In 2011, only 59 percent of consumers were going online to find local businesses. After eight years and 38 percent more users, a reported 97 percent of potential customers use the internet to find the products and services they need.
As new development tools become available, creating a beautifully-crafted, mobile responsive website is easier and more affordable than ever.
With better animations, graphics, and other elements, a small business website can draw in more traffic and keep customers engaged longer.
Attention-grabbing effects.
Gone are the days of stiff and stale websites. In recent years, advances in design technologies have allowed website designers to begin having some fun.
The use of parallax effects is providing depth to otherwise two-dimensional sites and keeping visitors engaged longer.
In addition, attention-getting effects such as color-changing buttons, bouncing animations and popping text are being seen on websites for companies large, small, and every size in between.
These micro-interactions are useful in highlighting important details, as well as leading users to perform particular actions, such as clicking on call-to-action buttons.
Dynamic elements.
When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing how iconic a simple video, even one without sound, can become.
Somehow, the quietest television commercials are often more captivating than those with extreme theme music or loud calls to action.
Luckily, advancements in design now allow these moments to occur right on your company’s website as well.
Instead of simple slider photos, headers and backgrounds are now using video to draw in their visitors. Some do incorporate sound, but others are overlaid with text and or other animated elements.
Popping designs.
In this time of instant gratification, web users need to be intrigued to pay any attention at all to a TV commercial, website, or highway billboard.
As it turns out, many of these visitors need to witness a little imagination in order to be intrigued. They want balloons that look as if they could be plucked from the screen and text that pops out at them.
Recently, website designers have been acting on this attitude with a return to lifelike images and three-dimensional features.
The design of text has become an art all its own as highlights, drop-shadows, and other elements are making previously two-dimensional words less boring, and more likely to be read by your potential customers.
Inviting content.
Regardless of your intent, or the size of your business, the content of your website needs to be inviting.
The recent introduction of mega-menus is quickly leaving those traditional, dropdown lists to flounder in their wake as they become detailed, user-friendly, and customizable.
The ease of use offered by DSLR cameras has made it possible for just about anyone to capture large, high-quality images of their company’s for use on their websites.
Even without the consideration of SEO practices, website designers are putting more effort into the copywriting they include on the pages they create.
Business owners today must remember that a website is most often the first point of contact with consumers. It also acts as a modern-day business card so it needs to be easily remembered.
Companies with websites benefit from consumer internet searches in ways the competition simply cannot. The question now is, why does a mere 51 percent of small businesses have websites?