11 Must Have Web Design Features for Hawaii Businesses

With the introduction of more and more “do it yourself” web design tools like Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, and others, you may think it’s easy to create and maintain your own web site but there’s a lot more to it than you might think. Trust us, Team Vision Marketing has been designing and programming web sites over the years for Hawaii clients, including Ke Kailani, Ainamalu, Islander Ukulele, Castle & Cooke Hawaii, Koa Ridge, Wailele Ridge and many more.

If you’re about to engage in the process of either designing your own web site or hiring someone to create a web site for you, here are eleven must-have basic web site design features your business web site needs.

If you need help with your business’s web design, let us know! We would love to help!

1. A Well Structured Menu

An organized menu is a KEY element for achieving a higher Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking because search engines want to present the best web sites on their search results page, which considers such factors as ease of navigation and content organization. A well-structured navigation will also prevent high bounce rates. New visitors should be able to instinctively know how to navigate through your web site and not waste their time digging through your menus to find the content they want.

Team Vision recommends listing what type of content or web pages you need to have on your site. Then, group the web pages into relevant categories or subcategories.

Pro Tip: Map out your web site design with all of its web pages in a flow chart and then refine that flowchart to create the most simple and organized navigation menus you can.

2. Visually Engaging, Responsive Web Site Design

There’s no excuse for a business web site to have a bad web design. If you make the effort to look your very best for face-to-face interactions with potential consumers or clients, then you should make the effort to make your site visually engaging. See TeamVision.com as an example of a well-designed, mobile-friendly business web site.

It takes less than 15 seconds for potential consumers or clients to analyze the look of your site and determine if they want to continue browsing through it. A clean layout, high-quality imagery, and well-written content make your site appear more trustworthy and give you a higher SEO ranking, which can result in increased web site conversions.

If you have the budget for it, there are many web site design companies that can help you create an aesthetically pleasing, responsive web design that’s fully customized to your needs. If your budget dictates that you need to go the less expensive route, DIY web site tools, like WordPress, also possess some decent web design templates, but your customization may be limited without an experienced web development team assisting you.

3. Call-To-Actions (CTA)

Call to actions are instructions designed to provoke an immediate response from your web audience, such as “Call XXX-XXXX Today!” or “Buy Now!” buttons. CTAs are important for conversions, so make them conspicuous and readily available throughout the site. Ideal CTA locations are on applicable sections of web pages, and within the site’s header and footer.

4. Visual Components: Images, Videos, and Infographics

Strong visual elements are a must for any web site design. Photos, graphics, and videos are much easier to comprehend than text, they increase brand awareness, and can help increase conversions.

• 46% of users take action after viewing a video ad (Geniusmonkey.com)

• Videos on landing pages can increase conversion by 80% (Forbes.com)

According to the 2018 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, three of the top six content types being prioritized by B2B marketers are visual content, such as videos, infographics, and illustrations/photos

Although photos and graphics still provide creative visual interest, videos are the fastest growing form of visual content. Videos are more engaging, helpful for testimonials, demos, and storytelling. Infographics are also growing in popularity for tutorials and sharing analytics.

5. Well Written Copy with Keywords

Copy is vital for gaining more traffic, increasing conversions, and keeping your web visitors on the site longer. For SEO purposes, your web site’s text content factors in heavily. So, your copy should be relevant, concise, and rich with keywords that relate to your business, products, and services. Bad grammar, misspellings, and poor organization will get your web site flagged by search engines as a low-quality site, negatively affecting your SEO ranking and your web traffic.

Your copy should also clearly communicate all the information your audience needs to know in a concise fashion. If your web visitors can’t find the information they’re looking for, then they will quickly leave your site and go to one of your competitors. But be mindful of not sounding too sales orientated. If the tone is too promotional, then it might deter your audience from wanting to read more.

6. Enhanced Tracking and Tracking Pixels

These little snippets of code are important for measuring the effectiveness of your online marketing programs. When someone visits and takes action on your web site through Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, the pixel’s report the action and automatically adds the web user’s information into a remarketing or lookalike audience list. Pixels also optimize conversions so Facebook and Google ads can determine how to best deliver your ads to audiences that are more likely to take action.

