Why great imagery is a must for your new website

Making people stop and stare isn’t easy. But with eyecatching images that pop out of the screen, you’re making it more likely.

When investing in a new website, you’re going to want it to look as good as possible. That’s a given.

How do you make that happen? With a little bit of design magic and brilliant development, of course. But there’s an integral ingredient to every website that can often be overlooked: images.

Finding something from your camera roll isn’t going to impress many people, and you don’t want to be stuck with exclusively stock images. So, what to do…

Well, here’s a few ideas.

Consider what you need

If you’re working with a great web design agency, they should be on your case for photos as soon as the project kicks off. Not had that conversation? Get on the phone and ask what the plan is when it comes to the images for your website.

Want some photos of the local scenery? Check out local photographers and see if they have images for sale, or if they’re available to take the pictures for you.

Are new headshots needed to make the team page look top-notch? Find a corporate photographer to pop down to your office and get the photos ready to launch alongside the new website.

How to choose your imagery

You should be looking for high-quality images that are going to look great on both mobile and desktop. Whilst a low-resolution photo may look good on your phone, it’s going to look like a bit of a mess when it’s projected on to a monitor or TV screen.

Here’s a tip. Check out the size of the image files you’re using. The likelihood is, if they’re small, they’re not going to be good enough quality to use. There are also many other factors to consider, including the lighting, relevance to the subject and age of the photo.

The best way to get great photos? Hire a photographer and let them use their skills to ensure you’ve got the high-quality imagery you need for your sparkly new website.

The benefits of great images

Great photography commands attention. It’s so important that you can stop the scroll and tell a story that people want to listen to. People are much more likely to stick around on your website if they’re visually drawn to the page.

By showing your face or your brand, you’re building trust with visitors. Trust building through a screen is often difficult, but investing in photography can make it happen. You’ll be able to convey professionalism and personality in equal doses, showing visitors you care about your brand and want them to care too.

You’re in control of the image your brand gives off. With stock imagery, you’re stuck with a design of somebody elses making. Your own images mean you can represent your business in whatever way you’d like. The authenticity and personality of your people will be shining through, and will offer a much more positive emotional response compared to a picture of random people working in an office.

Stock images – positives and negatives

There’s always a place for stock imagery, but when we’re designing a new website, we try to warn customers away from using exclusively stock imagery. Too much stock imagery can ruin brand identity and leave visitors with an unclear idea on who you and your business really are.

However, in certain circumstances, stock imagery can be a really useful tool to go alongside bespoke photography. For example, if you’re looking for a beautiful sunset, a stock image won’t hurt. Or maybe you’re looking for some graphics that fit your brand and don’t want to invest in a graphic designer to make them. 

Websites such as Shutterstock and iStock have huge catalogues of images that are available to search and download at relatively low costs.

Thinking about a new website?

You’ve come to the right place. We’d love to hear about your plans and discover how we might be able to help you build a new digital home for your brand.

It’s really easy to get started. Either give us a call or book a meeting – we can’t wait to chat to ya.

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5 reasons not to make your own website

Sure you can do it yourself. But there are a lot of pitfalls you’ll need to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge.

Making your own website might seem like a great idea. You’ve started thinking about a new website, and maybe you’ve done some Googling. As a result, you’re seeing a load of targeted ads from Wix, Squarespace and plenty of other providers.

Whilst those sites may be useful for someone who has just started their business or wants to trial a new website, they’re not suitable for the majority of businesses that want to build something unique, tailored to their needs and built to last.

We’ve collated 5 things to remember if you’re thinking about building a website on your own.

It’s not as easy as you might think

Let’s get this out of the way first – building a website isn’t actually as easy as it’s made to sound.

For those using website builders like Squarespace and Wix, it’s implied that you can drag and drop and boom – you’re done. There are a lot of factors that aren’t quite as romantic and don’t make it to the adverts.

Whilst you might be able to make something that looks cool, functionality, UX, UI, branding and mobile responsiveness are essential in ensuring your website succeeds online. Unless you’re talking to a web design agency or web developer, it’s unlikely those providers will offer any support on ensuring all of those factors are working in your favour. Instead, you end up with a poorly functioning site that isn’t delivering the results you’d expect.

Templates aren’t all they seem…

There is a middle ground. Instead of using website design and hosting companies, you can download a theme and use it on WordPress to build your own site.

Templates are a good resource – but only if you’ve got a decent level of knowledge surrounding design and development. Otherwise, you’ll notice that unless you want the theme to look exactly as it does in the template, things may start to go wrong.

Very quickly you can have a site that’s no longer responsive, with irregular branding throughout and likely to go out of date within a year or two, thanks to the updates to external plugins fighting against your out-of-date theme.

Making small changes can cause big problems

Similarly to our last point, small changes can lead to big, unwanted issues. Simply moving one element on a page can open a pandora’s box of unexpected side effects. Before you know it, you’re paying developers to patch up holes and provide fixes to previous fixes – and it can all get a little much.

