When building a website for your business, it’s easy to get stuck in the weeds. What builder should you use? How should you word your content? Where should you source your images? How do you rank each page for SEO?
When it comes down to it, website design for IT consultants is critically important.
As defined by Tech Terms, website design “encompasses several different aspects, including webpage layout, content production, and graphic design.” For this article, we’re going to focus on webpage layout and dally in a little bit of graphic design. After reading this, you should know seven simple tips that will make your website stand out amongst your competitors.
1. Design for Mobile
Mobile is listed here as number one to signify its growing prevalence in the world of website design for IT consultants. For example, in 2018 52% of all website traffic came from a mobile source. If your website isn’t designed to be mobile-friendly, you could be losing up to half of your traffic. Creating a mobile-responsive website isn’t just about working with a mobile responsive platform and creating a site crafted specifically for mobile users.
The most mobile-friendly websites follow all the practices of good design and make using your website a pleasure, even on a smaller screen.
2. Make Buttons Stand Out
Every button is a call-to-action. Not a whisper-to-action. If your buttons don’t stand out, then you’re missing out on clicks. The longer your user has to search your website and scroll up and down in order to “Request Service” or “Call Now,” the more likely you are to lose them. Buttons should always be shown in contrasting colors from your overall theme. Another design principle is to always place them above the fold, below the fold, in the header, and in the footer.
Anytime there’s a chance your user could be looking for a way to contact you, that button needs to be there to make it easy for them.
3. Match Your Message
Far too often we see websites with images and design that doesn’t match the message. For example, let’s say you really enjoy working with animal rescue. You spend your weekends and evenings caring for foster dogs. During the hours of 9-5, you work as an IT consultant for small businesses. While you might love to fill your website with pawprints and dog bones, it wouldn’t make sense. Even if the imagery is a metaphor for how “dog-gone good you are” or how your services will lead to “paw-sitively perfect IT,” it still doesn’t make sense. Great website design for IT consultants stays on task and communicates a relevant message through content, imagery, and design.
4. Avoid a Cluttered User Experience
Have you ever gone onto a website, only to feel as though you were transported back into the 90s? Complete with highlighted text, multiple fonts, too many pop-ups, and covered in copy, the theme of 90s website design for IT consultants appeared to be “clutter.” Just look at the websites listed here, and tell me your eyes don’t hurt.
Create a simple, streamlined user experience by never using more than two fonts, pulling from a consistent color palette, and emphasizing graphics/images—not text. If you look at your website and feel as though you don’t know where to look, then your website is too cluttered. Every piece that you put onto your web page should have a specific purpose. Too much content or too many images should be avoided.
5. Navigation Should Be Easy
Have you ever gone onto a website while looking for a specific link only to be unable to find it? Nothing is more frustrating than wasting time, unable to find what you need, all because of bad website design. The world of IT strategy is complicated enough. Great website design for IT consultants needs to make navigation easy.
If you’re building your website on your own, a great way to test your site’s navigation is to hand it over to family and friends and ask how they felt. Don’t give them any help either.
6. Correlate Your Menu to Your Sales Funnel
Too often the navigation menu in your website’s header looks like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type deal. Designers put all of the necessary pages into the header with little thought for the user experience. A well-designed website for IT consultants has a header that mimics the sales funnel.
Think about your sales funnel. The awareness level could correlate to your blogs or about us tab. Next comes the interest stage, which can be represented by services pages. The decision stage correlates to the pricing pages or eBook downloads. Last but not least, your user wants to take action to contact you. Based on this logic, your navigation bar should look as follows: About Us–> Blogs–> Services–> Pricing–> Contact Us.
7. Work with Experts
Great website design for IT consultants is not a skill that is learned overnight. As a matter of fact, it often takes years and at least one degree in order to fully get a handle on it. Even then, working with a renowned website designer, might not cut it if they don’t understand your niche. Luckily for you, New North combines the best of both worlds.
With decades of experience in both website design and the world of IT consultants, we know how to break down your message into a well-designed website that brings in leads. Whether you work in software or hardware, are a creator or integrator, we’re here to help you with your website design for IT consultants. Learn more about our website design and development solutions on our services pages.
