The Epic Battle Between WordPress vs Squarespace

In the battle of Designer Using WordPress vs Squarespace, which one reigns supreme? That is what we are about to find out. Both have diehard fans who insist the benefits of their favorite platform far outweigh the advantages of the other. Many think it’s wholly unnecessary to hire a web designer when you can drag and drop your way to a new online presence. So we’re going head to head: comparing features, discussing value, and giving you an honest look at which avenue is the best to take: Squarespace or WordPress. Here we go.

Round 1: Squarespace SEO vs Designer using WordPress SEO.

Squarespace states that their sites are optimized for search engines from the get-go. They already include clean article links, proper tagging, XML sitemaps and valid XHTML code. This is all true and makes it very easy for the lay person to plug and play without knowing a single thing about SEO. However, ease has it drawbacks. For example, your ability to fully customize your SEO is hampered by the turnkey aspect of Squarespace’s SEO. While you can edit the meta description (that gray text you see under website names in search results) some of Squarespace’s templates also put that description in your website’s header. This is not great for SEO. The meta description should include keywords and a call to action, namely, clicking on the site. Your header and other on-page text is meant to introduce your website/company to consumers. When Squarespace conflates these two things, you lose the ability to truly tailor your content for maximum SEO.

In contrast, WordPress handles SEO through plugins. One of the most popular SEO plugins is Yoast. Yoast allows you to see how your page will look in search engine results. You can easily customize keywords and meta descriptions, create your sitemaps and perform on-page analyses to improve SEO. Other plugins are offering similar functionality. Your knowledgeable WordPress designer can manipulate a variety of plugins to maximize SEO for your WordPress site and tailor it to your company’s needs—and that is the key. Squarespace SEO is one size fits all, and that may be a little too small or a little too big for you. The extra cost of a web designer using WordPress is paid back in better search engine optimization.

Because of the added customization and ability to differentiate meta text from on-page text, ACS Creative declares the:

Round 1: Squarespace SEO vs Design using WordPress SEO Winner to be: Designer.

 

 

Round 2: Squarespace uptime vs Design Using WordPress uptime.

This compare and contrast can get a little tricky because many WordPress sites are not hosted for free on WordPress.org. That’s for personal blogs and freelancers. If you’re a small business seeking a brand new responsive website, you should be looking at a managed hosting package, like the one ACS Creative offers web clients. Our packages not only host your site but include top security features, daily back-ups, and ongoing maintenance. You can also purchase one from hosting companies such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions, but you’ll have to maintain updates and security yourself. That’s why this particular comparison between WordPress vs Squarespace is a little apples to oranges. But our inability to compare and contrast is exactly why WordPress has the edge here. Squarespace hosts Squarespace websites. That’s how it works. You are at the mercy of Squarespace when it comes to your uptime and your security. If you want to change hosts, you usually need to rebuild your site. This may not be a deal breaker for you. You may be totally fine staying on Squarespace forever and not worrying about maintenance, backups, and security. Except Squarespace suffered an outage last April. All of their sites (over 1 million) went down. Not good if you’re banking on online sales. This should be a deal breaker.

Round 2 Winner: Designer using WordPress who offers a managed hosting package.

 

 

Round 3: Squarespace Cost vs Designer using WordPress Cost.

Here’s where there is a substantial difference. Squarespace costs less regarding upfront outlay. The company offers low-cost monthly plans that include basic themes and hosting. If you’re a micro business with no intention of growing bigger, this is probably fine. If you have your small business sights set on doubling customers and boosting revenue, the true Squarespace cost is a lack of lead generation. Again, Squarespace is, for the most part, a turnkey program designed for personal use and general business. It’s not specific to your business. WordPress website designers may cost more, they may have heftier monthly plans, but they will tailor your website to your specific business goals. They will ensure that SEO functionality is generating the results you want, and they will offer personalized customer service. At least, that’s what we do at ACS Creative. So the real question here is not how much does a designer using WordPress vs Squarespace cost? The true question is: which one will get you more value.

Round 3 Winner: Designer using WordPress who offers much more value per dollar.

 

 

Round 4: Squarespace design vs Designer using WordPress.

This one is a real easy comparison. Squarespace offers roughly 50 different templates that you can customize with your choice of colors, content, and typography. That sounds like a lot, except when you realize that there are over a million Squarespace websites out there. In contrast, the design possibilities with a designer using WordPress are virtually endless. Regarding customization potential, Squarespace can’t compete.

