Archive for the ‘Website’ Category

Custom Website or Template: The Pros & Cons

In today’s business world, maintaining an online presence is vital for business. In fact, the quality of your website can considerably impact your business. Perhaps you already agree with this, and you’re ready to take the next step and set up a website for your company. The next thing to consider is what type of website you should invest in. Should you invest in a custom website or go with a template? We’ll list out the pros and cons of each.

Why Your Company Needs A Website

Before we launch into the differences, there are a couple of reasons a website is essential for your business or online store.

First, having a high-quality website increases credibility, even if you have a storefront location. The chances are that you aren’t the only company offering the same or similar services. Thus, what sets you apart?

A way to stand out has a killer website that comes across as professional and polished. Without a website, potential customers may be forced to question your legitimacy. It’s essential to make a great first impression by having a great website. A website signals you’re a real business that takes business seriously.

A website is also a great way to show off your brand. Showcasing your brand to potential customers is one of the most important things you can do! The website helps you establish who you are, what you represent, and what you offer. By showing these things clearly, it’s more likely customers will buy from you.

Another benefit is that bolstering your online presence is always a plus, especially for organic traffic. Once your website is up and running, and your SEO is optimized, you can appear on Google search results.

Showing up in the search results means that when people search for a product or service you sell, there is a chance your site will show up. Thus, this allows you the opportunity to increase your customer base dramatically!

These are only a few benefits to having a website! But, hopefully, by now, you get the picture – that having a website is important.

Let’s jump into the different types of websites you should consider.

What Type Of Website Is Best For You?

Now that you have decided to take this next step, where do you go from here? There are two main options to consider. Should you consider a custom-made website or go with a website template?

Website Templates: Pros & Cons

Let’s dive into the details of website templates.

What Is A Website Template?

What exactly is a “website template“? A website template is a pre-designed resource that shows the structure for the layout and design of a website. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of free and paid website templates available by various providers.

In theory, a website template allows the design (usually someone who is not a professional web designer) to plug content into a developed framework easily. Most templates allow you to drag and drop data in simply. Business owners can usually plug in what they want without having any background in design or CSS coding.

The Pros Of Website Templates

Templates usually take less time to develop into a fully working site.
Upfront, the cost is cheaper than a custom-built site.
A template can be created without knowing any CSS coding or HTML.

The Cons of Website Templates

There are lots of free or cheaper website builders/templates offered by many companies. However, just because they may be more affordable doesn’t necessarily mean they are worth it.

Many other businesses and competitors could be using the same template as you, which could mean your site won’t stand out.
You are limited on how much you can customize your websites. What you see is usually what you get.
Some templates are not built in a way that is search engine friendly.
Templates may not work well on all browsers.
Builders may not have a sound support system if something goes wrong on the backend.
Any images or copy you input must be adapted to fit in predetermined areas on the template.

In short, if you are on a tight budget, don’t need a unique site, don’t know any CSS coding of HTML, and need a site up quickly, then a template could be an excellent fit for you. However, if you need a site with customized features, or more advanced formatting, you may need to consider a custom-built site.

Custom-Built Websites: Pros & Cons

Customized websites are websites built by a professional web designer. They can be created from scratch and uniquely fitted and crafted to your needs.

Designs are unlimited! You can do anything you want on your site when it is created by a designer. Let’s dive into the details.

The Pros of Custom-Built Websites

Your website will be unique, incorporate your company’s branding, and be based on the specific needs of your business.
A Content Management System (CMS) can also be built into your website, making it easier for you to manage the content on the site.
The site will be built engine-friendly.
Customized websites are adaptable to your business needs.
The website will work on all browsers and be user-friendly and responsive.
The site will be built to your specifications and perform precisely how you want it to.
The website will grow with your business. Developers and graphic designers can easily install new features as needed to improve the user experience.
The website designer or company that built your site will be there for you to support your site as needed. You won’t have to worry about having unresolved site issues!

The Cons of Custom-Built Websites

The process of creating a custom website can take much longer than a template website.
Custom sites can be more expensive than templates.

As you can see, if you need a website that fits your needs and has a bit more budget, having a custom-built website is a win-win.

Ready To Build Your Website?

Ultimately, the choice between a template or a custom website is up to you! While templates or web builders can seem more straightforward and cheaper, they can often cause business owners who aren’t savvy with web design to waste days figuring out the template and ultimately costing a lot of time. However, they can be the more affordable option. On the other hand, you can pay a bit more money for a custom-built website that is perfectly crafted uniquely for your business and needs.

If you are ready to hire a web designer, feel free to contact us today.

At Elevare, we offer professional website design services, including web development and web hosting. Not sure where to start with your website? Our professional designers will help you from inception through completion and craft you the site of your dreams.

Do you need other marketing services, too? We also offer email marketing, social media marketing, and more.

Our Top 9 Picks for the Best Roofing Websites in 2021

Your roofing company’s website is much more than a digital business card – your site should list all your services, offer a point of contact and outline a clear sales pitch right off the bat. If you are lacking in any of these areas, you are missing out on valuable business. That’s why we curated our top 9 picks for the best roofing websites in 2021 – to help you design a roofing website that exceeds the competition!

Common Elements of High-Quality Roofing Websites

High-quality websites convert visitors and many factors play into this. A great website contains eye-catching clear images and graphics, relatable and informative content, and top-notch SEO practices.