Some specific problems to watch out for when you’re making changes:

URLs

When changing URLs, they can often damage internal and external links, meaning buttons may no longer work and your UX is impacted.

Responsiveness

When you make a design change, double-check it on mobile, desktop and tablet. Just because it looks ok on one, that doesn’t mean it looks ok everywhere.

SEO

If you’re changing the names of pages or page content, Google will know about it. Unless this is managed properly, it can impact rankings and reduce the effectiveness of SEO campaigns.

Optimisation for SEO and PPC

With a fully custom-built website, you’re in control of your SEO and PPC opportunities. Our websites are built using WordPress, which has an extensive range of plugins available to help benefit SEO and PPC campaigns, whereas other providers such as Wix struggle to offer these integrations.

The help of a web development team can be invaluable – especially when it comes to building specially optimised pages for PPC, or creating content that is aimed at increasing rankings with SEO.

Security and updates

It’s getting more important than ever to enforce security – and the risks of having an unprotected site can be huge.

When running a website yourself, you’ll be in charge of discovering and implementing safety and security updates. Often this can be more confusing than people expect.

As part of our service, we ensure all of our 500+ clients are up-to-date at all times, doing our best to keep their websites safe from cyber threats and protect them from any security compliance issues as a result.

Remove the risk – talk to our team

We’ve built over 500+ websites for clients all over the globe, giving them the best chance to be found online, as well as impressing their potential customers when they find them.

The proof is in the pudding. But it’s also right here, where you can view our projects.

Ready to talk to an expert? Let’s chat about what we can do for you.

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Website design terminology 101 – what you NEED to know

Next time you’re in a conversation about websites, here’s the important terminology you’ll want to know about.

Struggling to tell your UX from your UI?

The world of technology is always evolving – and it’s really exciting. What that also means, however, is there’s a constant feed of new terms around, and it can be hard to keep up…

Whilst we can’t teach you everything, from a web development standpoint, we can teach you plenty. We’ve collected just a few important words and acronyms we commonly use, alongside an explainer of where you’re likely to hear them and why.

Call to action (CTA)

A call to action is exactly what it says on the tin. This is a message directly from you to your reader, telling them why they need to perform an action. For websites, that action is usually picking up the phone and calling, signing up for a free trial or completing a contact form.

The call to action often referred to as a CTA, is often found at the top and bottom of many web pages. It’s an integral element in increasing conversions from your website and helping you generate more conversations that turn into sales. 

UX

User experience (UX) is the overall relationship and experience a user has with your products or services. Specific to web design, a good or bad user experience is defined by the level of ease with which someone can navigate and use your website.


UX is a blanket term but covers multiple factors within your website design. This includes how easy it is to use, intuitiveness in design and development and the positioning of elements within your website.

It’s really important that your UX is taken into account when designing a new website, as the easier it is to use, the more conversions you’re likely to receive.

UI

User interface (UI) design is focused solely on ensuring websites look the part. The user interface is what your web visitors see when they visit your website. 

UX is the mechanical aspect, whereas UI is the visual aspect. The look and layout of your website are covered by UI, which can include typography, colour palettes, animations and graphics.

Your user interface is essential if you want a website that delivers results and wows visitors. Something that doesn’t have your brand or looks a bit rubbish might turn potential customers away and on to your competition.

Plugin

Plugins are extra additions to your website that offer better or more specialised functionality. They can also be used to connect and integrate external services to your website, such as SEO tools or Hubspot features.

Around 43% of websites online use WordPress – including most of the websites we build. You might hear us talking about plugins, as WordPress is versatile and allows for a vast number of integrations via plugins that can help turn your brochure website into a lead generation machine.

You can build websites without plugins, but they’re often extremely useful in creating a better user experience and helping you get more from your investment.

Favicon

Look up to the top of your screen at this tab within your browser. What do you see? A fancy-looking F. That’s our favicon!

It may seem simple, but it’s another brand reminder for visitors and helps consolidate your identity. It’s something that many take for granted, but when you enter a website without a favicon – you’ll notice how strange it seems.

The idea of a favicon is to keep customers aware of what tab they’re using. If you know someone who’s always got 30 tabs open, they’ll know how important it is to be able to easily navigate and know what they can and can’t close.

Talk to the jargon-free website designers in Southampton

Phew. If you’re still with us, we’re going to talk jargon free for a minute. We’ve built over 500 websites for businesses in Southampton, Hampshire, the UK and even across the world.

When the time comes for a new website, it’s always a good idea to talk to someone you can trust. Professional, experienced and (most importantly) jargon-free, we’re happy to chat and learn more about what you need from a website – and how we can bring it to life.

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The (big) benefits of blogging for your business

20 billion unique pages (yep, BILLION!) are viewed on WordPress websites every month. Still wondering why blogging can be such a huge win for your business? Let us explain.

If you’ve spoken to us about SEO – you’ll probably know that content is key to success. The more you’ve got, the better.