Round 4 winner: Designers using WordPress and their imaginations.

 

 

A designer using WordPress is the clear heavyweight champ.

If you’re a growing small business, a web design company can be your best friend. Websites like Squarespace certainly offer many benefits, but those may not be the right advantages for your company. A savvy web design company can do wonders for your business. Before you Squarespace, it’s worth checking some out.

What those “User-Friendly” Website Builders aren’t Telling You

Back in the day, a business card was the first tool in any new company’s arsenal. Now what every start up needs most is a branded online presence that generates business. Cue the onslaught of DIY website platforms like Wix, Weebly and Squarespace that promise to be the best website builder for small businesses. At ACS Creative web design company, we beg to differ. While these platforms offer drag and drop features that appeal to non techies wanting to go live in a jiffy, they have several major issues in common. So before you sign up for what seems like a too good to be true “best” website creator, check out the caveats below.

You’ll be stuck with isolationist technology.

Companies like Wix, Weebly and Squarespace rely on their own, uniquely created technologies that appear similar to WordPress, but are not WordPress. That means you have to depend entirely on that company for all your website design ideas. The problem is that more often than not, your DIY website builder will have limited functionality. For example, it may not integrate with e-commerce. It may not allow for best practice SEO strategies. Google analytics? You might have to forget that, too. And tracking of conversions? Well, that’s probably too much to ask. Essentially, when you choose these “top” website builders, the ease you think you are gaining is countered by a significant decrease in your ability to leverage your online presence to build a more successful business—which is the whole reason you need a website in the first place.

Your best website builder for small business is a web design company.

That’s because web design companies and freelance web designers almost exclusively build sites in WordPress. The latest stats show that WordPress accounts for nearly 57% of content management systems. Over 500 WordPress sites are created each day. The reason for this platform’s popularity among personal web design and those searching for the best website builder for a small business, is that it is an open source website creation tool. Translation: WordPress technology is free. It’s not owned by a private company and it’s not exclusive to users paying a monthly fee. Anyone can design in WordPress and anyone can create plugins for WordPress. (There are currently over 44,000 plugins available.) All this creates numerous benefits for small businesses.

Realize ALL your website design ideas.

Unlike those other platforms, WordPress gives web development and design companies the ultimate freedom to create a tailored site that provides just about any functionality you can dream up. These functions can really boost your business. If you think websites are just images and words, you are missing the rest of the iceberg. Modern websites are content management systems that integrate marketing functions. They can generate leads and capture consumer data. But to really harness the power of the Internet, you need a website built by experts. So unless you are a website design/developer, you should leave the website building to those experts.

Once you go with a DIY website builder, you can never leave.

There’s another drawback to using an “easy” website builder that relies on proprietary technology. If you decide that Wix, Weebly or Squarespace no longer works for you, then you have to scrap your website and start over. From scratch. You can’t transfer your site elsewhere. Other hosting companies like GoDaddy, HostGator and Network Solutions won’t be able to host it. So all that money you spent, in the end, gets you nothing. Alternately, websites built by web design companies, especially those using WordPress, can be hosted on all the major hosting companies. If your hosting plan gets too expensive or you decide the security on that server isn’t up to snuff, you can just take your website elsewhere. Simply download the files and upload them again.

Your website design has two audiences.

Most lay people assume they are building their websites for their customers. That’s only the half of it. You are also building it for Google, Bing and other search engines. Those “best web builders” allow you to easily add content and images and get your site live. You look at your spanking new site and think: “What an awesome online brochure.” The problem is, if you think of websites as virtual brochures, you are neglecting all the backend work that goes into getting a good search engine ranking. Google is your most critical audience. Web development companies understand how to harness meta descriptions, key words and other tools so that Google likes you. When Google likes you, your site ranks high and customers find you. When Google doesn’t like you, you might as well not have a website at all. Think about how many times you go past the third page of search results. You want to avoid that abyss at all costs.

Those web design quotes are a bargain. Really.

The reason most people go with an easy website builder is cost. These companies make their profits over time. There is a small upfront charge (if any) and then you pay them monthly. If you want to end the contract, then you lose your website as noted above. In contrast, a web design company will bill you up front. Many small companies balk at the initial expense. The difference can be in the thousands. However, when you consider that 1. your website will function properly as well as look good, 2. that Google will be able to find you, and 3. that you get to keep your website forever (or until technology evolves again) the upfront cost is a great value. (And you can amortize that cost. Just ask your tax accountant.) The bottom line: being stuck with a monthly fee for a site you can never own, doesn’t integrate with the majority of other technologies and isn’t as effective as it can be at generating leads, is truly the more costly option.

