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Big Fish Local

4 Website Design Tips

How social media builds loyal fans

Are you a small business owner considering launching a new (or revamped) website?  Awesome, we’d love to help you with that! However, we also understand there are  times you may need to handle it yourself. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 4  website design tips to guide you along the way. 

Images are important… 

…and in more ways than you may realize. The first of our website design tips is to  optimize your images. They provide a “supporting argument” for your SEO efforts. For  example, your image names should reflect your desired SEO results. More importantly,  image Alt tags need to include your chosen SEO focus keyword or long-tail keyword  phrase. 

In addition, your image sizes need to be optimized. They should load quickly using the  appropriate compression technique. If your website uses extremely large images with  large file sizes, this will slow down your website. Subsequently, this lowers your user  engagement score and will cause your SEO rankings to take a bit of a nosedive. 

Use a responsive design 

Another important website design tip is to use a responsive design. While many  websites have been updated over the past decade to reflect this design language, we  believe it’s important to talk about it for several reasons. 

First, while website development often happens on a desktop or laptop, statistically  speaking many users will access your site from mobile devices. This means that you  should always keep responsive design in the back of your mind when building your  website pages. 

Furthermore, a few sites still use mobile-specific versions of their website. If your site  does this, responsive design is a modern way to create a singular website that works  regardless of your device type. 

Remember your brand 

Do you have a unified brand? This should include things such as: 

• Your logo; 

• Fonts; 

• Brand colors, and; 

• Tone of voice. 

When creating your website, each page or piece of content should always incorporate  your branding. This cohesive approach builds consumer trust while demonstrating your  commitment to the details. It might sound odd to talk about branding as a part of a list  of website design tips, but what it comes down to is how you present your brand  online. 

Learn a bit about SEO

How much do you know about SEO principles? It’s okay if you don’t know a ton (that’s  where companies like Big Fish Local can help).  

Nevertheless, for the business owner building their website, you’ll want to remember a  few key SEO principles while creating your website copy. Let’s look at a couple of the  easier ones to tackle. 

Headers 

Our first principle is why we consider this a website design tip rather than a strictly  SEO tip. Remember that your website headers serve a functional purpose. An H1  header tag is your page title. If you use this throughout your site page simply because  it’s a bigger, bold font size, you’re going to confuse the search engines trying to index  your site. Each page only has a single H1 header tag.  

Headers, Part 2 

Your headers also support your SEO argument. If your page is about “cooking  techniques for Indian food”, that long-tail keyword phrase should appear in at least one  H2 header tag. 

Your page copy 

Assuming again that your long-tail keyword phrase is “cooking techniques for Indian  food”, this phrase should appear organically a handful of times throughout your on page text. Make sure it feels natural because… 

…Engagement Matters 

User engagement can make or break your best efforts. Time on page, bounce rate, and  sharability all play a role in your SEO. Ensuring that your content speaks to your  customers is a great way to help boost the engagement component to your SEO.