In this post, we discuss 6 professional services website design best practices and ways to implement them. Some best practices include: CTAs above-the-fold, informative case studies, professional photography, and mobile responsiveness.
When it comes to selling professional services, success is all about standing out from a plethora of competitors and generating qualified leads. Luckily, a well-designed website can help you do both.
Your professional services website design has the power to:
- Increase revenue
- Improve engagement metrics
- Reduce your website’s bounce rate
- Generate more leads
- Improve your search engine ranking
- Boost brand credibility and trust
But what makes for a good website design, and how can you ensure your website is performing to the best of its ability?
We’ve compiled this guide of professional services website design best practices to help ensure you’re creating a unique and easy user experience for both your prospects and clients.
6 Best Practices for Your Professional Services Website
Your website’s design should be unique based on your professional services value propositions and differentiators. However, just like any art, there are several best practices to keep in mind to help you develop a website that actually converts.
Here are six factors we’ve seen draw customers deeper into a professional services website to increase engagement and cash flow.
1. Create Clear CTAs Above the Fold
The purpose of a CTA, or call to action, is to provide an opportunity for prospects to interact with your website or business. These CTAs should be located “above the fold,” meaning they should appear at the top of your website before users begin to scroll.
You can incorporate quality CTAs throughout your site by instructing users to take an action linked to an engagement opportunity. For professional services businesses, some sample website CTAs include instructing users to:
- Schedule a free consultation
- Subscribe to your mailing list
- Download a free guide to a common problem you consult on (check out our example)
- Get free expert answers
- Follow you on social media
- Get a free SEO audit
Your CTAs should be customized based on what you’re willing to offer prospects in return for their interest in your professional services.
As you can see from the list above, including the word “free” is a good best practice to follow, as it softens the commitment for prospects who may be on the fence about giving away their information.
Business Benefits of Thoughtful CTAs
Effective CTAs drive engagement on your website and benefit your business by:
- Motivating users to interact with your brand
- Increasing email subscribers, which can then be entered into a drip campaign for further engagement opportunities
- Gathering valuable prospect information such as contact info, company name/size and more
- Boosting your conversion rates
- Broadening your customer base
- Increasing sales
Design Tips for Effective CTAs
Beyond the actual language used in your CTAs, certain web design elements can help draw additional attention to these opportunities. These include the following.
- Location: Aside from including a CTA above the fold, place CTAs in prominent locations where they’ll be seen and where it makes the most sense in your content, such as after a list of your services or the benefits prospects can expect from working with you.
- Size: Increasing the font and button size of a CTA can help draw user attention.
- Color: Changing up the color pattern of a CTA is also a great way to appeal to users. Choose a brand color that “pops” and creates contrast to naturally draw the eye.
- Movement: Incorporating simple animations around your CTAs can help ensure they’re not missed.
2. Incorporate Informative Case Studies with Imagery
Incorporating case studies on your website helps you to highlight requests made by your clients and the innovative steps you took to offer them a successful solution.
Case studies help market professional services by providing your existing and potential clients a look into how you get things done and the quality of your work. They can also showcase the breadth of industries or customers you work with to increase your prospects’ chance of identifying with your work.
We recommend incorporating imagery into your case studies when possible to offer a visual representation that’s memorable and breaks down the content into smaller, more digestible concepts. Imagery also helps make your website more accessible.
Case studies can also be optimized for search engines. These should be formatted and worded to enhance your SEO by:
- Using advanced targeted keywords
- Utilizing internal link building
- Formatting images to the ideal size and resolution
- Optimizing image titles and captions
- Adding relevant meta tags, headers and subheads
3. Invest in Professional Photography of Your Team
Investing in professional photography of your team ensures you will have high-quality photos for your site, humanizes your company and brand by adding a friendly and personal touch, and allows for more consistency across your site.
Hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of your team – including headshots for your “meet the team” page and action shots for service pages – establishes site-wide cohesion by offering consistent:
- Poses
- Crops
- Color tones
- Backgrounds
- Lighting
- Editing
4. Ensure a Mobile-Responsive Design
Did you know that the majority of website traffic, 60.67% to be exact, comes from mobile devices? Your professional services website should not only be appealing and engaging but also thumb-friendly, meaning users must be able to navigate your website on the go from any mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.
You can optimize your website for mobile use by:
- Considering mobile device sizes in your design
- Streamlining your navigation menu
- Incorporating interactive CTA buttons (like “Call Now” or “Get Directions”)
- Simplifying content
5. Develop an Engaging Design for Your Service Pages
Your main services page is arguably your most important page following your home page. The purpose of this page is to showcase what you have to offer and how you differ from competitors.
If prospects interpret your services page to be irrelevant to their needs, they’ll likely leave immediately and are unlikely to return.
Your main services page is where your users go to shop, which is why it’s important to make its design engaging. You want this page to attract and hold users’ attention so that they take the time to see what all you have to offer.
Design elements that can be included to attract users to your services include:
- Photographs and visual demonstrations
- A portfolio of your work
- Clear and concise content
- Testimonials
- A very specific CTA
6. Practice Consistency
Just as a brick-and-mortar storefront would incorporate a theme and maintain a certain level of cohesion, your website should do the same.
Practicing consistency throughout your web design requires commitment and strong visual branding, which provides prospects and clients with a sense of familiarity and predictability – both of which improve your perceived credibility.
To maintain consistency throughout your professional services website, specific elements should remain the same, including:
- Color schemes
- Fonts
- Logos
- Imagery
- Alignments
- Navigation menus
- User experience elements
Consistency helps to easily guide your prospects through your site, leading them to distinct engagement opportunities and CTAs.
Optimize Your Professional Services Website
Attention to detail and ease of navigation are essential when it comes to professional services website design best practices. The best way to know for sure that your web design is working to your benefit is to work with an experienced custom website design and development agency with specific expertise in marketing professional services.
Motion Tactic specializes in creating engaging websites and brands that empower businesses to do their best work. Schedule a free web design consultation now.