Pool Company Website Makes a Splash

The Las Vegas-based United Aqua Group, a company comprised of over 230 residential pool builders, commercial pool builders, pool retailers and service professionals, asked us to rebuild their malfunctioning Aquatech website. This site is intended to exclusively promote their residential builders under the brand name Aquatech. United Aqua Group is primarily a B-to-B buying group that allows individual companies to buy, network and market themselves collectively. With this website, United Aqua Group is hoping to educate the public about pool building and capture consumer leads for their member builders. Since we know a little something about designing lead-generation websites, we were eager to dive right in.

Showcase the expertise

United Aqua Group consists of some of the pool industry’s most prestigious builders. One goal of our web design was to ensure that their expertise came across loud and clear. The old site included a section titled “Dirt to Dream” that illustrates the general steps involved in building a Gunite in-ground pool. It’s a feature that the client wanted to keep, but the images needed sprucing up. We freshened the images in each step, added steps that were missing and employed the same parallax technology so that visitors could watch a pool literally go from dirt lot to dream backyard as they scroll down. If this website tool doesn’t get you excited about building a pool, nothing will—except for maybe the gallery of beautiful backyards.

Website galleries that deliver wow

The original Aquatech website featured a large gallery of pool images (nearly 3000) that pulled pictures from the company’s internal database. Unfortunately, that database held tens of thousands of images. Having the website connect to it was creating very slow load times. Often, the gallery wouldn’t load at all—which was negatively affecting the user experience. It’s hard to claim that you build beautiful pools if you can’t even show them on your site. ACS Creative Services was tasked with designing a new website gallery that was faster and easier to use. We suggested a few solutions to immediately address the issues. First, to speed load times, we moved the images to the website’s own database—and we made it easy as pie to add new images. Though United Aqua Group gave up some automation (images have to be manually added now to the Aquatech website) the company made tremendous gains in user experience. Now potential pool owners can ogle dream backyards at lightning speed. We believe this is a profitable tradeoff.

Interactive Websites Reduce Bounce

Another key feature of the original website was a section that allowed visitors to “design” their own pool by filtering images according desired features and choosing their favorite yards from among the results. The selections were then automatically emailed to the visitor’s local Aquatech builder. This was a great idea for generating leads—unfortunately it didn’t work. Again, images were pulling from an external database making the whole process extremely slow, when it worked at all. Also, many of the leads would never get to the builders so they couldn’t respond. Visitors were left hanging, and that’s a customer service breakdown no company wants. ACS website design to the rescue. We created a small gallery of pools for each feature option and imported all the images into the website. By minimizing the number of pools being pulled by the filter, we allowed consumers to quickly design their dream pools. More importantly, the speed and ease of the tool is encouraging more leads, making the website design a huge success. The first lead came through within 24 hours of going live.

Builder Locator

The final component of the original site we needed to debug was the builder locator. Initially, the locator worked through the use of an API that connected to the company’s CRM system and pulled the nearest builder when someone entered a zip code. Like with the images, this connected back to the company’s database and was not working. So we went old school. We created a database of companies right on the website and showed United Aqua Group how to manually enter each location. With over 100 locations, this took some time—but it was time well spent. The builder locator now works like a dream—a dream of lounging poolside in your beautiful new backyard. Check out this new site at myaquatechpool.com.

ACS Creative Revs Up 13 Year Old Speed Prodigy’s Website

Kaylen Frederick, known as K-Rex, races open wheel, Formula F1600 cars down a straight away, as fast as he can. He’s also only 13, and the youngest open wheel, pro race driver in the United States. Not too shabby for a middle schooler. He dreams big: winning the Indy Car and the Indy 500 among other famous car races. And those big dreams require extreme dedication, natural talent and a responsive  racing websites design that lures sponsors so K-Rex can keep training at the sport he loves. His dad rolled into our office and asked us to create an impactful online presence. So we, with our toolbox of expert graphic design skills and slick code, rolled up our sleeves and joined K-Rex’s crew.

Full-throttle on the cool factor.

