- 77% of agencies believe poor web design is a client weakness
- 38% of customers will stop engaging with a site if the layout is unattractive
- Mobile devices account for nearly 2 out of 3 seconds spent Online
Ranking your Toronto company Online is the fastest and most affordable way to grow your business; but what good is it if the website doesn’t convert visitors to customers? Great web design for desktop and mobile is the key to building trust, engaging visitors, and getting them to buy your products or services.
A website that ranks at the top of the SERP but doesn’t keep visitors on the page or turn them into new customers is, essentially, impractical. The result is wasted time and money. What’s worse is that you’ll have let hundreds of new customers slip away. Web design is not an isolated aspect of your online marketing efforts—it’s the key to making more sales and keeping you at the top of the Google results page.
That’s why it’s important to know how to blend SEO and web design together into a successful marketing strategy. This checklist is a quick guide to the most important things a local Toronto business needs to know before launching its website.
#1) Make sure keywords and URLs logically fit
It doesn’t matter how much SEO changes, keywords will always matter. They are how people find your business Online, and that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. There are plenty of tips for optimizing your uniform resource locators (URLs), but what’s really important is making sure the keywords you target and your URLs match logically. A page that’s optimized for “best restaurants in Toronto” will look like this:
- URL: Torontodining.com/Top10RestaurantsToronto
- Page Title: “The 10 Best Local Restaurants in Downtown Toronto”
- Meta Description: We’ve sampled the best restaurants in downtown Toronto and chosen the top 10. Eat like the locals do!
Each keyword that you’re targeting should have a page unto itself. So compile a list of the most important keywords and phrases, and make sure that your site matches them.
#2) User experience (UX) is everything
57% of people won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site
User experience matters, especially on mobile sites. It more than matters, actually—it’s everything. Not only do customers demand an aesthetically pleasing website that’s easy to navigate, Google’s algorithm takes it into account when ranking your site. Great local web design that is directly aimed at your demographic is the key to more sales Online. The most important factors are:
- Visual design (images, colours, layout, white space)
- The right amount of content
- Easy-to-use menus
- The right information front and centre
- Page speed
Fact: a one-second delay in page loading times can result in 7% fewer customers!
#3) Connect your social profiles to your site properly
33% of Millennials prefer to communicate with businesses via social media
The majority of people are on social networks these days. For most people, it’s a way to share (mostly boring!) tidbits of their day, upload photos of a short-lived vacation, or keep in touch with friends and family across the world; for your business, it’s a powerful marketing tool. As a local business, you should have a:
- Google My Business profile
- Optimized Facebook Business page
- Local review site profiles (Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, etc.)
- Pinterest, Twitter, Four Square, and more (depending on the industry and demographic)
Create locally focused content that is easy to share on social platforms and caters to your audience, connects your profiles to your website, and integrates your social strategy seamlessly into your web design before launching your online marketing campaign.
If you want to succeed in the local area, great web design is essential. Without it, any traffic you drive to your site will be wasted. This local website checklist covers the three most important factors for ranking a site Online and converting customers. If you’re a local Toronto business that needs great web design, find out more about how BlueHat Marketing’s web design team can make the difference.