If you are aiming to increase organic traffic (which should be a priority), your site and blog must be optimized for search engines. If the site isn’t easily searchable, and doesn’t appear at the top of Google’s search results, you are making it impossible for potential visitors to find you.

Another component of a comprehensive roofing website is an informative and high-quality blog. These blogs should offer valuable content and long-form pieces that assist those interested in roofing topics. Not only will a blog encourage more organic traffic, but it will also position you as an authority.

Additionally, stellar roofing websites often include pages that list services offered, provide your company’s history, testimonials and reviews, and an easily accessible contact page. If your roofing site doesn’t have these ingredients, you are missing out on valuable business.

Finally, you cannot forget about design. It takes about 50 milliseconds for a user to form an opinion about your site that will determine if they will stay or leave. Further, 57% of internet users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website! The first initial impression of the look and feel of your website is essential for your roofing business’ success in the long term.

How We Chose Our Top 9 Picks for the Best Roofing Websites

As a team of developers and marketers, we wanted to pull together a comprehensive list of the best of the best.

These top sites were chosen based on several ranking factors. Each website showcases a high-level use of branding, design, and best UX/UI practices. The ranking factors include quality response time, visuals, branding, navigation layout, information, and font use.

In no particular order, here are the top nine web designs for roofing companies.

Gold Star Roofing

As soon as you enter Gold Star Contracting’s site, you are struck by the crisp and clear imagery and the bold orange branding. Right off the bat you understand their core values and get the feeling of authenticity and professionalism. Their call to action is obvious, creating a sales funnel from the get-go.

What we particularly love about their site is the use of their branding, expertly displayed through the use of color and different layouts in subtle ways. Bonus points go to the site’s extremely quick load time and user-friendliness. Overall, the site is clean and crisp and a testament to the developers from a technical standpoint.

Modern Roof Co

The strong bold wording “Experience the Difference” contrasted with sharp, fresh imaging, immediately catches the eye. Right away Modern Roof Co establishes its credibility. Without having to scroll, the customer can quickly see their main two value propositions – commercial and residential roofing services.

A fantastic element of Modern Roof’s site is its clear call to action. With large buttons, the viewer can quickly talk to an expert, call the company or start their project. This takes out the confusion and makes it easy for the customer to act.

Furthermore, Modern Roof Co expands on its credibility by sharing its extensive experience in roofing. Viewers can read more about their story adding to their value. In the end, their site earns points for its clear navigation and call to action.

Quantum Restoration & Remodeling

The word quality jumps out of the screen. Quantum Restoration & Remodeling was smart to emphasize this value at first glance. Your house is your safe place.

For all homeowners, quality is extremely important! Quantum follows up this emphasis with fresh imaging and graphics and cleanly lays out its services once the viewers scroll down the page.

Further down, they list out their affiliations, adding to their credibility. They also cleverly apply their orange branding colors throughout the site.

Houston Roofing & Construction

Houston Roofing & Construction is another top roofing website example. Their branding is clean and professional and the combination of red and blue stands out. Not only does their site make it easy to schedule an appointment, they quickly show you why they are qualified.

Fantastic animation and graphics and the use of testimonials all on the homepage set this site above others. Another unique aspect of their site is their blog. Their blog is right on the homepage offering commonly asked questions and adding value to a potential client.

JC & C Roofing

It’s quite uncommon for roofing sites to use a video background on their homepage for one main reason – it often slows the site’s load time and can impact user experience. However, J&C Roofing’s website has overcome this challenge. Their upbeat video instantly grabs your attention and showcases their work!

The consistent use of their branding colors across the site is another nice touch. A fantastic detail is the addition of their awards and reviews – which build credibility from the start. Their site is clear and clean with well-crafted graphics and simple explanations of their services.

Scudder Roofing

This site is sleek and well-crafted from the stunning background image on the homepage to its crisp graphics. If a potential customer doubts their quality, all they have to do is scroll down to see why Scudder Roofing can be trusted. They clearly explain their services and roofing products they offer, show off their certifications, explain their history and the people who do the job.

Overall, this site is one-of-a-kind. A particular stand-out is their use of stunning imagery to showcase the work they have completed. This is a nice touch that works to fully persuade a potential customer to trust Scudder Roofing to not only get the job done but to do it with excellence and style.

Transcendent Roofing

This site is distinctive due to the extensive video on the homepage. A visitor is instantly swept up by the glossy imagery and clean graphics that serve to support Transcendent Roofing’s credibility. Their call to action (CTA) is clear – “Request A Quote” is the second thing the eyes are drawn to as you scroll.

They follow up their CTA immediately with the services they offer, the materials available, and their extensive experience. With crisp graphics and high-quality images sprinkled throughout the website, they position themselves as leaders in the roofing industry.

A nice addition to their website is their “Latest Projects” section which details their most recent projects. Clients love to see the types of roofing that a provider can accomplish.

Showalter Roofing Service

Where Showalter Roofing Service stands out is by expertly displaying their Google Review and high ratings. They position themselves as trustworthy roofers right away.

Their branding is bold and clear. Additionally, they receive bonus points for a clean delivery of their services, contact info, and more without having to scroll through the site. Big on credentials, Showalter showcases their experience with a recent magazine feature and video.