A lot of clients will come in asking for a cool looking website, and while we often try to get more specific on direction, with K-Rex there was no denying that this website had to look and feel as sleek as the car he drives. So what’s cool? Black with bold yellow type, much like the suit K-Rex wears. We used a combination of white and yellow type the over dark imagery to highlight his name and attributes. We also chose a thick, strong font to further convey the sleek message. Lastly, the hero shot is of K-Rex standing with his arms crossed while staring down the camera. If you read nothing else on the page, you’ll still understand one thing: this kid kicks some you know what. And that’s exactly the message the K-Rex team wants to deliver to potential sponsors. A nice win for us.

Put the wins front and center.

Since the whole purpose of our racing websites design is to position K-Rex as a winner, we created a prominent bold banner above the fold on the homepage where he can announce every achievement. Right below that announcement is a box pointing visitors to his 2016 Campaign and schedule. The Learn More link then leads to a calendar we created using race track graphics that delineate the separate events. We are especially fond of those graphics. And on every page there’s a bold box encouraging folks to subscribe to K-Rex’s news and events updates. We like to think of this website design as one slick, fan-creating machine.

Keeping in touch with those fans.

K-Rex is a little too busy behind the wheel, and his parents are a little too busy being K-Rex’s parents to struggle with updating the site’s content. That’s where our content management system comes into play. We made it super easy for the K-Rex crew to post wins, add events, and automatically email subscribers important updates. Long gone are the days when people had to hire developers to make changes to their website. Content management systems like the one we built allow even the least tech savvy user to quickly make web content changes–almost as fast as K-Rex himself gets down that track.

Who is this kid?

Sure the site looks slick. Sure the wins look impressive. But sponsors and fans will want more juicy details on this racing kid wonder. So we put the question: Who isKaylen Frederick right on the homepage. Then added a link to an about section that explains when he got started racing, lets us know he’s also an awesome skier, and reminds us that K-Rex is still a kid—albeit a very talented one you should keep an eye on.

Getting his brand up to speed.

Of course, we couldn’t very well launch K-Rex’s new cool website design without also ensuring that his logo was up to brand snuff. So we updated his logo to match the look and feel of his website. It turned out pretty rad. Wish we had one when we were in middle school.

Getting to the finish line.

As we mentioned earlier, the point of the new responsive website is to attract and persuade sponsors for K-Rex. Thing is, the website is only the lure. K-Rex’s dad also needed the hook. So we designed a pitch presentation template so he could make his presentations to potential sponsors. Winning races is only half the battle. The other half is creating a professional brand that companies will want to invest in. We may not know a whole lot about open wheel, formula car racing, but in the world of professional branding, we are true champs.

Newly-Branded Innovative Insurance has a Website to Match with InsuraLease

In the broad industry that is auto insurance, there are endless niche companies. ACS was approached by an outfit with a new service: auto insurance that specifically targets lease here, pay here auto dealers and offers them a more convenient and economical way to ensure that their customers carry the required car insurance. These dealers spend a lot of money tracking their lease customers’ insurance premiums. Insuralease offers a way to virtually eliminate that. Now came the hard part: designing a user-friendly website that explained this new kind of insurance and encouraged adoption by the targeted dealers.

First, you need a name.

Unfortunately, the company’s initial name was protected by common law trademark and could not be used. So we put on our identity hat and went to work. Our creative director closely collaborated with the client to develop a name that reflected the mission—and had an available URL. Not so easy these days. But we landed on a winner: Insuralease. Note the two main components, insurance and lease, are right in the name—which makes it easy to remember. We then developed a logo and color palette that promoted trust and looked as modern as this new insurance idea. Onto the website design.

Explain and convince.

In general, website design has two main goals: 1. explain a product or service, and 2. convince people to use that product or service. With a new service like Insuralease, we had a lot of explaining to do. However, nobody wants to read long paragraphs on the web. That’s where good web design comes in. We created “The Process” tab and broke the information down into “8 Easy Steps.” Each step went into a separate blue box with a lime green icon. This graphic visual allows potential customers to quickly digest the information. It barely feels like reading. Plus the ease of the site helps convince auto dealers that engaging the service will be just as hassle-free.

Answering The Who

Part of explaining a product or service is clearly indicating who the product/service is for. We did that right on the home page in the sub-head: “For lease here, pay here dealers and their customers.” The message is quite clear. The home page also drills in the brand promise: that Insuralease is an instant and easy insurance solution that is a win win for everyone. Making sure this website prominently delivered that message was definitely a win for us. 

Customers always have questions.