7. Quick Load Times

Load time speed plays a primary role in building traffic and retaining visitors on your site. Long load times can result in high bounce rates, which will negatively impact your conversions and SEO strategy. SEO algorithms heavily weigh on your web site’s bounce rates when ranking your site on search engine results pages (SERP).

There are a number of ways to improve your web site’s load time, however, most of these techniques will require some coding. There are WordPress plugins that can help but hiring someone to program these techniques might serve as a better investment for your web site.

• Visual content is the usual culprit for long load times. Try compressing and resizing your images and videos before uploading them to your website. Think about it, bigger files take more time to load.

• Use browser caching. This technique allows data to be temporarily stored on a visitor’s computer, resulting in faster load time for repeat visitors.

• Slim down your code. This includes deleting unnecessary HTML, Java script, CSS, and white space between code lines.

• HubSpot suggests adding your site’s external Javascript files to the bottom of the page before closing the body tag.

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We cannot stress this enough! It’s 2019, your web pages should already be optimized for search engines. SEO is no longer treated as a bonus in your online marketing, it’s an absolute must! This is how your web site will become more visible on search engine results pages, which will generate increased web traffic and potentially higher conversions.

Read more about key SEO strategies and how to optimize our web site for voice search in our previous blog posts.

9. SSL Certificate, Terms Of Use, And Disclaimers

Security is an increasingly important component of web site design, not just for the audience, but also for web site owners. Adding some security measures is easier than you think.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate
Buying and installing an SSL certificate is essential for your web site. This standard security technology establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser, ensuring that all the data passed between a server and a browser is kept private. Without it, Google will label your web site as “NOT SECURE”, which will negatively affect your search engine ranking and send red flags to your audience. This certificate also gives your audience some peace of mind.

Read more about SSL Certificates here.

Terms of Use
This legal document lays out the rules that users must agree to in order to use the site and use content from the site. It prevents abuses, protects your intellectual property and registered trademarks, and limits your liability if your content has been used incorrectly or inflicts damage. The Terms of Use also states your right to terminate accounts and establishes age restrictions.

Disclaimers
A Disclaimer is a legal notice that protects the company by limiting the legal liability for the outcome of your web audience using your web site. Without disclaimers, you can potentially face lawsuits.

10. XML Sitemap

Building an XML sitemap into your web site helps Google “crawl” through your web pages to determine your site’s indexing on search result pages. With some coding, you can customize which web pages you think are high quality that Google should pay more attention to and which pages Google should ignore. See Team Vision’s XML Site Map as an example.

Learn how to build an XML sitemap and view Google’s sitemap guidelines.

11. Integration With Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an essential tool for every web site. It provides insight on who your web audience is and which online marketing strategies are working best for your site. It can track how your audience found your site, which device they accessed it from, track their full interaction with your web pages, and much more.

Bonus:

Testimonials & Reviews

Testimonials are effective buying influencers. If you have consumers that have enjoyed your product or service, share that with your prospective customers. If you have the capability, video testimonials are more effective than text testimonials.  View examples of quality video testimonials here.

•HubSpot Research also found that 60% of consumers believed customer reviews were either trustworthy or very trustworthy

• According to Nielsen research, “92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer, and 70% of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know”.

Portfolios

If you’re selling a service, like advertising and marketing, you should show off your recent and past work. Give your prospective customers an idea of what they can expect from your business. Of course, include some text to give your prospective customers some context.

As an example, check out Team Vision’s extensive advertising and marketing portfolio.

Link Your Social Media Channels to Your Web Site

If you promote your web site on social media, then you should also promote your social media on your web site. Linking your social media to your site can help increase your followers and engagements. Let your audience easily discover a more personal point of view of your company.

Incorporating these 11 key basic web features can help you achieve a higher Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking , improve your web site traffic, and increase your online conversions. Are you scrolling through your web site and noticing that you are missing some of these important features? Team Vision can help you with all your web design and Search Engine Optimization needs. We’ve designed and developed many successful Hawaii web sites and SEO marketing programs for Hawaii businesses on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island of Hawaii and Lanai.

Reach out to us at (808) 536-0416 or use our website inquiry form at www.www.teamvision.com/contact.