7 Need-to-Know Tips for Web Design for Co-ops

As you market your co-op online, your website sets the foundation for every other strategy. No matter which digital channels you use, they all point users back to your website, so you must ensure it’s well-designed and communicates your brand values.

So, what does robust web design for co-ops entail? On this page, we’ll discuss our top seven web design tips for co-ops so you can create a beautiful, effective site in no time!

But if you’d rather partner with a team of experts to handle your web design for you, learn more about our web design services for co-ops! When you’re ready to speak with a strategist, call us at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!

Why is web design for co-ops important?

Web design for co-ops is critical to your digital marketing strategy. Search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media, and every other digital marketing tactic direct users to your website.

When prospects land on your site, you need them to have an excellent experience and find the information they need to purchase. Robust co-op web design benefits your business in the following areas:

• User experience (UX): Your website’s design determines how positive of an experience users have when they visit your site. By designing with the user in mind, you ensure they keep coming back.

• SEO: Many web design best practices also contribute to search engine rankings. Factors like page speed, mobile-friendliness, and user experience help you appear higher in the search results for keywords related to your business.
• Trust: Have you visited a poorly designed site but left for a competing site with a better design? Many of us have, and you probably found that you trusted the well-designed site more. Having a professional-looking site goes a long way toward eliciting customer trust.
• Branding: When users visit your co-op website, you want them to recognize your brand immediately. Because 94% of first impressions come from web design, your design should reflect your brand to aid brand awareness and recognition.
• Conversions: Your website’s design plays a role in getting visitors to convert, too. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) includes making the paths to conversion clear and straightforward for users to follow — both of which are impacted by web design.

With robust co-op web design, your website will go from functional to an incredible source of leads and revenue for your business.

Top 7 web design tips for co-ops

Now that you know why web design for co-ops is essential, you need to know how to create an effective website. If you follow these eight web design tips for co-ops, you’ll create a stunning site:

1. Customize the design for your industry and brand

Not all co-ops require the same website functionality. For example, a grocery co-op has different website needs than an electric co-op. Whether you design your site or hire an expert, ensure your website is customized to your unique needs.

The customization should go beyond your industry and include visual elements tailored to your brand. Your website is your virtual home, so to speak, which means it should communicate your brand’s uniqueness clearly and immediately.

2. Make it mobile-friendly

Did you know more than 50% of Internet traffic comes from mobile and 52% of people are less likely to engage with a company if their site is not mobile-friendly?

To give everyone who visits your site a positive experience — and prevent them from leaving to visit a competitor’s site — you must ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Mobile-friendliness also contributes to SEO, so it can help you drive more traffic to your site by improving your SEO rankings.

The best way to make your site mobile-friendly is to use a responsive design. While some businesses create a separate mobile version of their website, a responsive design saves you time and money by automatically adjusting your site to fit the visitor’s screen.

With a responsive design, you won’t have to worry about which devices your customers use to find your website because your site will deliver a positive experience for them all.

3. Follow accessibility best practices

Another critical aspect of UX web design is following accessibility best practices to keep your site accessible for disabled users. Accessibility best practices include components like:

• Including image alt text and video closed captions
• Adding video transcripts
• Making your text readable
• Making your website keyboard-friendly

For the complete web design accessibility standards, check out the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG).

4. Design it aesthetically, but keep it readable

Your website should be functional and beautiful. Users like to visit visually pleasing websites, so don’t leave out the aesthetics as you design your site!

But as you make your site aesthetically pleasing, keep readability in mind. Your visual features shouldn’t interfere with people’s ability to read your text. You’ll want to use:

• Clear headings and subheadings
• Readable fonts
• Contrasting colors between the foreground and background

These components are only a few of the most critical ways to keep your website content readable — you’ll also want to ensure your entire audience can easily understand the website copy. To measure that, plug your website into our free readability tool!

You can also run readability tests with sample members of your target audience to ensure they can read everything on your site.

5. Keep the main navigation menu simple

To keep it easy for everyone to access the information on your site, design a simple main navigation menu. Include only the necessary categories and ensure they’re intuitive to your audience.

Consider what users want to find when they visit your site and which organizational methods make the most sense.

6. Consider conversion paths

When someone visits your co-op website, you want to guide them towards a conversion, whether that means making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or signing up for an email list. As you design your website, consider the paths to conversions your visitors might take.

If you want people to contact you, make your phone number and contact page clear throughout your site. If you run an ecommerce store, make your product pages easily accessible, and design the “add to cart” and “checkout” buttons to facilitate purchases.

Many co-ops include a member locator to help users find the co-op member nearest them. If you need this feature, make it easy for visitors to find and use from anywhere on the site.

7. Optimize multimedia

Part of crafting a beautiful design is including multimedia throughout your site. Including photos and videos in your content keeps visitors engaged and prevents them from getting overwhelmed by large blocks of text.

Optimize your multimedia to ensure your site loads quickly — a factor that affects UX and your SEO rankings. In addition to adding alt text and closed captions, you’ll want to compress images before adding them to your site.

Turn to WebFX for your web design needs

Want an expert hand to help you get your co-op website perfectly designed and driving more conversions? When you partner with WebFX, you’ll work with a full-service team that includes web designers, developers, SEO experts, and more to ensure you receive the website your co-op needs.

Our web design services for co-ops include a custom, forward-compatible design that will remain high-performing through future browser and search engine updates.

Ready to learn more? Call us at 888-601-5359 or request a free proposal online today!