Our web designers recommend FAQ pages to many of our clients, and Insuralease was no different. With a new service, you want to make sure you don’t leave a zillion questions hanging out there. That bounces customers. The FAQ page we created for Insuralease has lime green questions to help them stand out, and large font answers to make them easy to read. We also added a sidebar with contact information for specific, real people and encouraged potential clients to ask questions.

Responsive leads to responses.

Lastly, we made sure that our web design works across all platforms by using responsive web technology. Though this best practice has been around for a couple of years, many don’t realize the importance of responsive web design. Responsive web design basically means that a website’s content will automatically adjust to the width of a browser. So when you view a responsive site on your phone, you’ll notice that the menu suddenly becomes a drop down and content is aligned vertically. This way you don’t have to shrink and enlarge content to get around the site. With an increasing majority of people surfing the web on tablets and phones, it is critical that companies have a responsive website. We made sure that Insuralease does.
Overall, the project was a huge success for us. ACS is proud to have one more happy customer under our belt.

Higher Education Reaches New Heights with Smarter Web Design

Higher education reaches the heights of web design.

The sole focus of HEP (Higher Education Publications) is to maintain the most current database of all the accredited schools, colleges and universities in the nation. That’s a tall order, especially when that database needs to list all current personnel, accreditations and major news stories for over 5,400 schools, 91,800 administrators and 22,600 accreditations. And it needs to be easily searchable, too. ACS web design to the rescue.

Used by hiring companies, marketers and journalists worldwide.

Essentially, anyone needing to inquire about an accredited school will be using this site. So will marketers wanting to push their goods to universities and journalists verifying information. HEP’s stellar reputation depends on their ability to main accurate records. So the web design needed to help people quickly find information on accredited institutions. HEP’s tagline is Authoritative, Timely, Accurate. It was our job to ensure that they could deliver on that brand promise.

hepNow about those web databases.

HEP’s current website contained a very robust database that efficiently organized information so that it could be pulled up in nanoseconds. They call it hedConnect. This database is the equivalent of the Higher Education Directory® already published by HEP and contains all the same information. It is instantly searchable by subscribers and features 109 specific categories that allow users to drill down to exactly the information they need. Nothing else like it in the higher ed industry exists. Our job was to develop a front end website that would help promote this useful tool.

Getting subscribers.

To encourage visitors to subscribe to the database, we put the trial offer and subscription rates front and center, and highlighted the most popular package. This way no one has to dig around for information on how to access the database, and those familiar with the print directory can order and get right to searching.

All the news fit to post.

Another useful component of HEP’s website is the news section. This blog compiles news stories about accredited institutions from around the country. They are free to see without a subscription. And while they appear in date order, the news posts are searchable, offering a handy tool to journalists and others who want to read the latest stories on a particular school.

The web design doesn’t stop here.

We built the HEP site to be uber useful. In addition to the database, portal and news section, visitors can request quotes for data extracts, research accrediting bodies, view state education agencies and more. Our web design made the HEP the online resource for higher ed information.

Child Care Aware of America

When web design has a greater purpose.

We love designing highly functioning and attractive websites for our breadth of clients. Occasionally though, an organization will ask us to help them better their online presence for the greater good— that’s what happened when Child Care Aware of America walked through our doors. This is an organization singularly dedicated to helping every family in America find and afford quality childcare. That’s a lofty goal. They were eager to extend their reach online and needed not one, but two websites:

  • A corporate site that conveyed the organization’s purpose and achievements.
  • A secondary site for a division that is funded by the Office of Child Care and offers more direct support.

Tight Deadline. Firm Budget. No Problem.

They needed web design done quickly, expertly and within their strict budgetary constraints —and these were not simple sites. They called for locator tools that pulled information from different databases across all 50 states as well as 508 compliancy. They also needed to be multi-lingual. We looked at their requirements and thought again about the greater good we would be doing. Taking on this project for Child Care Aware was truly a no brainer.

Website design when information is critical.

All websites convey information, some more visually than others. But for some sites, the information that needs to be made available to visitors is vast. Child Care Aware’s content was low on pictures and big on that killer of no-bouncing: words. Our web design needed to organize the content in a way that would be palatable to visitors—most of whom do not want to encounter pages of endless paragraphs. So we arranged the information accordingly. When you visit both usa.childcareaware.org and childcareaware.org, you’ll note that the text is peppered with pictures of smiling kids—who doesn’t love that? The images, along with the color scheme, make the site feel welcoming. Plus information is presented in digestible nuggets with links to more. When you glance at the navigation, you can easily see how robust and content heavy this site actually is. Conveying information in a manner that visitors won’t ignore is just good web design.

