What Makes a Good Local Web Design?
Bedfordshire is a great business location. Situated just 40 miles north of London (averaging 40 minutes on the fast train), and midway along the developing Oxford to Cambridge corridor, it’s an excellect spot for promoting a Beds business online. There are now around 30,000 businesses operating across Bedfordshire, and we take great pride in being one of them. Imagefix web design company Bedfordshire has been serving local businesses for over 15 years.
Many of our clients are located in the county and want to grow their sales locally. So, the first conversation we have with them is around how we achieve their goals through their web design. We’ve been creating local web design for a while now, so we know what works and what doesn’t. In this article we’re going to share some of the advice we give to clients.
Imagefix, a Local Web Design Company Bedfordshire
To design a successful website we need to know what the business does, who it sells to, and where their customers are located. We’re also fascinated to know what drives the company, and what makes them unique. The geographical area a business sells in tends to fall into one of the following categories:
- Local – a cluster of villages, a town, or a portion of the county.
- Regional – the whole county, a cluster of counties, or, for example, East of England.
- National – England, UK, or Great Britain.
Our SEO websites are optimised for the geographical area you wish to target, and we can be quite precise. Once you’ve achieved the growth you want in one area, we can target further areas.
Web Design Components Required For Sales Success
All our Bedfordshire clients enjoy high rankings near the top of the Google search engine results. As a result, they receive more visitors to their websites, get more qualified leads and deal with increased enquiries. There are 4 key components that need to be included in their website design to achieve this:
- SEO Website Design
- A Responsive Website
- SEO Marketing
- Simple Navigation
1. SEO Website Design
No matter how stunning your website looks (and ours are extremely good-looking!), it has to be found by people actively searching for your product or service in order to be affective. Which is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. SEO is the practice of optimising a website to improve visibility and ranking in search engines such as Google.
When someone searches locally for your product, your business needs to appear as high as possible in the Google search results. The higher up you appear in the search results, the more people will click on the link and visit your website.
For your website to perform well in Google your website needs to be optimised in two ways:
- Technical Optimisation. Making sure your website is mobile-friendly, improving website speed and user experience, and ensuring your website is properly structured for search engines to understand and index your content.
- Keyword Optimisation. Keywords are words or phrases that people enter into search engines when they’re looking for information, products, or services online. Local keywords would include Emergency Plumber Kempston, Electrical Services Ampthill, or Bedford Bakery.
When a search term is entered into a search engine, Google or Bing look for the best match. Every available website will be assessed and ranked according to its technical SEO, and whether the content includes the search keywords.
2. A Responsive Website
The vast majority of local online searches are made on a mobile. 88% of those searches result in a visit to the company website or business within 24 hours. Want these kinds of results for your business? Then your website design should look equally good on any device. Most web designers offer this as standard, but not all. If your website loses its formatting when viewed on a phone, we can solve the problem for you, but it’s best to hard-bake responsiveness in at the design stage.
A responsive design will also load fast. Any website that takes longer than 2 seconds to load will simply be dismissed by mobile searchers, after all, there are plenty of competitors to choose from.
3. SEO Marketing
Once your website design is complete, you’ll be able to start marketing your brand locally. A great way to kick off your local SEO strategy is to claim your Google Business Profile.
It’s free to create and will appear in Google when people search for your business. Best of all, when used alongside website SEO, you should appear in the Google map. This means that when people search for businesses like yours in the local area, your business will appear.
We always recommend ongoing blogs and news articles as part of clients’ SEO marketing strategies. This is a powerful way to add new content to your website, include new keywords to strengthen your Google ranking, and give people chance to read about your business.
4. Simple Navigation
Once you start to experience increased numbers of visitors to your website, you’ll want to be sure to keep them there. Simple navigation is key to achieving this. Simple navigation refers to the ease with which users can move around and explore your website. It involves creating a clear and intuitive structure that allows visitors to quickly find the information they are seeking. Simple navigation is enhances the user experience and helps to convert leads.
When users can easily navigate through a site, they are more likely to stay engaged, find what they need, and ultimately convert into customers or take desired actions. By streamlining the navigation process, visitors can save time and effort, leading to increased satisfaction and a positive perception of the website.
Your Local Web Design Company Bedfordshire
Imagefix is a local web design agency in Bedfordshire. It’s our home county and we care an awful lot about seeing Bedfordshire businesses thrive. We also love what we do, and a big part of why we love it is the people we get to work with. Our clients regularly amaze, intrigue and inspire us, and our enthusiasm and excitement feeds through to our designs.
If you phone or message Imagefix with a problem, or an emergency, someone will pick up. We’re a hands-on business that builds professional relationships with our clients. Our web design process is flexible enough to accommodate your needs. If you prefer to hand over the brief and wait for results – that’s great. If, however, you want to be involved at every stage, we’re happy to have you on-board.
“Local company to me and brilliant to work with – I had no knowledge of what was involved and they have delivered an amazing website which I have had brilliant feedback from. I would recommend them so helpful and approachable when you’re not a techie person.”
– Roz Richardson, ARC Arboricultural Solutions
Take a look at some of our web designs here
Would you like to talk to us about a web design? We’d love to hear from you! Call us on 01525 715608
