Portland Website Design Services

As a business operator or service provider, your website serves many purposes. It can educate potential customers about your products or services. It can offer help to customers who have already purchased your products, or it may offer informational or entertainment value to increase brand recognition and public engagement. An effective website turns clicks into customers and customers into lifelong brand advocates. Your website is not just a place to list your phone number and link to your Facebook — it is the core of your digital identity and the fundamental element of any comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

Elements of Portland Website Design Services

A critical first step is to understand the basic framework of a responsive and well-designed website. Highly effective websites consider the following components:

• Homepage. Your homepage is the flagship element of your website. Other than perhaps a social media ad or a link in the search engine results page (SERP) your homepage is the very first thing customers (and potential customers) will see when they search for your operation — your brand’s introduction to Portland and the world beyond. As they say, there is only one chance to make a good first impression. 

• Navigation. In web design terms, “navigation” refers to the menus, buttons, drop-down lists, or other linked elements that website visitors use to navigate from one section of a website to another. Navigation can be handled in many ways, from purely text based to graphical and interactive. No matter how it is approached technically, your navigation should be self-explanatory and easy to use, with labels that are accurate and easy to read. 

• Design. The website design for a business is not something to be developed in a vacuum. This is to say that your company’s web design should be a cohesive and inextricable part of your overall brand identity. Fonts, colors, formatting, and image use should be consistent, not just across your different webpages, but also across your website, your print advertisements, your promotional videos, billboard placements, or any other visual marketing. 

• Content. The content hosted on your website needs to be readable, well-researched, highly persuasive, compelling, and actionable. Achieving all of this often requires the services of a professional writer. It must be crafted to SEO standards, which means having an effective keyword density, incorporating relevant images and links, and typically having a length of between 500 and 1,000 words.

• Calls to action. Calls to action (CTAs) are graphical buttons or text hyperlinks that direct visitors to take a specific action. Common CTAs use phrases like “contact us,” “buy now,” or “schedule an appointment” to take users to actionable areas of the website, such as a contact form, scheduling applet, or ecommerce platform to complete a sale. CTAs can be used multiple times throughout the website to funnel users toward a desired outcome.

• Contact. Contact information should also be easy to find on your website. This should include an up-to-date phone number, email, and mailing address, as well as links to any social media presence. If you are marketing a brick-and-mortar location, you might also include driving directions or an interactive map on your contact page. Many websites will include a contact form on their contact page so that users can submit a comment or request without even opening their email.

• Social media. Make sure to integrate your social media links into your website. Many websites do this with small icons on the homepage, using the logos of each social media platform as linked buttons that will take visitors directly to your Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter feed.

• Footer. The footer at the bottom of a website is important digital real estate which often includes things like design credit, copyright information, privacy and policy information, and summarized contact info. The footer can be used as a shortcut for finding vital information and a quick way to contact the website’s operators.

Busy Bee Media Can Help: Comprehensive Portland Website Design Services

What we’ve explored here are only the basics of website design. When you’re ready to take the next step, reach out to the experienced experts at Busy Bee Media for Portland website design services. We are ready to help you bring your vision to life with a cutting-edge website that draws in customers and converts web traffic to sales. Contact us today.