 ACS Creative Web Design Child Care Of America

Nationwide resources at a click.

Because the mission of Child Care Aware is to provide families with quality childcare resources, the websites needed to feature locator tools that allowed visitors to pull up information for their individual state agencies. Families can search for local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies by state, zip code, county and specific address. Creating this seamless functionally was fairly difficult. But we prefer to do the hard work needed to make searching features easy for web browsers.

Website Design that accommodate everyone.

When working with federal and non-profit agencies, there are added steps to building a successful website. One of these is ensuring that the website design is 508 compliant. 508 compliancy refers to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that requires federal agencies to provide software and website accessibility to people with disabilities. These requirements include things like highlighted links and buttons that describe what they lead to rather than stating vague calls-to-action like learn more. After studying all the ins and outs, we are proud to announce that both of the childcare aware website designs are 508 compliant.

Multi-lingual sites for a multi-language audience.

Our clients translated the content for us (phew), but we were tasked with creating multi-lingual sites to expand access. The way these sites work is that the website pops up in the language the browser has been set to—a pretty neat feature. Visitors don’t have to rely on browser translators. The words come up magically in their own language.

The greater good feels good.

Now that both usa.childcareaware.org and childcareaware.org are both up and running, we are thrilled at how smoothly they function, and at the small role we’ve played in helping families across the country satisfy their childcare needs.

Restaurant Web Design that Really Sizzles

Restaurants have always relied heavily on word-of-mouth to keep a steady stream of hungry customers. In the digital age, word-of-mouth has suddenly become word-of-Internet, with the almighty Google churning up the most popular restaurants for people seeking a good meal. To gain popularity online, your website’s appearance needs to pique searchers’ interests. Smart restaurant web design is key to winning the search rankings game and convincing browsers try your place.

A lot of restaurants and franchises are required to run their website on a specific limiting CMS platform that only lets you do so much and don’t optimize very well for maximum organic traffic. It is a wise move to fully customize your website to maximize its performance in the market. Restaurants can utilize their websites for online orders, menu updates, weekly specials, and much more. Once you have the site live, work on local SEO to maximize “near me” visibility in which the search crawlers line up your name / address / phone number / URL across the entire web.

Key Ingredients for Restaurant Web Design.

At ACS Creative Services, we’ve had the pleasure of creating powerful Internet brands for many of Baltimore, Charleston and Washington D.C.  local eateries. Two of these were even featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives—a huge boon for them. We’ve become particularly adept at restaurant website design geared toward the restaurant industry, and helping restaurant owners lure customers with an online presence that whets their appetites.

Below are a few insights into what makes restaurant website design successful.

ACS Creative Restaurant Web Design Washington DC1. Imagery can make or break your restaurant website design.

It cannot be stressed enough that high quality images of your signature dishes go a long way toward promoting your restaurant online. The premise here is simple: If the food looks good, people will want to try it. Take this website we created for Coyote Grille.

The steak is front and center by design—and it looks mighty tasty. It’s flanked by perfectly cooked shrimp and vibrant greens. The headline reinforces the idea that the food here is great. Then the location right below sends you grabbing for your keys and out to dinner. This site doesn’t rely heavily on images. In fact, there are only three—but they are three good ones. If you can’t afford a whole lot of professional food photography, then get one amazing shot of your best dish. A good web designer will know how to maximize that image. That’s essentially what we did for the Coyote Grille.

Restaurant Web Design Baltimore2. Your site should feel like your restaurant.

A hopping, casual diner should have a website with complementary colors and type. Likewise, the most romantic steakhouse in Washington DC requires a website that evokes the same ambiance. Take The Prime Rib’s site. The dramatic use of black and silver perfectly evokes the experience of sharing an exquisite filet mignon and rich cabernet with your loved one. Color is reserved for the food images only in order to highlight the excellent preparation of the dishes. Consumers who visit this site quickly understand the kind of restaurant it is—which is exactly what you want from your restaurant website.

Restaurant Web Design Fairfax VA3. Tout your accolades.