Able Roofing Service

While Able Roofing was built with the help of a website builder, it still deserves an honorable mention for its effective yet clean website design.

Right away Able Roofing offers everything a potential customer would want to know about – their services, contact information, service areas, and they wrap it up with a background video.

They make good use of their bold branding colors which draw your attention and highlight essential propositions and calls to action. Proof of their work is abundant with the clear display of their reviews and high ratings.

You barely have to scroll down before you encounter an interactive 3D visualization where the customer can see improvements made to a custom home. What a great addition!

Key Takeaways From Our Top 9 Picks for the Best Roofing Websites in 2021

After scrolling through these sites, it can be easy to see how distinct graphics, easy navigation, and attention to brand image played a part in the overall design. We hope our top 9 picks for the best roofing websites in 2021 serve as inspiration for your website.

The main reasons we categorized the above websites as the best roofing sites, is because they stand out. This is largely due to the lack of web design competition within the roofing industry. This goes to show that a little effort can pay huge returns when it comes to investing time and effort into a great, well-designed website. We hope this roofing guide and will provide you the inspiration you need to get your site up to par.

Do you want your roofing company’s site to be considered the best?

If you think it’s time to revamp, or you need help with roofing SEO, feel free to contact us today for your free consultation. We can curate website for you that will stand out.

Why Your Webpage Is Not Getting Traffic

Have you spent a lot of time, money, and effort creating a killer website? Does your site have a high bounce rate? Are you trying your best to attract visitors, but not seeing any results? Are you wondering why your website isn’t getting the traffic it deserves?

Some may think the answer is to buy more advertising.

But, many businesses don’t have the budget for that and want to utilize their organic search potential.

There are several reasons your website may not be driving large amounts of traffic. You are most likely making simple mistakes that have added up.

In this post, we will dive into the most common reasons you may not be getting site traffic. We will also share a few tips for maximizing your site.

Test Your Website’s Traffic: Use E-A-T

Your web design may be beautiful, but your content may not be what Google wants.

Start by analyzing your site’s content using E-A-T. E-A-T stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness and can have a big impact on Google’s algorithm.

While the depths of the Google algorithm for ranking sites are unknown, we do know their ranking system rewards sites with high expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, aka E-A-T. You must pay attention to these three categories when crafting content for your site.

Now, go evaluate the content on your site. Then, ask yourself the following questions.

Expertise: Does the author relay their topic well? Is the communication engaging? Do your authors have bios? Are you fact-checking your posts?

Authority: Are you a trusted expert? Do you have experience in your field? Does your content have high-quality backlinks? Are other people recommending your content?

Trustworthiness: Why should the user trust your site? Does your site load fast? Are there any typos? What are other websites saying about your site?

These may sound simple, but these three tenants form the foundation of SEO in 2021. If you aren’t satisfying these, your site is likely being penalized.

Here are a few more reasons why your site may not be attracting visitors.

Your website may not optimized

Google is a powerful search engine that desires to bring the best experience to its users. It wants to bring the searcher the best possible search result. If your site is not optimized for the user’s experience, it may not send traffic to your website.

If a potential client clicks on your site and your landing page takes forever to load, Google penalizes you. Google uses technology to measure site performance. It measures both desktop and mobile performances.

Google seems to weigh mobile performance more heavily than desktop. If your site is not optimized for the mobile user, this could be hurting your site.

Other things that may slow down your site performance include removing unnecessary or messy code, avoiding big fonts, and sizing images to the proper size.

Small steps like these will make your site look better to Google. In turn, the algorithm will then be more likely to drive visitors to your site.

Your website content may be of poor quality

Many B2B sites make this mistake. They assume their website ranking is low because they need SEO help. This is not always the case. There are many ways to increase your website traffic without SEO.

Poor quality content is often the culprit.

First, consider who is writing your content. Have you hired a professional content writer?

Often, your content may be too wordy, difficult to read, or over sales-y. This is a major reason many websites don’t get traffic – they aren’t appealing to the average reader.

If your writer is a real expert on a topic, they will be able to explain it in a way that is easy to understand and engaging. Your content must be concise and clear!

Keep in mind, the average reader is around a ninth-grade reading level. It is a good idea to keep your language simple, using limited adverbs and complex sentences.

To check this, there are several free apps you can use such as Grammarly for grammar, and Hemingway for content complexity. Copy and paste content from your site to see if it’s effective, too complex, or hiding typos.

You may need more content

But, you say, my site’s content is high quality. What do you I now?

Well, you may not have enough content on your site.

Are you producing new content every week, or at least every month? If your answer is no, you need to be producing content on a consistent schedule.

If you are struggling to come up with new content ideas, this is common. However, the content creation process doesn’t have to be daunting!

Start by taking out a pen and paper, or opening up excel to keep track of content ideas. Answer potential questions a client may ask about your product or service. Give examples of how to use your service. Offer useful content like cheat sheets or checklists for potential clients. These are all easy ways to curate more content.

Then, using your new content ideas, develop a consistent schedule. The frequency of your content schedule will depend on the specific business. But, a good rule of thumb is to create new content at least once a week. Then, test your content. Test which days of the week perform best. Maybe try out different types of content – some posts should be longer than others, for example.

Pushing out credible and consistent content will put your site in front of more eyes. It will help to establish your site as an authority in your respective industry.

