Ready to take your Green Bay website design skills to the next level? Get pumped, because we’re diving into the bodacious world of web design for Northeast Wisconsin businesses!
From killer branding to search engine optimization, this rockin’ guide will teach you everything you need to create eye-catching, effective websites. Time to harness your inner creative cheesehead! Let’s get rollin’.
Develop Big Bold Branding
Every smashin’ Green Bay website starts with developing your business brand. This is your chance to show off your unique Wisconsin personality!
Brainstorm logos, color palettes, images, and fonts that capture your brand identity. Need inspiration? Take a stroll through charming downtown Green Bay or along the vibrant Fox River walkway to get those creative juices flowin’.
Incorporate local landmarks like Lambeau Field or the National Railroad Museum. Showcase photos of happy cheeseheads. Have fun with it! Bold branding makes your business stick out from the crowd.
Optimize for Local Search
Since you’re catering to Green Bay customers, optimizing for local search is a must. This means targeting keywords like “Green Bay web design” and “Green Bay website developer.”
Include your city name on every page of your site. Build location-based content around Green Bay. Get active on Google My Business to stand out in local pack results. Claim local directory listings. Keywords and visibility put you in front of nearby website design clients.
Highlight Your Portfolio
As a design biz, showing off your past website projects is crucial. A rockin’ portfolio proves your skills and grabs potential customers’ attention.
Showcase diverse industries and highlight visuals, functionality, and results. Get creative with the presentation – videos, image grids, carousels, etc. Keep your portfolio updated by continuously adding new projects. There’s no better way to hook website design clients than dazzling them with your awesome work.
Optimize Site Speed
In the fast-paced digital world, a slow website sticks out like a sore thumb. Speed up load times to please visitors and search engines using tricks like compression, caching, optimized images, and minimal plugins.
Suggested image: Cartoon cheese wedge impatiently tapping its foot
Test different Green Bay web hosting providers to find the fastest option. Ask clients for old logos and content you can remove. Clear out clunky code or blocks. Faster sites engage users and improve SEO rankings. Optimize speed and your website will be quick as a bounce pass at Lambeau!
Make it Mobile Friendly
Upwards of 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. So your website design needs to be mobile optimized for our on-the-go cheeseheads. Use responsive layouts. Check that text doesn’t overflow. Test the user experience on actual devices.
Avoid tiny tap targets. Enable pinch/zoom functionality. Simplify menus and navigation. With a mobile-friendly site, users can easily access your business anywhere in the Green Bay area and beyond.
Include Engaging Visuals
text alone won’t cut the cheddar when it comes to stellar website design. Integrate exciting visual elements to catch visitors’ eyes like photos, illustrations, icons, infographics, animations, and videos.
Show real Green Bay locals using your products or services. Get creative with original graphics and branding. Hire a local photographer for lifestyle shots. Visuals make your content more memorable, convey information quickly, and give your site polish. Don’t forget the ALT text for accessibility!
Provide Value Through Content
Well-crafted website content provides value for potential customers while showcasing your expertise. Share Green Bay-specific tips, local insights, behind-the-scenes looks, and fun Wisconsin facts.
Incorporate helpful FAQs, step-by-step tutorials, fundamentals for beginners, and trends analyses. Entertain and educate through compelling copy and storytelling. SEO comes down to content, so fill your site with informative, engaging copy tailored to your audience.
Choose the Right Platform
Selecting the optimal website platform lays the groundwork for success. We recommend WordPress for its expansive features, design flexibility, SEO capabilities, and easy management.
For ecommerce sites, WooCommerce and Shopify are ideal. Ensure your web host provides speedy service for a great Green Bay user experience. The right foundation makes building, updating, and optimizing your website smooth as cheese curds.
Promote Your Website
You crafted an incredible site, now get it in front of people! Promote your business across social media and run Google/Facebook ads. Ask satisfied customers for reviews. Encourage visitors to subscribe to an email list.
Publish case studies detailing your website design process. Guest post for added exposure. Show up at local Green Bay networking events to get the word out. Consistent promotion helps funnel cheese-loving visitors to your site.
Congrats, you just leveled up your skills for making mouth-watering Green Bay websites! Apply these tips to craft local sites that attract visitors and boost business. And don’t be afraid to sprinkle in that signature Wisconsinite charm. Happy designing!
Web Design Green Bay
5 Basic Rules of Web Design the most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose your text and background colors very carefully. You don’t want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or use colors that are hard to read. Dark-colored text on a light-colored background is easier to read than light-colored text on a dark background.
You also don’t want to set your text size too small (hard to read) or too large (it will appear to shout at your visitors). All capitalized letters give the appearance of shouting at your visitors.
Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not cantered. Center-aligned text is best used in headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what they are reading, and most text is left aligned.
Your web site should be easy to navigate
All of your hyperlinks should be clear to your visitors. Graphic images, such as buttons or tabs, should be clearly labeled and easy to read. Your web graphic designer should select the colors, backgrounds, textures, and special effects on your web graphics very carefully. It is more important that your navigational buttons and tabs be easy to read and understand than to have “flashy” effects. Link colors in your text should be familiar to your visitor (blue text usually indicates an unvisited link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited link), if possible. If you elect not to use the default colors, your text links should be emphasized in some other way (boldfaced, a larger font size, set between small vertical lines, or a combination of these). Text links should be unique – they should not look the same as any other text in your web pages. You do not want people clicking on your headings because they think the headings are links.
Your visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in your site within three clicks. If not, they are very likely to click off your site as quickly as they clicked on.
How much does a web design charge?
Web design costs range from $300 – $6,000+ depending on the size and complexity of the website. Basic brochure websites start around $500 while ecommerce sites cost $1,000+. Custom web design with advanced features is $3,000+. Ongoing monthly fees also apply for hosting, maintenance, etc.
What are the 3 types of web design?
The 3 main types of web design are:
- Frontend web design – how the site looks with HTML, CSS, visuals.
- Backend web design – server-side code that powers features and functionality.
- Full stack web design – encompasses both frontend and backend development.
Does web design require coding?
Not always. Tools like WordPress and Wix allow drag-and-drop web design without coding. However, knowledge of HTML and CSS helps customize websites and is required for complex web applications. Many web designers learn at least basic coding.
Is there still money in web design?
Absolutely. Good web design is crucial for modern businesses so there is huge demand. Specific web design skills like WordPress, ecommerce, and web accessibility are especially profitable. As technology and trends change, web designers who stay current will continue to thrive.
The web design industry keeps growing. Focusing on user experience, optimizing for SEO, and providing ongoing value ensures web designers remain relevant and profitable.
Your web site should be easy to find: Web Design Green Bay
How are your visitors finding you online? The myth, “If I build a web site, they will come,” is still a commonly held belief among companies and organizations new to the Internet. People will not come to your web site unless you promote your site both online and offline.
Web sites are promoted online via search engines, directories, award sites, banner advertising, electronic magazines (e-zines), and links from other web sites. If you are not familiar with any of these online terms, then it is best that you have your site promoted by an online marketing professional.
Web sites are promoted offline via conventional advertising methods: print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Once you have created a web site, all of your company’s printed materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc. should have your URL printed on them.
Not only should your web site be easy to find, but your contact information should be easy to find. People like to know that there is a person at the other end of a web site who can help them in the event that:
1. They need answers to questions which are not readily available on your web site;
2. Some element on your site is not working and end-users need to be able to tell you about it, and
3. Directory editors need you to modify parts of your site to be sure that your site is placed in the most relevant category.
By giving all relevant contact information (physical address, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses), you are also creating a sense of security for your end-users. They can contact you in a way that makes them feel the most comfortable.
Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site
Just as in any document formatted on a word processor or as in any brochure, newsletter, or newspaper formatted in a desktop publishing program, all graphic images and elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should remain consistent throughout your web site. Consistency and coherence in any document, whether it is a report or a set of web pages, project a professional image.
For example, if you use a drop shadow as a special effect in your bullet points, you should use drop shadows in all of your bullets. Link-colors should be consistent throughout your web pages. Typefaces and background colors, too, should remain the same throughout your site.
Color-coded web pages, in particular, need this consistency. Typefaces, alignment in the main text and the headings, background effects, and the special effects on graphics should remain the same. Only the colors should change.
Your web site should be quick to download
Studies have indicated that visitors will quickly lose interest in your web site if the majority of a page does not download within 15 seconds. (Artists’ pages should have a warning at the top of their pages.) Even web sites that are marketed to high-end users need to consider download times. Sometimes, getting to web sites such as Microsoft or Sun Microsystems is so difficult and time consuming that visitors will often try to access the sites during non-working hours from their homes. If your business does not have good brand name recognition, it is best to keep your download time as short as possible.
A good application of this rule is adding animation to your site. Sure, the animation looks “cool” and does initially catch your eye, but animation graphics tend to be large files. Test the download time of your pages first. If the download time of your page is relatively short and the addition of animation does not unreasonably increase the download time of your page, then and ONLY then should animation be a consideration.
Finally, before you consider the personal preferences of your web page design, you should consider all of the above rules FIRST and adapt your personal preferences accordingly. The attitude “I don’t like how it looks” should always be secondary to your web site’s function. Which is more important: creative expression/corporate image or running a successful business?
Thank you for reading SEO WEBSITE MASTERS