If Guy Fieri and Vice President Biden think your diner is the bomb, then that should be duly noted right on the homepage. We took of advantage of Metro 29’s notoriety by putting pictures of Vice President Biden and Guy Fieri up front and center—along with a series of food images that will make your mouth water. The Guy Fieri callout links to video from the episode—so you can hear all the great things Guy has to say about Metro 29. And because it is such a popular place, we added a news section that features a gallery of famous patrons. Consumers like to go where the famous go. Metro 29’s restaurant’s website lets everyone know it’s got the stamp of approval from some pretty hefty palates. Check it out here.

Restaurant Web Design Baltimore4. If you have a story, share it.

The owners of The Tortilla Café have been running successful businesses since 1983—as a family. Consumers love personal interest stories. They love to help family businesses. If this is part of your story as well, then your restaurant web design should reflect that. On The Tortilla café website, the tab for Our Story is second, and the blurb includes pictures of the owners. This creates an intimate portrait that brings readers into their lives—and into their restaurants. When you add a very appealing and vibrant design that maximizes the color yellow to hint at the cultural fare, you’ve hit a homerun. Throw in Guy Fieri (The Tortilla Café was also featured on his show) and you’ve got a grand slam.

5. Make your restaurant website easy to navigate.

This is true of all websites, but especially important for restaurants. People searching for a place to eat online want to understand what kind of restaurant your have, what you serve and where you are. These things should be immediately clear. Good restaurant website design is delicious images and great content, but it is also more than that. Great restaurant design should create a culinary journey that starts with your best dish and ends at your best table.

Transform your restaurant website design into a powerful, customer-luring tool. Make a reservation with ACS Creative Services.

Top 5 Marketing Trends in Web Design

5 Functionalities Your Site Needs to Stay Competitive

As the internet continues to evolve, user expectations of quality and efficiency are rising right along with it. Here’s how your website should perform now and in the year ahead.

1. Responsive Design
This is the single best way to ensure that your site won’t be unusable anytime soon. A responsive site automatically adjusts to the size and shape of screen it’s being viewed on, from a 25″ desktop computer to a 5″ smartphone. Whatever new web-enabled gadgets come on the market, a responsive website is ready for them.

2. Speed and Efficiency
Slow loading web pages are not tolerated anymore. If you haven’t captured visitors’ interest in less than three seconds, they’ll be gone. Likewise, it’s not enough to have good content: that content must be presented in a smart design that allows for fast and easy comprehension.

3. SEO through Content Marketing
The keyword stuffing tactics of yesteryear are dead as a doornail, thanks to ever-improving search engine algorithms that screen out the garbage. To get high search engine rankings now, your website content must be truly valuable to the user. And keywords must not exceed 2% of the total word count.

4. Video Content
Video has everything today’s users want: it’s faster than reading and more dynamic than blocks of text. Even for business-to-business websites, a video is pretty much a must if they don’t want to be left in the dust, as these statistics show.

  • 81% of businesses feature a video on their brand website
  • 69% of marketing, sales and business professionals have used video marketing
  • 96% of B2B companies plan to use video content marketing in the next year
  • 59% of senior executives choose video over text on website pages that have both
  • The word “video” in an email subject line increases open rates by 19% and click-throughs by 65%

5. Interactive Content
Nothing engages users like an experience they can participate in rather than just take in. Forums, quizzes, opinion polls, contests and 360-degree (walk-through) videos are some of the most popular forms of interactive content that you can add to your website. There’s another benefit as well: when users share their needs and preferences, you can use that (free!) information to make all your marketing efforts more effective.

ACS Creative New Site Launch: InsuraLease

ACS Creative launches Insura-lease.com, the only “Lease Here Pay Here” dealer insurance program.

Insuralease puts you in total control because it’s YOUR policy. You offer lessees the opportunity to buy in, and they reimburse you for the premium. Use our proprietary website to monitor policy status, add/delete vehicles, get a quote and close the sale with just a couple of clicks, 24/7. It’s a whole new level of convenience and security … for both you and your lessees.

Insuralease is a computerized system that makes the process of issuing insurance to the lessee simple and streamlined. We have been running a similar insurance program for large fleet management companies since 1995. These companies lease cars to businesses that need hundreds of vehicles at a time for their sales forces. We took the fundamentals of this program to develop an insurance program specific to Lease Here Pay Here dealers that has never been done before.

 

Award Winning Web Design, Brand Development & Online Marketing since 1986

We are web designers, developers, marketers and creative service strategists and our team can help you reach your goals through award-winning creative products. Discover more about our Company and our Culture.

Copyright © 2022 ACS Creative. All Rights Reserved.