If your business or start-up is new, building credibility is crucial for business. The more credibility you have, the more brand awareness there will be. As brand awareness increases, you will eventually generate more leads!

If you are regularly putting new, engaging, and high-quality content online, you are more likely to deliver to new customers.

Don’t sleep on the power of Inbound Marketing and optimizing your content marketing strategy. Are you creating blog posts? Have you considered email marketing? If you are stuck coming up with ideas or aren’t sure what Inbound Marketing is, check out this article.

Your digital marketing strategy may not be optimized

Last but not least, your SEO strategy may not be optimized. SEO is extremely important for increasing traffic to your site! Backlinks are often key to having a high domain authority.

However, the main issue many businesses run into is not that they aren’t using backlinks, but that they are using low-quality backlinks.

Stay away from sketchy means of attaining backlinks. This will penalize your site. If you buy backlinks or get links from low-quality, spammy sites, this could be hurting your domain authority even further.

You want to build backlinks with high-quality connections. Your links should be relevant to your site and applicable to your content. If you need some extra help crafting your SEO strategy try using a backlink checker tool, there are plenty of free options online.

We also recommend checking out this article for in-depth advice on building quality backlinks.

Increase website traffic to your website

At the end of the day, the key to gaining more traffic is producing quality content. If you are creating high-value content, which showcases your industry expertise, the traffic will come. It just may take time.

Have you tried everything but still aren’t seeing the results you desire? Check out our free Ultimate Marketing Cheat Sheet! Make sure you are checking all your marketing boxes.

Want an expert to help drive traffic to your site? We’re here to help!

Website Evaluation Checklist: 23 Ways to Improve Your Website Today

A well planned and executed website starts with a website evaluation checklist so you don’t miss anything.

In this article, we’ve put together a list of 23 things to check you’ve covered on your website for the best SEO and performance.

Website Checklist Items for Copy & Design Teams

Whether debating navigation placements or color schemes, your copy and design teams need to assess your website with laser focus.

Have your team scan through each page with this new website checklist in mind, and you’ll be sure to get a handful of helpful comments (and debates about comma placements, we’re sure);

Spelling and Grammar Errors

Before launching your website, check and recheck all headlines, body copy, call-to-action buttons, navigation bars, footers, landing pages, thank you pages, and any initial marketing promotions.

Ideally, your writers are well versed in SEO too. This is the perfect time to make sure all your copy is optimized for specific keywords to rank well.

Brand Consistency

Every company should know their brand voice. Even if your guidelines aren’t formally written down.

Whether your brand persona is witty, formal, informative, serious, humorous, laid-back, or a combination of several attributes, every aspect of your company should reflect that voice.

It’s confusing to customers when your emails are incredibly serious with distinct sales calls-to-action, but your social media is playful and inquisitive.

Let your customers know who you are and where you stand as a brand. It’s up to your copy team to understand this voice inside-and-out and ensure all copy is consistent.

If you don’t have brand guidelines, here’s a great Hubspot tool for establishing a brand voice.

Company Contact Information

If your company has changed locations or updated phone numbers, this step is incredibly important. Check every page to make sure the company information is the same and without spelling errors. You can even take an extra step and make sure the contact information is consistent on all company social media accounts.

Form Errors and Flow

Your website forms are a sweet spot for gathering customer information, leads, subscribers, purchases, and more. Don’t lose those precious connections with a nonsensical form!

Run through all of your forms just as a customer would to check for errors, ensure proper flow, clear instructions, aligned destinations, and a good experience from start to finish.

Test Navigation Links

From links embedded in your blog to your navigation and content recommendations in the sidebar. Make sure every link has been clicked and that there are none of those dreaded 404 error pages.

Social Media Channels

Speaking of links, ensure website visitors can navigate to your company’s social channels.

Test the links in the header or footer navigation bars, in emails, and on blog pages. Also, make sure to update any links on your social accounts to the new website.

Clear Images

There’s nothing that ruins a website’s credibility quicker than a pixelated image. Look out for low-resolution images or photos that are too dark.

Also, visit your site on a monitor, laptop, tablet, and phone to see things from every size and view. Mobile-first indexing is going live soon, smooth experience on mobile is essential.

Formatting Consistency

While some formatting inconsistencies will be obvious, others are easy to scan over when you’ve been staring at a screen all day. (We’re looking at you, spacing). Double-check for uniform text, image placement, and color use.

Website Checklist Items for the SEO Team

If you want the online world to see your brand new website, here is a website evaluation checklist for your SEO team to ensure you’re site has maximum visibility in the search results;

Optimized Titles, Headlines, and Body Content

These areas are major SEO must-haves for ensuring web spiders can crawl your site and index your content.

Work with the copy team by sharing information on SEO best practices. This will streamline your workflow and help them create engaging, optimized copy.

Knowing the ideal title length before working on a blog or web page will make everyone’s job easier—and will score you points with your boss (and Google).

Meta Descriptions/Title Tags

A crucial step in boosting on-page SEO, meta descriptions and title tags summarize and help to rank your content in search engines.

Depending on your company’s structure, meta descriptions falls to either the SEO team or the copy team. No matter who creates them, each meta description should be <160 characters and offer clear insight into your page’s content.

Similarly, title tags also appear on search engine results pages (SERPs) as the clickable headlines for a specific result. These snippets of copy should stay under 60 characters for best visibility.

