinder search engine processes.

When you buy SEO services as part of a marketing strategy, you are not automatically getting an upgraded website as part of the service.

Why is SEO important for my Website?

Before the internet, a company needed a good location for its premises and where it placed its advertising posters. Because if no one saw its shop window or any information about the business, then it would get little or no trade.

The internet makes it possible for people to trade around the globe and in their local area. But one thing has not changed in the digital era – you still need to be visible to get the customers.

Now you are competing to be seen with more than the shop next door. You are competing with the online marketplace. Other than paying for advertising, what gets you noticed is the search engine a potential customer uses when browsing.

The search engine has one goal – to put the best web page to answer the searcher’s need for:
• Locating a specific named website.
• Finding out accurate information.
• Sourcing a product or service.

The search engine sends out robots to crawl through all the web pages, searching for those that are relevant and detailed enough to give the best response to the searcher’s needs. SEO signals to the crawlers that your pages have what the searcher needs this time. If your website has weak or nonexistent SEO, then the crawlers will select other web pages ahead of yours as being better for the potential customer. SEO increases your visibility, and you need visibility to attract customers.

Website Copywriting Services

A web designer or developer will give you spaces on your web pages for the words that describe your offer to your visitors.

Although human communication is 60% visual, the words convey the meaning of your message and information. The words on a webpage are content or copy. The term copy refers to articles and advert written for newspapers hundreds of years ago and to the present day.

A writer providing words for web pages may call themselves a content writer or a copywriter.

The word content for your landing pages, blogs, product descriptions, and news items can be written by your in-house staff or outsourced to a website copywriting service.
Website copywriting is available from:

• Freelance writers – you can contract directly with the writer of your choice on an item by item
basis or a long-term arrangement.
• Content mills – a company that typically bids for work and distributes it to a mixture of freelance and
in-house staff.
• Copywriting job platforms – these websites run job boards for freelance writers, you post your job on
the board.
• Web developer companies – some companies organize access to a content writer as part of the
project package.
• Marketing companies – as words are an integral part of the marketing message, a marketing company
generally has copywriters.

There are plenty of options for getting your words written at a reasonable cost.

SEO Copywriting

Most people have heard of keywords and have a vague knowledge that these are “key” to making sure that your web pages are listed higher than your competitors when someone searches for your type of products or services.

Search Engine Optimization depends on the algorithms used by the search engine crawlers to rank your web page, and these assess the content or the words on the page before deciding on where to place your pages on the list of potential answers to the searcher’s query. SEO writing does involve making sure the most appropriate words and phrases feature prominently (and naturally) in the text to signpost to crawlers that these are the pages their searcher needs. But it also means writing interesting, informative, and factually correct writing with excellent grammar.

Once the searcher licks on your page, they can click away again if the writing doesn’t deliver the content in an easy to read and exciting way.

SEO Long Form Copywriting

Stuffing a load of keywords into your text with scant regard for grammar or readability used to work on Google and other search engine algorithms. The experience for searchers was disappointing, and search engines exist to give their searchers what they want – fast. Search engine approaches evolve to try to assess web content for relevance and quality. Keyword phrases are not the only ranking factor, and the emphasis is always shifting to quality content. More engaging content in articles (long articles with thousands of words) encourages an interested visitor. By spending time on your web pages – they have a ‘long click’ meaning they click onto your page and stay there instead of bouncing back to look for a different page . The length of time users spend on your pages is a factor in how well your pages rank in searches.

SEO long-form copywriting combines

• Keywords and phrases used naturally in the text for relevance.
• Quantity of words and quality information that is unique to the page.
• Writing techniques to encourage reading the whole article.

There are plenty of options for getting your words written at a reasonable cost.

Social Media Copywriting

Content for social media needs to match the type of social media channel used for posting the message – advertising or general content.

There are some general approaches to making sure that the writing works on social media:

• Use the right format
Facebook is not Twitter.
• Use the right length
to attract and keep attention.
• Combine engaging text with images.

Facebook posts with less than 80 characters, and an image gets more attention than a post using the whole 63,206-character allowance. People go on Facebook for fun and entertainment. It is an ideal medium for promoting a link to your blog or video. You are looking to grab attention and direct the person somewhere else.

Twitter gives you up to 140 characters, but you can also include videos, polls, images, and other tweets. The optimum length of a tweet to promote click-through is around 120-130 characters. Remember to include a hashtag or two, but don’t overdo it. Twitter can drive traffic to your Facebook pages and your website.

LinkedIn gives plenty of options for sharing content of all sizes and is an excellent place to share your blog content to gain a greater audience. For a long-form article, you get up to 100 characters for the headline and a substantial 40,000 character count for the body text.

Instagram and Snapchat are both visual mediums, but you still need headlines and captions. Content writing for social media needs an ability to be concise and attention-grabbing.

Ecommerce Copywriting

This form of copywriting sells your product, brand, or service. Ecommerce copywriting covers more than product description; it includes the about pages, customer service messages, and any other content involved with selling to online customers.

High-quality eCommerce copywriting benefits you by:

• Promoting your brand to the world by defining your personality and values,
as well as telling your back story.
• Appealing to your ideal customer by matching their personality with tone
and approach – lighthearted or technical.
• Educates your potential customers by explaining what your products are and
why they need them in their 18ves.
• Increases search rankings by using SEO techniques to make sure your
content finds its way to your customer’s search query.

Ecommerce writing at its best builds a link between you and your customers by engaging them with your company story and values.

Web Design for E-Commerce

An eCommerce website offers your customers the ability to buy direct, and the website design needs to include the features that make this process secure and easy to use.

The features for selling include:

• Shopping cart and easy to use checkout with secure payment options
covering all the standard online methods.
• Ability to offer promotions and discounts throughout the year, together with
integrated email marketing.
• Reporting capabilities that make managing key performance indicators
straightforward and organized.

