Akron Web Design: 5 Steps to Success
Are you maximizing your Akron web design efforts? Keep reading – you’ll learn how to create a great website that attracts online visitors, and grows your Ohio business!
How to Become an Akron Web Design Expert in 5 Simple Steps
Designing and building a website for your Akron-area audience is best undertaken one step at a time. By following a logical sequence – interspersed with a bit of creative thinking – you’ll make the most of your efforts, and carve out an online space in which your business can thrive.
1. Strategize: Give Your Akron Website a Purpose
Regrettably, the old adage of “Build it and they will come,” simply doesn’t hold true for web design. Little good is achieved by owning a beautiful site if it was created without clear understanding and intent. Therefore, it’s important to know why people will visit your website, and how they will use it.
As a business owner, you provide solutions that help people solve problems. It’s up to you to prove that your products or services are what potential customers need – and your website is the best way to achieve that. Designing your website with the intention of immediately captivating visitors, and providing them with easily-accessible, much-needed information – instills trust and creates interest in your brand.
2. Tailor: Create a Site that Customers Will Respond to
Your target audience has its own likes and dislikes, motivations and expectations. Your task, as an Akron web designer, is to understand what your online visitors, potential customers and repeat buyers want and expect. What’s the best approach to take?
Imagine yourself as a consumer, seeking the very type of product or service you offer. You’re scanning the search results, when something catches your eye: a website offering exactly what you need! You click the link; the page loads. Within a few seconds, you’ve formed an impression. Is it favorable? Does the site speak to you in a way that you understand? Does the layout – from navigation features, to graphics and color schemes – meet the expectations you have of the sort of business to which the site belongs?
Before creating a website, imagine seeing it through your customer’s eyes. Having this vision before breaking virtual ground is important – it’s much harder to erase a bad first impression than it is to make one that’s positive later on.
3. Populate: Fill Your Website with Compelling Content
Crucial to successful web design in Akron – or anywhere, for that matter – is informative, accessible, high-quality content. Having determined the ideal layout for your website (visually appealing, easily-navigable, and immediately helpful to your target audience), it’s time to populate it with content.
From images to video, audio clips to text, there are many types of content from which to choose. What kinds, and how much of each, depends on the nature of your business, and the message you wish to convey.
For example, product images are vital to eCommerce – people need to see what they’re buying. Similarly, if you provide a service, it may be helpful to include pictures which show the work you’ve done, and perhaps an image of yourself, accompanied by a short story of your company’s history, to create immediate trust and a sense of connection.
Audio and video – especially the latter – can sometimes explain complex subjects better than text – but be mindful that they consume more data. Text remains the favored method of communication for most websites – it’s data-sparing, fast-loading, and when written well, very difficult to misunderstand. Regardless of the type of content with which you populate your website, ensure that it provides value, clearly communicates your message, and compels people to do business with you.
4. Optimize: Make Your Website Search Engine-Friendly
You’ve thought out, created and put into place your website content. Now it’s time to double its power, by optimizing it for the search engines. Failing to do so means that your site will simply sit, unnoticed, like a shop on a back street that oblivious drivers pass by.
The majority of online searchers seldom look beyond the first page – and even the first few results – of Google and other major search engines. That’s why it’s so important to optimize your content, through extensive keyword research, the strategic placement and highlighting of crucial keywords – as well as the appropriate use of meta, header and alt image tags. Doing so signals to Google and company that your content is relevant to a search query – and as such, you’re rewarded with high rankings, targeted traffic, and business.
5. Advertise: Get the Word Out There!
Congratulations – you’ve created a well-thought out website. It looks great; it meets your customer’s expectations; the content is compelling, optimized, and is starting to rank in the search engines. There’s one last step to take, however: making your website known.
Of course, organic search engine traffic is typically of the highest quality, free (exclusive of the work it takes to achieve rankings), and reliable. That being said, you can consider rounding out your Akron web design strategy by advertising your new online presence.
Whether through pay-per-click ads, social media or guest blog posts, expanding your reach beyond the SERPs (search engine results pages) can grow your traffic numbers, attract new customers, and allow you to get immediate feedback on how people interact with your new site.
Danny Todd – The Akron SEO Expert – understands that running a business takes time and effort. That’s why he provides busy local business owners like you with a customized Akron web design service. A leader in web development in Akron and surrounding areas for over ten years, the Akron SEO Guy can help your business gain a strong foothold in the competitive online marketplace.