Images and Alt-Text

Behind every optimized website is a stellar SEO team that takes the time to descriptively name images and alt-text.

By naming an image based on its description instead of keeping the stock name or image number, search engines can discover the image and help it appear in search rankings.

URLs

Similar to meta descriptions and title tags, your website URLs should give a clear message to the content on each page.

Clean, easy-to-read URLs are more likely to be clicked—and hopefully interesting to viewers seeking your content.

It’s good practice to use keywords in your URLs, so look to the page headlines to help craft each one. You can read more about structuring URLs on the MOZ blog.

Analytics

You won’t start diving into your site’s analytics until weeks after your website launches. However, make sure you can log in, have your dashboard setup, and have a way to track your traffic.

SERP Display

This is another item that can wait for a few weeks after your website goes live. Still, it’s a good time to put this task on the calendar to make sure the work you put into your meta descriptions, title tags, and URLs is paying off. Hurray for traffic!

Keywords

Make sure all pages have relevant keywords within the title, meta description, headings, and copy.

While this step is largely completed while a page is being created, it’s never too late to go back in and add keywords to boost page optimization.

Website Evaluation Checklist Items for the Web Development Team

A web development team is responsible for putting everything together behind the scenes. Here are some things to check to ensure your site is operational from a development side;

Live URLs

Since many websites are built with temporary URLs for testing purposes when your site goes live you should double-check it’s full indexed.

For smaller sites, it’s easy to navigate through each page to make sure each one is working. If you have a large site with time-consuming navigation, consider a tool to find broken URLs. A good site to check your links is brokenlinkcheck.com.

Custom 404 Page

As a web developer, a 404 error page is your time to have some creative fun. Use this page as an opportunity to entertain, help, or redirect customers to other pages of your website.

Take a look at one of our favorite designs below from Hot Dot Production — the dots respond to your mouse movements.

Upload a Favicon

Favicons are the little images that appear in the tabs and address bar of your browser. Set up a graphic that shows off your brand and lets visitors quickly identify your website among their mess of open tabs.

Mobile Responsiveness

This might be the most important point in this website evaluation checklist. Websites have to be mobile-friendly, it’s crucial to your SEO and the user-experience.

In November 2016, Statcounter discovered that 51.3% of website pages were loaded on mobile devices, surpassing desktop and laptop computers for the first time.

We’ve come a long way since then, mobile-first indexing is now live.

Website Speed

Since research estimates the human attention span is now eight seconds, a slow website is a huge threat to your brand image, conversions, and customer loyalty.

Waiting for your website to load not only gives visitors a terrible first impression, but it also is the perfect opportunity for them to click back and try another website.

Research by the Aberdeen Group found that web customers are won or lost within one second. You earned that click, now make sure it pays off by using a fast server, host, and responsive design.

Want to check the speed of your new website? Contact us for a free assessment.

Cross-Browser Compatibility

You don’t know if your website visitors are using Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, or other browsers.

Cover your bases by double-checking the speed of your site on every browser.

Fonts

Part design, part web development team, the proper use of fonts can immediately grab a visitor’s attention. Ask someone from your design team to join you when looking over fonts to ensure consistency, correct styles, color, and visual impact.

Navigation

Once visitors make it to your website, it’s largely up to the navigation bar to see that they stay and explore.

Although your copy team will be searching for spelling errors, it’s up to the developers and designers to follow best practices for UX and UI. If possible, gather a test group to navigate through your website before launch.

Pay attention to any pain points, issues with finding content, or improvements for flow. You’ve spent a lot of time staring at the navigation—sometimes you simply need an extra pair of eyes to point out an improvement.

It’s Time to Launch Your New Website!

After checking all of these last-minute website checklist items off of your list, it’s time to go live!

Give your team and yourself a huge congratulations on finishing this monumental project. Then, prepare your developers and engineers for launch so they can quickly debug any issues that slip through.

Need help with any of the points covered in this website evaluation checklist?

We’re happy to discuss how we can help, just fill out your details below and a member of our team will get back to you;

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7 Restoration Company Websites You Need to See

A quick online search for restoration companies shows what most of us already know — this service industry isn’t on the forefront of ground-breaking web design. However, we’ve seen how an updated website can help restoration companies bring in more business and boost search engine rankings.

To help inspire an upcoming redesign, we’re sharing the best restoration company websites we’ve seen to date.

How we selected the restoration company websites

Using the expertise of our web development, graphic design, and branding teams, we evaluated each site based on UX/UI design best practices and overall branding. We also looked at the quality of response time, visuals, navigation, layout, font use, and clarity of information. In no specific order, here are the top seven restoration company websites.

Certified Restoration, Inc. – San Diego, CA

Providing fire, flood, and mold services, Certified Restoration has a clean and simple site design that makes the page easy to navigate. The deep blue and burnt orange color palette makes important information stand out, while the simple animations and transitions add interest as you scroll through. The navigation makes it simple to learn more about the company services, and each page leads the viewer deeper into the website. Throughout each page, the subtle section breaks make it easy to take in chunks of industry-specific information without getting overwhelmed. We also really like the company’s use of customer reviews and service guarantees to draw in visitors and encourage brand trust. Certified Restoration has an all-around clean, simple site that’s attractive and pain-free to scroll through.

