Los Angeles Web Design

The City Of Los Angeles is the technical center of Southern California. The cultural hub of hundreds of ethnic communities, Los Angeles offers every imaginable business opportunity. With the vast population, a business competing in Los Angeles might as well be competing globally.

Los Angeles is a diverse city that offers a wide variety of attractions. It's the glamour capital of the world, where visitors can visit Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame to see the stars' footprints and hand- and footprints. Fans can also visit a studio tour to learn about the film industry from behind-the-scenes. 

Area: 503 mi²

Weather: 70s to 90s (Possibly the best weather in all of US)

Population: 3.967 million (Last Updated in 2019)

City Mayor: Eric Garcetti

By now, you're probably wondering what a typical website design company in Los Angeles does to stand out from the rest. Also, what exactly do they do differently for their website designs to be so unique from what's seen daily? We'll cover the most important aspects that any business owner should look for when hiring a web design agency or freelancer in Los Angeles.

Your company needs a custom designed website to compete online. Since Covid-19 pandemic, Face-to-Face communication is difficult, we use video chat to develop a great web page. Video chat is a great way to work together without the problems of transportation and syncing calendars. The one upside of Covid-19 is that we all realize we can meet online.

Custom web design is more than putting a web page together. True custom web design covers everything from page loading speed, to relevance and the web index ability. There are plenty of factors to consider, here are notable ones.

Custom Website Design with just one main person to call.

Accountability is the most important factor these days. Large web agencies have many employees and can get many tasks done at once. No one person is responsible. It is always someone else’s job or responsibility if there is a problem. 

Every different department has their own strengths. Cooperation between the departments may not be as amiable as you think. First, having a professional salesman telling you what you need is normal. Since the salesman rarely has the actual technical knowledge on how to do it. So they may have a tendency to over promise. 

A small web design freelancer has a good handle on what to do from A-Z. You will meet with the actual web designer. Allowing him to ask all the important questions. Salesmen may ask the questions but usually not understand all the reasons. These questions are there to properly design your site and save you money.

The Web Design Questionnaire to swear by! (Ask these questions to the freelancer!)

When you meet with the designer there are certain things he has to know.

• What is your realistic budget? Yes a good web designer will straight up ask you. This will be the face of your company on the Web, so value it accordingly.
• You need to have a goal for the website, such as:
• Online Sales
• Information
• Gather information like email addresses
• Generate calls 
• Set appointments
• Do you have any special styling needs? Color, company logo, etc.
• Who will supply the website contents? Will the web designer need to develop the content or do you?
• How fast do you want it completed? What is your realistic time frame? Remember that you can have it good, fast, or cheap. Choose 2.
• Will you need SEO? If you do not get to Page 1 of Google Search Results, very few people will find you? Make sure your content is unique and legit. Because truly great content is what the search engines are looking for.
• How much information are you looking for from the site for marketing? While gathering email addresses, you are building a marketing bonanza. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to market your business and remarket your products.
• How much is the website tied into your marketing plan? You can design your website as a sales funnel to gather and feed your sales team.
• Are you planning to have a monthly budget to achieve your Google Ranking? Is it part of your advertising budget?
• Are you planning to have online advertising? Do you need relevant landing pages optimized to your ads to save money?

This information helps the web designer create a website that meets your needs and controls the cost. Big firms have a lot of overhead, Covid-19 restrictions to follow, and only open from Monday to Friday. The freelance web designer is more always available on call, or if you have any direct questions that need answers. 

In my case, I can help you ask the right question and provide you with a detailed answer whether you hire me or not. If you need to speak to me, feel free to reach out.

SEO: It is all about getting to Page 1

People go to Google to search for a product or service, and now they get results from all over the world. You no longer just compete in Los Angeles. Even if you are next door, other web pages might push you off the first page, by someone in Europe for example. Local optimization is essential for any company here in The City of Los Angeles.

• Organic Listings receive 90% of clicks
• Paid ads like click to pay only get 10% of total click throughs 
• 91% of people with click through to a result on page 1 of Google search 
• This leaves 10% for all other searches, including paid ads
• 71% will not go past the first 5 organic listings.
• 32% of people will click on the top Google Result 
• 6 to 10% of people will click on a paid ads
• 5% will click on something on the second page.
• 1% will click on something on page 3

This means if you are not on first page, then most likely they will not find you.

If you are local company, you need local optimization.

Google is always trying to get a better result for the customer, so they give greater weight to local companies. Google Ads only has 10 organic spots on the first page, so it is getting harder to get there and it gets very expensive very fast.

