A Guide to Website Design in Kansas City
If you’re looking at website design in Kansas City, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll share some website design basics to get your started, including the importance of images, how colors should be used on your site, whether you should translate your website into other languages, how to choose a domain name, and what qualities Google looks at when ranking your site.
The Basics
Consider the type of business you’re in and whether you’ll need an ecommerce site to sell your products. This will determine the platform you use and the features you include. A restaurant, for example, needs to have an online menu that’s accessible in both PDF form and on the site itself. If you’re going to design your own site, you can use programs like Adobe Muse to lay out what you want it to look like. They even have video tutorials if you’re new to the design game. From there, a developer takes your design and turns it into a reality.
Shopify
Shopify is a platform that offers several themes and features geared specifically to ecommerce sites. Their payment options include credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover), store credit, and gift cards. You can even split tenders in a single transaction (ie: multiple credit cards). If you want, create custom payment options like IOUs and checks. Partial payments make it easier than ever for people to make purchases on your site. This platform allows you to focus on your business instead of worrying about secure checkouts and shipping. Your dashboard helps you keep track of sales, orders, and traffic, and the product reports give you insight into your store’s growth. The retail reports can export sales by staff members, location, time period, and customers. Manage inventory by adding products, taking product photos, changing prices, and adding inventory. All from your phone! Your online store and Shopify app are automatically synced to transfer products, inventory, orders and customers. With customer profiles, you can learn more about your customers and their shopping habits to better optimize your site for sales. Shopify is a great option if you’re an ecommerce site, though it doesn’t have the same community-base as a larger hosting site like WordPress.
Translating Your Site
Translating your website can be beneficial if you have multiple locations around the world or are looking into a franchise website builder. Since 70% of the word doesn’t speak English and 57% of websites contain only English, you have a real advantage over your competitors with a translated site. If you’re trying to target audiences in another country, it’s imperative to have content in that audience’s native language. Over half of all Google searches are in languages other than English. Ninety percent of internet users in the EU say that, when given a choice of languages, they always choose to visit a website in their own language. Translating your website increases traffic. If you want your website to show up when someone searches a word or phrase in German, you’re going up against some heavy competition if you’re website isn’t translated. Conversions are more likely to happen if the user isn’t struggling to read content that’s in their second language. Not only is translation (from a professional translator) essential, but it’s also important to localize your content. This means that you modify a website’s images, structure, and language to make it usable for your target market. Someone who specializes in website design in Kansas City can help you determine whether this is necessary.
Bring on the Images
The brain processes visuals 50 times faster than text. That’s why you NEED pictures of your products and services integrated into your website design in Kansas City. Your designer should understand the power of visual communication and make sure to include some professional-grade photography on your site. Some website creation platforms, like Photobiz, are ideal for specific, image-oriented niches. In this case, photographers. They have a 14 day money-back guarantee, packages starting at $25/month, flexible templates, hands-free SEO, online proofing, and free business consulting. Best of all, they have image-heavy templates that show off your work in the best way.
Colors Matter
By utilizing websites like Colorhunt and Adobe Color to find colors that work well together, you ensure a visually appealing experience for your user. Here’s breakdown of what the different colors represent:
One study found that 85% of shoppers place color as a primary reason for why they purchase a product. There’s also an 80% increase in brand recognition when using color. The three main colors that you’ll need to determine are the dominant brand color, accent colors to create a color scheme for your website, and a background color. Make sure that the dominant color you choose is somewhere within your logo. Colors that appeal to both men and women are blue and green. If you want to create the greatest universal appeal, consider choosing one of these as your dominant color. This dominant color shouldn’t be overused on your website. Strategically incorporate it into places where you want your website visitors to pay attention to (ie: contact form). Accent colors are used to highlight secondary information on your pages, such as content/items that aren’t the main focal points of your page but that you still want to stand out (ie: subtitles). Only choose one or two accent colors.
How Google Determines Quality
User experience also plays a role in how your site is ranked. The main concern with website design in Kansas City is that it shows up first when people search your company’s name. Content that is mobile friendly and easy to navigate will score you major points in those Google crawls, while slow load times (and high bounce rates) bring you down. Word count requirements and Flesch readability scores have also gained importance in the ranking process. This article points out that “the average text copy length of the top 30 pages increased by 25% since summer of 2014”. In fact, it’s expected that you have a minimum of 300-500 words on your pages. If you need evidence of this, check out websites like CNN, NBC, and CBS. They used to post videos with only a line or two of text, but they have since transcribed text of the video underneath to get them indexed. If your own site is very video-heavy, consider following the same tactic. Also, keep in mind that Google is favoring high-quality content over articles that have been SEOd to the point of nonsense. This means you should worry less about including as many keyword phrases as possible, and instead focus on creating important content that naturally utilizes those terms. Social shares can also have an impact on Search Engine Results Pages, so get the word out there about your brand!
Choosing Domain Names
Even though GoDaddy used to be most people’s go-to domain buying site, Name.com is gaining a lot of traction. They’ve stolen the GoDaddy thunder by including bulk domain keyword lookup, expired domains, and deleting domain tools. If you want to look up expiring domains to find one that might fit your needs, sort by ‘.com’, exclude hyphens and numbers, and enter keyword-relevant or geo-targeted domain names. Exact keywords in an industry (ie: ‘cars’, ‘hotels’) are hard to pin down, so try throwing in an adjective or some type of branding keyword to find a domain that’s available. This also helps distinguish your brand from the rest and gives some insight into your brand personality (ie: corporate, goofy, simplistic). In addition to domain names, consider whether social media channels have handles available for that name (use Knowem to check this quickly). Short and simple is the way to go when it comes to domain names. Think of companies like Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and ebay—they’re all short! Keywords in your domain name can help your SEO ranking though, so you may want to use a long phrase domain and then hyphenate it on your site. A brandable domain name can be accomplished by making up an entirely new word, using existing words, or using a domain name generator. A few parting tips:
- Make sure it’s easy to spell
- Avoid hyphens and numbers
- Always go with ‘.com’ over ‘.net’ or ‘.org’
Example to Follow
Some stellar websites in the KC area include Artego Pizza, No Other Pub, Hand & Land (Shopify), Crowley Furniture, and Midland Radio if you’re looking for some inspiration! With Crowley Furniture especially, navigation is made easy with categories and filters by type and brand. They have their brand colors used consistently throughout the site in headings and title bars, plus they have an image-filled home page. No Other Pub utilizes great photographs, transparency and unique shapes to create an awesome user experience. Their icons, textured backgrounds, and slideshows also boosts the site’s visual appeal. Artego Pizza’s site incorporates movement and vibrant colors to make the scrolling experience fun. You know you have a good site when people take the time to explore all your different pages. Check out our blog about the best KC local sites and best business websites in Johnson Country for inspiration when starting website design in Kansas City.
Contact Us
Whether you’re looking for website design in Kansas City or want to learn more about some of our other web development services we offer, contact us to get started!