As one of Newcastle’s leading web design agencies, we’ve helped countless people on smaller budgets create top business websites. Over time, we’ve learned some incredible tips that can make any small business website better and in this short article, we’re going to share three of them. Let’s take a look.

Responsive design is essential.

Creating a website used to be a relatively simple process. You’d make something that looked incredible whilst viewed on a landscape screen and leave it at that. Then things got complicated with the arrival of smartphones and tablets as we created dedicated mobile websites to display on these smaller screens. Now? Well, it’s simple again – with responsive web design. 

Responsive web design means that your website reflows perfectly to fit any screen it’s displayed on. By going responsive you save money on multiple designs and present your customers with a unified design across all platforms. 


Local, not broad, SEO.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) might well exist somewhere between science and art, but there are ways to make it work for you. As a small business, you’re working to a limited budget, so why try to take on the big boys? 

By tailoring your SEO for a local market, you’ll save yourself a good deal of money and appear at the top of Google for local customers – something that can’t be sniffed at. So, instead of optimising around words like ‘web design’, try for ‘web design north east’ instead. The same goes whether you’re a butcher, baker or candlestick maker. Be specific!


Encourage interaction.

Everyone has a contact page on their website, but few actually draw any real leads from them. So, why not encourage that interaction through the form of a scroll triggered box on your website?

Scroll triggered boxes are becoming increasingly popular online, in fact, you’ve probably seen one today! They’re those boxes which appear in the middle of the screen when you’re scrolling down a page or moussing over to leave. Sometimes they ask you for an email address, sometimes they encourage you to call. Other times they’ll offer a special one-time discount. Research has shown that scroll boxes dramatically increase engagement levels on websites of all sizes.

Looking for a fab new website? Contact Newcastle Web Design today!
Email: hello@nclwebdesign.co.uk | Phone: 0191 603 1069

The post Top Web Design Tricks for Small Businesses appeared first on Newcastle Web Design.

People use the internet for almost every aspect of their lives and having a website that trumps the competition is crucial. But just having a website won’t do the job. Businesses need an engaging website that attracts and impresses visitors and, crucially, converts them into customers.

Having developed hundreds of websites for growing small businesses, here are some of our top tips…

Visual Hierarchy

First impressions count as much with a website as when going for a job interview. You want to impress and engage your customer from the first moment they arrive and one way to do with is to use visual hierarchy. Simply put, our eyes pay attention to a website in a certain manner.

By understanding this, you can make the most important parts of the website be located in the right place. For instance, if you want customers to click on a call to action button, then the visual hierarchy suggests that the top left hand corner of the site is the best place for this.

Easy To Read

Another element of the appearance of the website is getting everything to work harmoniously. Using high quality info graphics, images and even HTML5 videos all add value to the website but they need to work together.

For instance, make sure all the colours work so use a contrasting shade for text compared to the background colour – cream text on a white background will look nearly invisible as will black text on a dark blue background.

Keep well designed fonts at a reasonable size so that people can read it easily and don’t use too many fonts as the effect will be chaotic. Two is often ideal, one for headers and one for paragraphs, with a third for special pointers.

Connect Insolvency does this perfectly. Dark blue text on a clean, white background ensures that the text is as easy to read as possible.

Mobile-Friendly

The recent fuss about being mobile friendly may have sounded like a temporary panic but there is a firm footing to the idea. More people last year used their smartphone to search for something on the internet than their PC or laptop… and this trend is growing.

Due to recent changes in Google’s search algorithm, if a website isn’t mobile-friendly, it won’t show up on search results for phone. This could potentially lose you traffic and custom.

Strong Content

There is a temptation to add lots of information onto every page but the best websites limit how much information they supply on each page, especially key landing pages. Provide small and relevant segments of information per page, keeping to around 200-300 words.

Make sure that the content is engaging too – you won’t gain points for your Search Engine Optimisation or SEO if the content is poorly written, stuffed with keywords and doesn’t really say anything. This includes elements such as meta-tags, alt tags and meta-descriptions, all of which act as indicators to search engines what the site is about.

Social Media

Don’t forget the importance of connecting your website to social media and having a presence on the main social channels. Linking your website to a Facebook page and/or a Twitter account and vice versa is an important way to drive traffic to your site and find new customers. Social media interaction also adds to your ranking on Google and other search engines so is a win-win proposition.

Need help redesigning your website? Get in touch now to see how we can help you and your business!

The post Five Simple Tips For An Effective Website appeared first on Newcastle Web Design.