To keep the process simple, Financial Website Company compiled a list of “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of website design and development for financial professionals. Financial advisors, CPAs, and firms can benefit from reading our comprehensive advice and implementing the strategies where needed on your website.
Do:
Represent Yourself In a Professional Manner
Keep a professional image by having a simple design, easy navigation, and high-quality content/ graphics. You can build your online reputation by ensuring the three following elements.
- User experience (UI)
- Professional Design
- High-quality content
Don’t:
Overcrowd Your Pages
There are tons of great features, forms, and graphics to load your site up with, but we recommend you avoid overcrowding pages on your website. Instead, lead the visitor’s eyes to the most pertinent information. You can prevent congesting your website by:
- Minimizing graphics
- Condensing content
Do:
Invest In a Good Web Host
Quality web hosts have many benefits, one of which is ensuring you have a private domain name. Even using sites such as WordPress, you can have a private domain name, making your clients and potential leads more trusting.
Don’t:
Take Influences From Your Old Myspace
Attributes such as music, animations, or cursor movements can cause a website to look less reputable. Instead, be aware of the use of media. Include videos, pictures, and infographics to add flare. Features to avoid:
- Music
- Flash animation
- Moving text
- Fancy cursors
Do:
Mention Your Firm’s Name
Not only do you want visitors to remember your name, you need them to find it first. Search engines will not use your logo to index your firm. The solution to both is to mention your business name throughout your website, without overdoing it. Ways to mention your sites name via text:
- Incorporate into blogs
- Use the company title on the “About Us” page
- Utilize in SEO strategies
Don’t:
Forget to use ALT Tags
Just as search engines cannot read your logo and index your firm, the same goes for graphics. To improve SEO and avoid this problem, use text captions and ALT tags.
Do:
Enable “Click-to” Features
Impress your potential clients and improve UI (user experience) with features such as click-to-call, where users simply click on your telephone number and instantly call your direct line.
Don’t:
Skip Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance allows you to fix any bugs or errors before they become a problem. One of the most common problems financial website developers find is dead links. Make sure you double-check links so that they work and direct users where they should. What QA can do for you:
- Correct grammar mistakes
- Spot dead links
- Test on all screen sizes
- See from the user’s perspective
Do:
Find Balance
Many website-building blogs will tell you to make it personal and while, yes, you should, keep your content relevant. Tell your visitors things like your degree, experience, and about your character. However, you don’t need to include your favorite sports, for instance.