Simply Contents LLC – Southern California & Olympia, WA

Although the Simply Contents website is a theme site, it earned a spot on our list for its functionality, color choices, and clarity of information. The site makes it easy to understand services not many have heard of unless they’ve experienced a fire or water disasters, catering to the customer first. Since it is a single page site, it lacks the diversity and depth offered with custom websites. However, this layout also encourages visitors to contact the company for more information or to request a quote.

Simply Contents are emergency & disaster inventory packing specialists in Southern California & Olympia, WA.

Rapid Dry Restoration – Northern Colorado

Another custom design, the Rapid Dry Restoration website is a clean design and easy to navigate. The blue and red color palette makes for cohesive branding and is also used throughout the site images. Simple animations on buttons and a rotating header add visual interest without being overly interactive. It’s easy to understand the services this restoration company provides and the permanent header is a great call to action for visitors seeking immediate emergency help.

Screenshot of the Rapid Dry Restoration homepage.

Rapid Dry Restoration is a water damage restoration company in Northern Colorado.

Service First Restoration – Southern California

From first impressions of the Service First Restoration page, you see a person pulling back a visual layer of effect. This shows the old, destroyed property being peeled away as a beautiful, modern look is revealed. This visual effect speaks huge volumes for storytelling! This opening story is further emphasized with a nice quote at the bottom of the slider, that brings it all together! The menu is clean and simple, the site design has a great palette of two tones of color (blue and orange) with nice white space filling in the remainder. This site is definitely an example of great design and brand messaging.

Screenshot of Service First Restoration Inc. homepage.

Service First Restoration Inc. is a professional damage reconstruction based in Southern California.

American Fire Restoration LLC – New York Metro Area

Rounding out our top restoration company websites is American Fire Restoration based out of New York. This company switched up the traditional theme by adding their own flair with services boxes under the hero image and a fully-functioning footer navigation. The sections are divided nicely, making it easy to transition from services to the company’s mission statement. Overall, this a well-designed theme that does its job getting information across and sharing details to potential customers.

Screenshot of the American Fire Restoration homepage.

American Fire Restoration, LLC is an emergency restoration company in the New York Metro Area.

Accuworks – Nashville, TN

Among restoration companies, great minds clearly think alike. Once again employing a blue and orange palette, Nashville-based Accuworks takes a more subtle approach to this attractive color combination. Accuworks’ hues are some of the darker ones we’ve seen – and very easy on the eyes. A soothing navy blue tone is the primary color throughout the site. The contrasting orange brings the eyes to links and calls to action, expertly drawing the user’s focus and inviting them to explore the site. A video featuring President Jeff Stockton serves as the focal point of the home page, even matching his madras shirt to the website’s color scheme. Each staff photo on the “About Us” page follows suit with appropriate coordinating orange and blue attire. Some thought has clearly been put into emphasizing the brand’s signature colors.

Accuworks is a restoration service company based in Nashville, TN

TMP Cleaning & Restoration Services – Eastern Massachusetts

While utilizing a premium WordPress theme, TMP Cleaning & Restoration Services of eastern Massachusetts has certainly made this template their own. Above-the-fold content features a handful of striking images, each featuring a call to action for a particular service. TMP boldly emphasizes their 24/7 service in the main navigation menu, giving customers confidence that their home is protected day or night. When viewing the website on a phone, this mobile-responsive design hides the larger menu options, but keeps their hotline number and service hours prominently displayed – which is fantastic in the event that your desktop has been damaged in a fire or flood. The navigation also breaks down their services between residential and commercial, so users can easily find information specific to their unique property needs.

Screenshot of TMP Cleaning & Restoration Services homepage.

TMP Cleaning & Restoration Services is a restoration company based in Eastern Massachusetts.

Key Takeaways From The Restoration Web Designs

Looking through these restoration company websites, it’s easy to see how simple graphics, easy navigation, and attention to a cohesive color scheme can make or break a site. Amazingly, the reason these restoration companies stood out is largely due to the lack of web design competition in the respective industry. For restoration and service industry websites, it goes to show that a little effort can pay major returns when it comes to investing time and effort into a great, well-designed website.

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Our Top 9 Picks for the Best Restaurant Websites in 2018

We all enjoy finding a delectable dining experience when we decide to cruise the town in search of the next eatery to please our pallets. But how do we search for this wonderful new place to indulge our cravings? At Elevare, we had a different kind of craving to satisfy. What restaurants had the best digital presentation of their food.

We decided to put our digital search skills to the test, searching restaurants around the nation to find the best online experience that satisfied our craving for a beautiful restaurant website. In the end, we found 9 stunning examples of what we thought a restaurant website should be.

From our research, we have to admit that most restaurant websites we found weren’t very exciting and didn’t provide clear information like directions or what’s on their menu. A shocking amount of restaurants still don’t even have a website! A great restaurant website should entice you to head straight to the restaurant to devour their delicious-looking food.

How We Chose the Top Restaurant Websites

While there are some fairly decent looking restaurant themes, we wanted to reward the eateries who created a custom website from scratch that is just as unique as their restaurants.

To the best of our knowledge, every restaurant website we choose is custom-made and utilizes the best practices of UI/UX design. The criteria we used to evaluate the sites include consistent branding, clear messaging, a custom, non-themed design, and typically was not a major chain. Here are our top 9 restaurant website picks in no particular order.