Then there are the standard website features that promote other websites but are crucial to the success of an eCommerce website:

• Excellent content management – you have a catalog of products to display and manage to
maximum advantage.
• SEO – the code, content, and everything about the website need to be optimized for search engines to
beat your competition.
• Scale – your chosen platform needs to allow you to scale up your website as your business grows and
develops.
• Security – your customers are trusting you with their sensitive financial information, and you need to
protect it and your business.

All websites have similar features, but eCommerce websites require a different range of capabilities to an information and contact website.

Importance of Key Performance Indicators in Ecommerce Websites

Key performance indicators or KPI is essential in any business, and eCommerce is a business run online. There are hundreds if not thousands of potential KPI to choose from – the crucial thing is to pick the ones that indicate success or the need to try harder in some areas.

The right KPIs for your business need to be:

• Meaningful
• Measurable
• Timely
• Actionable

Ecommerce websites give you access to data that is impossible to collect in a bricks and mortar store like:

• Shopping abandonment rate – someone put your products in their basket but failed to follow through
with the purchase.
• Shopping cart conversion rate – the percentage of people who follow through and purchase
the products
• Customer lifetime value – there is a unique customer trail every time they shop in your online store.
• The time between purchases – how often do your customers buy from you, and can you decrease
this rate?

Also, you get all the other useful and valuable data about site traffic and the effectiveness of your marketing.

Why Track Ecommerce KPI?

With Google Analytics, you can set up tracking to give you the KPIs automatically to measure the effectiveness of your eCommerce business operation covering all the critical areas of sales, marketing, performance, customer service, and, if appropriate, manufacturing. When you set goals, you ascribe a numerical value to that goal so you can set a KPI that shows your progress towards achieving that goal. It is a simple dashboard light that says if you are on target or falling short of your goal. By tracking the activity that is important to your success, you can take action to improve your whole business by identifying and removing barriers to sales and customer satisfaction and retention.

What is a Conversion Orientated Website ?

A conversion orientated website has the primary goal of persuading visitors to convert to buyers through the design and content of the webpages. The principles are:

Influence the Choice

Card and other magic tricks work because the magician influences the member of the audience to make the right choice. To persuade your visitors to make the right choice on the page:

• Restrict the number of choices – too much choice means no option is selected.
• A clear difference between choices results in quick decision making.

Customized Landing Pages

The first page the visitor sees needs to meet their expectations – one size does not fit all. If someone turns up wanting a free trial, they don’t want to see a whole load of other options. Nor a generic landing page, when they must navigate to their offer.

Lead Them by the Hand

A clear, logical step by step process converts a visitor smoothly into the buying stage. Make it smooth and friction-free.

Make it Obvious

Put your call to action at the top of the page and not the bottom – most people won’t bother getting down as far as the bottom of the page. If they want to buy what you are selling, don’t make it difficult for them.

Sell the Benefits

To convert a visitor to a buyer, they need to believe it is what they need – don’t be shy and tell them everything you can do for them. As part of this process, bring in the power of the crowd – you can tell them how many other people have bought the same product or service. Plus, you can make it personal by linking to Facebook and showing which of their friends is on board. When you want your website to help your customers to buy more, you need to design it to convert browsers to buyers with a conversion design website.

We’ve Got You Covered

Our professional team are experts at what they do from building in the front and back stack to picking the right colors and shapes. We put together the right team to take your vision and goals and deliver a web site that meets your needs. Not only for today but as your online business and presence expand.

We design, create, maintain, refresh, and keep you on top of the latest technology and processes. Whatever you need, we’ve got you covered with people who care about developing the best business websites.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Ads (Formerly Known as Google AdWords)?

Google Ads or Google AdWords are the names given to Google's commercial business section that sells advertising space on Google's online assets.

Businesses pay to put marketing messages on Google - Google ads. A google ad appears in search results or on the Google Display Network.

You or your agent needs to set up a Google ads manager account to access the AdWords features provided by google in helping you upload google ads. Words and images combine to make them more engaging google ads. Google advertising cost is higher for Search Ads than Display ads, but both ad types produce marketing results.

Is Paid Search the Same as SEM?

Yes. Paid search is the same as Search Engine Marketing or Pay Per Click advertising. Businesses pay for the opportunity to place Ads in front of searchers. These indicate an interest in their products or services by the search terms used.

What Is SEM, PPC & Paid Search Marketing?

SEM is Search Engine Marketing from search engine providers like Google and Bing. The business ad appears on the SERP page generated if successful in the ad auction.

PPC or pay per click is the way you pay for your search engine marketing. When someone clicks on your ad, you get charged a calculated fee.

Paid Search Marketing is another term that describes the practice of paying for ads to appear on SERPs.

What Is SEM Compared to Social Media Advertising?

Paid social media advertising displays ads on pages where people are interacting with friends and family. Search Engine Marketing puts Ads in front of people who are looking for what the Ad is describing. The person on a social media site is in a different part of the buying funnel to the active searcher using a search engine to find a product or service.

What is SEM? (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM is the process of paying for ads to appear when a search engine operates. The ads are tagged to the keys words and phrases chosen by the potential customer. If the business ad is relevant, it goes into the auction for a position on the SERP shown to the customer.

What are Universal App Campaigns?

Universal App campaigns are an automated ad campaign whose goal is to get downloads for your app. The ads appear all over Google – Search, Display, Ad Mob, YouTube, Discover on Google, and Google Play, as well as other locations.

You provide Google Ads with a budget, starting text, starting bid. Google Ads create optimized ads using this material and material available on your app listing. It's a Smart Campaign type that learns from successful conversions to repeat the winning formula.

Additional Resources

How to Define your Target Market