For Example: If you live in the valley near North Hollywood, and you search "Best Dentist" you will first get search results from your place of search which is North Hollywood, you won't get results from Los Angeles. This is why ranking locally is key to getting more customers.

• 72% of searches for local businesses will visit the business if it is within 5-10 miles.
• 46% of all Google searches are for near me, the city, etc.
• 88% of local commercial searches from smartphones result in a call or visit within 24 hours.

The good news is 70-90% of people ignore paid advertising. This means a local optimized page has a better chance of getting to page 1. So a local business can use a locally optimized site to get to page one without having a huge SEO (Search Engine Optimization) budget.

Long Tail Keywords are the secret in SEO

Basically, go for longer keyword with your main keyword in it. This will make your keyword pertain to a person, rather than the search engine and you will rank better and get better results.

This is an extreme example shown above, since Auto Insurance is one of the hottest contested SEO keywords. If your business is more specialized, the results can startle. It is always better to be a big fish in a little pond.

It is all about Mobile Optimization

All small businesses need a webpage and it has to be mobile friendly. People use their phones to find out about many things. In fact, more searches happen with smart phones than by desktop computers. Best things they are out and about and can come visit your business.

• 18% of local searches result in a purchase within 1 day (Google)
• 53% of people search for directions to a local business (Google)
• 54% search for business hours (Google)
• About 70-80% of all searches are from mobile devices 

Page Load Speed is Vital for Sale Conversion

People are impatient. When the internet was young people waited to see what they wanted. That is no longer true. The attention span, with high speed internet and 5G cell phones. People want it now.

• It takes an average of 22 seconds to load a webpage.
• 40% of people will abandon a page after 3 seconds of loading time. (KISSmetrics)
• An additional 10% leave for each additional second
• Google factors page loading speed into rank determination.
• You need your web page to load on a smartphone in less than 3 seconds.

SEO is the long term solution

If only you could build your self a website for free and you would appear on page 1 of Google, things would be simple., that does not work since the very beginnings of the internet. It takes time to build the required links and create the needed quality content to get you to the top. Anyone who tells you it can be done fast is lying.

The best web designers can not only create a compelling website. They also guide the visitor to completing an action you want. This means you need to have landing pages for your important information. The landing page needs to answer whatever the visitor is looking for.

You will also need analytics because if you do not know what happens after they visit your site, you are blind. Are they leaving your page before it loads, Do they leave after 5 seconds? Are they clicking on your call to actions?

The Analytics will tell you these answers like:

• The page is loading to slow.
• They do not see the answer to their question in the first paragraph.
• Do you have compelling content that gets their interest?
• Do you have an effective call to action?
• Are they clicking over to a different page than you intended them to go to?
• Are they completing the sale or are they abandoning the cart?

This is the information you need to fine tune your website. Using analytics you can do AB testing to experiment until you get the results you need. 

Online Advertising

It takes time for SEO to bring you up to page one. There are things you can do meanwhile. Pay for Click Advertising will allow you to bring the customers to your site faster. It is made easier if you make sure you have a properly crafted campaign. With a little planning, we can place you in the paid ads section of page 1 fast.

The best spots on the paid ads do not always go to the highest bidder. In fact, usually not. The quality of the ad, the click-through rate and the relevance of the material the ad goes to make up most of the choice.

The best thing is the ad quality has to pay less to win top spot than the lowest quality. This saves you money. You do not have to continue with paid advertising after you have achieved page 1 through SEO. As your website rises in the ranks, the quality score on your ad goes up and your costs go down. Since only 6% to 10% of searchers click ads your organic search rank gives much better results.

It is best to create a landing page optimized to the ad’s wording. Answer the question that was asked. If they were searching for black ladies cross trainers, you do not want them to arrive at your site at women clothing.

It is rare that your home page is optimized to your Google Ads. Since you have control over your web design and can add pages, this should not be a problem.

Your Local Los Angeles Web Design and Marketing Expert

You want a web designer experienced in both the art of web design and online marketing. You will get the best bang for your buck. The boutique web design firms have contacts locally for any needs you have. Their personal reputation is on the line.

Big firms may have a lot of resources to throw at a problem, it does come with a cost. Your cost with the freelance web designer is saving you a considerable amount of money. They are not distracted by a ton of other clients for the same resources. They have a team of freelance partners to do it right.

Ashmith.com is a local Los Angeles Web Designer with over a decade of experience. Considered one of the top SEO experts in Los Angeles. I have worked for the biggest web design firms as an SEO expert. I am also Google Search Ads certified in many Google Search Marketing products. Serving the Los Angeles & Orange County areas. Take a look and my work.

Call for a free consultation (559) 500-1302.

Also serving Website Design in Sacramento, CA