Insurance brokerages entering the online market need a great website if they want people to choose them over their competitors. Most consumers of today search for services and research companies online, and their first point of contact with your brand is your website. Like it or not, making a good first impression is crucial when it comes to lead acquisition and client retention.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to be super tech savvy to build a great website. Just follow these web design best practices and you’ll be sure to impress.
Design a simple homepage
Avoid overwhelming visitors with too much information when they first arrive at your website. Keep the homepage layout clean and navigation buttons visible.
Include long form content for SEO
Great websites don’t just focus on themselves. They aim to delight and engage with their users and provide value, often in the form of blog posts.
Not only does blogging provide value to your existing clients and demonstrate your expertise to prospective ones, search engines like Google love them. Be sure to include long form content to help boost your site’s SEO.
Make your content readable
There’s no point in offering your web visitors information if it’s too difficult to comprehend. One way to make your content readable is to avoid page-stuffing. Using too much multimedia (ie: photos, videos, ad banners, etc) can also make it difficult for people to find what they’re looking for and put them through choice paralysis.
Another way to make your content readable is to use white space to balance out your content. White space highlights text, which draws eyes to the key parts of your website such as call-to-action buttons. Break up long paragraphs with high definition (but compressed) photos or videos.
Follow a consistent layout theme
Don’t underestimate the persuasive power of a clean and attractive website; it can really make leave an impact on first-time visitors. Some of the best website designs tend to favour a minimalistic theme and apply consistent colour palettes and branding.
Reduce download times
Let’s be honest: with the advanced rate of technology these days, no one has the patience to wait for a web page to load. Compressing any photos to a smaller file size is a good way to reduce page load times.
Also, if you want a high conversion rate for your website, make sure that specific goal actions like downloading an eBook, signing up to a mailing list, or purchasing are quick and efficient as well.
Walk a mile in your buyer’s shoes
Make your website easy to navigate. People looking to purchase insurance likely aren’t going to browse your website for fun. Something terrible might have happened to them, and they may need to find what they’re looking for in a hurry. To make their search as smooth as possible, keep your website navigation simple and consistent throughout the whole website.
When it comes to displaying important information, some questions to consider when designing your website should include: Are your business and employee contact information easy to find? Are your products and services described in a way that’s easy to understand? Does it take a visitor more than three clicks to find what they’re looking for?
Make your website mobile-friendly
If you’ve ever tried browsing a website that wasn’t compatible with your smartphone or tablet, you likely know how frustrating the experience is. Many people browse the internet with mobile devices nowadays, so making your website responsive to different smartphones and tablets would give you a definite edge over your competitors.
Track visitor behavior
Lastly, it’s critical to leverage web analytics to measure your website’s performance. Track visitor behaviour to help you identify problems on your website; this data will give you a direction in which you can adjust your website’s layout for better success. Digital trends are constantly changing, so your website should be updated to reflect those changes.
In 2020’s advanced digital landscape, companies that have a well-designed, interactive website are in a completely different category from ones that merely have A Website.
To be counted amongst the former, follow these best practices to build a website that’s optimized for maximum “visibility, impact, and functionality”. If you’re going to invest time in building a website, make sure it’s working for you!