Yeah Burger

The first thing you notice about Yeah Burger’s website is the inviting images of their food in an artistic way. The sliding background is fun and interactive but doesn’t overpower the site. The text is still easy to read and the site is easy to navigate. The color scheme and images are warm and inviting and almost make you feel like you’ve walked into one of their restaurants. The whole site showcases their philosophy of “Keepin’ It Real”.

This website has inviting images of their food in an artistic way. Image credit: Yeah Burger

Farinella Italian Bakery

Farinella Italian Bakery Pizza & Panini’s website has a fun, family friendly look and almost feels like a carnival. They have very consistent branding throughout and display a great use of a serif font! The red and yellow are powerful, hunger-driving colors that are perfect for a busy Italian restaurant and also ties seamlessly with the colors of America’s favorite food, Pizza! We like that they make it easy to find the directions without even having to click on a seperate link and that you can quickly make a reservation or order online. That why is simple for customers to navigate if they are in a hurry.

A fun, family friendly look and almost feels like a carnival. Image credit: Farinella Italian Bakery

Michi Ramen

A simple, clean website with easy navigation is the crux of Michi Ramen’s website. It displays a great use of subtle colors to put the focus on their food and restaurant information. It’s not too busy or too robust and very clear to see what they offer. We like how they explain how to order your Ramen first to make the menu less confusing for first time visitors. Overall the website is well thought out and very user friendly

A display of great use of subtle colors to put the focus on their food and restaurant information. Image credit: Michi Ramen

Pizza Express

Ok ok, we made an exception here. Though we normally don’t include chain restaurants in our votes, Pizza Express’s website really stood out. It features a great use of simple color schemes. The white space is used very nicely to bring out the direction and flow of the user experience. The social widgets are well-styled and the verbiage is humorous and inviting at the same time. We love that their menu focuses on events like Mother’s Day and fun kid friendly events to show they have a family friendly atmosphere.

The social widgets are well-styled and the verbiage is humorous and inviting. Image credit: Pizza Express

Caravan Restaurants

We are excited to present this in our list. We love the simple design and great use of space. The black and white, almost grunge feel is sophisticated at the same time as being industrial in nature. We have seen this trend in the past couple years, but Caravan Restaurants is one of the best at making it work! We also like that you are instantly directed to pick the restaurant closest to you, so you know are getting the most up to date information such as hours and menu items for that location. That also makes it seem like each location is its own separate restaurant, giving it a more local hometown feel.

The black and white, grunge feel is sophisticated at the same time as being industrial in nature. Image credit: Caravan Restaurants

Little Goat

Little Goat is everything we wanted Flash sites to be back in the day. Though this site is not responsive as far as mobile implementation, we had to give props to the creativity and unique experience this site provides. From the illustrations and animations to the use of bold and light sans-serif fonts in a well-styled and interactive design, this pick is one of our favorite creative sites. Plus if they took that much to craft their website, just imagine how fun-for-your-mouth their food is going to be!

For creativity and unique experience, this site provides a well-styled and interactive design. Image credit: Little Goat

Big Apple Hot Dogs

Flat design, parallax animations, and clever illustrations provide a fun and engaging experience for this New York Style Hot Dog Restaurant name appropriately as Big Apple Hot Dogs. The clever hot dog illustrations also give potentially boring menu descriptions a fun interactive feel to keep people browsing their website. Though the site is quick to browse, we know from development that this site was no easy feat. Tie it in with a seamless, responsive experience, this site is one of our favorites!

Flat design, parallax animations, and clever illustrations provide a fun and engaging experience. Image credit: Big Apple Hot Dogs

Salsa Brava Fresh Mexican Grill

When you think about Mexican restaurants, you usually think of vibrate colors and bold flavors. Salsa Brava’s website captures the essences of a great Mexican restaurant while still maintaining a simple and modern feel. The site is easy to navigate and very user friendly. The top banner pulls you in with delicious images of their food. Their color scheme utilizes red and yellow to make visitors hungry, but are also fun and festive without being too overpowering. Overall their website is fresh and lively just like their food.

The site captures the essence of a great Mexican restaurant while still maintaining a simple and modern feel. Image credit: Salsa Brava Fresh Mexican Grill

Urban Egg Eatery

Fun, inviting, and delicious-looking food make your eyes wide and your stomach growl! Urban Egg’s website has a beautiful and bright color scheme perfect for a breakfast restaurant. It encourages the visitor to wake up and get ready for their day with a meal at this breakfast eatery. The site is easy to navigate and laid out with a nice array of information to help you find just what you are looking for. An updated Instagram feed lets you know this restaurant is upbeat and social. We also like that the main focus of the website is the importance of community and how they donate to local charities and schools. You get the feeling that you will be treated like an important part of their family from the first time you walk into the restaurant.

A beautiful and bright color scheme perfect for a breakfast restaurant. Image credit: Urban Egg Eatery

Top Restaurant Website Takeaways

Searching for the top restaurant websites made it very apparent how important a well-designed website is to the user experience. To make a restaurant website stand out, it should be easy to navigate, have a clean design, bright and beautiful images, and utilize the best practice of UX/UI design, as well as showcasing the most important reason for going to that establishment; THE FOOD! It was even more baffling how many restaurants don’t even have a website.

* Feel like we missed an amazing restaurant website? Send your submission over to info@elevareagency.com.

Want Your Website to Look like One of These?

Elevare designs stunning custom restaurant websites that will set you apart in your industry. From beginning to end, we create a unique and amazing experience for you and your site visitors. If you want a site that’s like none other, look no further! Just fill out the form below to get started with a free 30 minute consultation.

Check out our review of “Our Top 6 Picks for the Best Roofing Websites in 2017“.

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7 Reasons Why Your Website is Hurting Your Business

If someone was to tell you your website was hurting your business, what would you think of? It might take a few minutes as when you consider things that impact your business in a negative way, but your website might not quickly come to mind. However, its appearance, design, function, and security all play a large role in your everyday business activities.

1. Your Website May Not Match Your Business Brand

What is more likely to catch your attention online – a concisely written graph of text or a crisp logo? A few lines of Pulitzer-winning text won’t pull you in nearly as quickly as a logo. Visuals impact a product or service more than written words. But if your website doesn’t match your brand, it won’t matter what you do; site visitors will quickly lose interest. A quick fix for that would be to include your logo and/or brand colors with the website.

2. Your Website Doesn’t Engage Your Visitors

The audience came to your website looking to fulfill a need, now it’s up to you to help them find the information quickly and clearly. The more specific you can be in targeting your audience, the better. If you have a call-to-action of any kind, such as wanting visitors to request a quote, schedule an appointment or sign-up for emails, make any links to forms and phone numbers bold and attention grabbing.

Though you may begin your website as a DIY style project, it shouldn’t look as one when you’re finished. Having a professional look to your website can mean the difference between return visitors and a high bounce rate on the main landing page. Grammar and spelling also play a crucial role in engaging your visitors, as does keeping your website fresh. Continually posting new information and content will tell visitors and customers that not only do you care about your business, but you’re still in business.

3. Your Site Looks Cheap Compared to Your Competition

One of the easiest – and best – ways to boost your website is to look at what you’re competing against. Analyze the content and features of your competitor’s websites. If you see a shortfall, something you would change, or another way to capitalize on something they’re doing, add it to your website.

Saving a few pennies to start your website may mean having to shell out big money to fix a low-end website in a few months. The idea of ‘what you see is what you get’ may work for some businesses, but not many. These sites can be slow to load, unoriginal, and difficult or impossible to upgrade. First impressions are everything in life and with a business website, even if you offer a superior product or experience than your competition, have a website that reflects that dedication.

4. It Is Outdated

A website should have the look and/or feel updated every one-and-a-half to two years. While this may seem frequent, consider how quickly technology and software changes. The update doesn’t need to be a complete overhaul under this timeframe, but viewers expect businesses to keep up with the times.

Though information is the first thing many people think of about an outdated website, but other more prominent elements can outweigh the information. Non-web safe fonts, gimmicky fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus, splash pages, and opening animations that outdated in the 1990s will work against your website’s feel. Throw in autoplay media and old coding and your website may appear to be a relic from the days of a 56k modem.

Focus on clean and modern design with well-chosen elements as a cluttered design can scream outdated. However, avoid building a website around the latest and greatest trend in websites. It will likely be outdated in a year so remember function over fashion.

We thought you might enjoy this YouTube video from The List Show Channel called “Old websites that still exist.”

5. Too Many Third Party Ads Or Spam

Put yourself in the place of a potential customer visiting your website. Visit your site with a specific question or topic in mind. Are you able to see the content you need or want the moment the page loads? No? Then it’s likely time to start getting rid of ads.

Too many ads also refer to the number of pixels on the page, affecting how quickly the page loads. Remember people have short attention spans (for the most part) and carry expectations of near instantaneous access to information. The longer it takes for a page to load, the sooner people will leave your site, increasing the bounce rate and lower your SEO ranking.

6. Too Many Pop-Ups

We know you have bills to pay like everyone else, but there is such a thing as too many pop-ups. Bounce rates can increase as readers search for the tiny gray X on a myriad of pop-ups covering the page they came to read. However, pop-ups work. They provide a very strong call-to-action through one of four methods: time, content and scroll based or pop-out. Like any other CTA (call-to-action), these pop-ups can be for an announcement, sale or to collect email addresses for gated information.

7. Your Site May Not Be As Secure As It Should Be

Sadly, it’s not a matter of if your website will be hacked, but a matter of when. The two most common website security issues are hacking to cause damage and hacking to gather information. Hacking to cause damage can be as childish as interrupting normal operations as if the hackers were spray painting a city wall. Or it can be as complex as defacing a particular website, such as governmental or political websites.

While WordPress is very developer-friendly, it also presents potential issues with hacking. The simplicity of the system can easily be exposed if the default configuration isn’t change upon launch. Also, regularly backing up your website will help cut the downtime should you find your website hacked and unable to be used.

Elevare Provides Custom Website Designs

From altering the look and design of your current website to optimizing it for mobile interaction, Elevare offers a variety of services for website design and development. Our team brings years of experience to services such as template or custom website builds, WordPress development, and website maintenance and security. Contact us to discuss your website needs!

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Want Even More for Your Business?

Are you looking to drive more traffic, leads, and sales to your website? We are offering our readers a FREE and essential new eBook called:

25 WEBSITE MUST HAVES TO INCREASE TRAFFIC, LEADS, AND SALES