You can’t, however, just fill your website with irrelevant, non-descript content that nobody wants to read. Google is cracking down on the relevance of content, as well as ensuring customers are shown the most valuable content when they search.

Blogging is a fantastic way to create content for your website, and it gives you benefits way beyond simply SEO. Our clients are seeing transformative changes to the way people use their websites – all because of their blog content.

So – let’s explain what you win by blogging.

Building authority within your industry

You might know you’re the best at what you do – but does your ideal customer? If not, then you need to start telling them. And keep telling them.

By writing regularly, you’re able to showcase the skillset of your team and provide insights they won’t be able to find elsewhere. Blogging for your business will provide an opportunity to chat about your industry, your experience and why they need you, without it feeling like a sales message.

Also, it’s great for social media. It gives you multiple pieces of content to repurpose, cut up and re-use for months after you initially post the blog piece.

Targeting specific niches

Servicing specific niches as a business is a great way to solidify your market position, and writing tailored blogs for your niche, with associated keywords you’re targeting, has some serious value.

For example, we are the best web designers in Southampton. Or at least, that’s what our customers say. But what if we had a blog that was specifically optimised to talk to existing customers, new customers or maybe website design for accountants – this allows for tailored content that reaches out more directly to a certain market.

Over time, you can create more blog content for specific niches that will allow you to target more traffic and offer that traffic-tailored messaging to increase conversions.

Generating more traffic and conversions

Speaking of traffic – that’s an integral part of why most companies blog. By creating information-heavy and value-rich content, they’re able to target specific keywords, bring more searchers to their website and ultimately grow their business as a result.

As we wrote in a blog last year, SEO blogging means you’re writing and optimising content for people who are specifically looking for your products or services. They have a high level of intent, meaning they’ll need little convincing of your actual service – you just need to tell them why you’re the answer they’re looking for.

For tips on what your searchers are asking, you can use tools like Answer The Public or Also Asked.

Showcasing and cementing your brand

You’ve worked hard on your brand. Blogging for your business is just another way to show that off. It gives people an insight into who you are and what you’re all about.

This goes down to your TOV (tone of voice), visual brand identity (design of the blog) and your call to action (how you’re trying to create conversions).

Ultimately – alongside new traffic – blogs offer your audience insight. You can not online provide macro content that will make their lives better and offer expertise, but also deliver updates on your team and your progression as a business. Bring people along for the journey and they’re more likely to buy into your brand.

Not sure where to go next?

You’ve read this blog, and understand that blogging can bring massive benefits for your business online. But do you have the time to blog? Do you have ideas for content? Maybe you just want a little bit more information before you dive in.

Whether it’s for an existing brand or a completely new one, we’re here to help you blog effectively and reap all the rewards from doing so. Talk to us now.

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Our favourite social media management tool, and why we love it

Did you know that you don’t HAVE to sit on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram and post manually? With the help of a scheduling tool, you can take back time in your day.

We’ve all been there. It’s time to post the next social media update on your company page, or your personal profile. But you’re in the middle of something much more important – can’t it wait?

Before you know it, a whole week has passed and you’re missing out entirely on posting. Your audience are waiting to hear from you, itching to discover the latest insight.

Fortunately, there’s a way that means you can do your social media chores when you want to, not when you have to. Scheduling tools can help make social media more manageable and require less human input, without sacrificing on the quality of your posts.

The agency social media management tool we use

Our pick of the bunch is Buffer. This feature rich software is a beauty – it’s simple to use and optimised to help you get the most out of your posting, no matter what platform you’re focused on.

When we’re managing social media accounts for many clients, it would be crazy to sit and manually post to each account every day. By using a scheduling tool, we increase efficiency, post content quality and reduce the risk of any post errors ocurring.

Why we love using it

See your entire schedule in once place

You can view all your scheduled posts in calendar view, giving you a complete picture on your social strategy across all channels. You can assess the effectiveness of certain post types and ensure you’re investing your time in the right content.

Manage multiple accounts with ease

If you’re managing a LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram page – you may want to spread your posts across multiple channels and repurpose them. Whilst you can post to as many channels as you’d like, you can also create individual versions of your posts that are optimised for each channel, including with extra hashtags or removed hashtags.

Buffer extension for Chrome

When reading a blog, you might feel like your audience want to hear about it. With the buffer extension, you can share to your channels within seconds. This means more content, and more quality content means more engagement. Well done, you.

Integrations

For social media graphics, we love using Canva. And we can directly create content within Buffer thanks to its Canva integration. It has saved plenty of time for our team and can help make beautiful branded graphics in shorter timeframes.

Alternatives you could try

There’s a whole world of social media management tools out there – and they’ve come a LONG way since people started using TweetDeck back in the early teenies.

Sendible is a great solution that we used for a long time before switching to Buffer. It offers a wide array of features, including the ‘optimal time’ posting feature, choosing the best time for you to post.

Another option is SproutSocial, which is loved within the industry but costs a great deal more than its competition.

Alternatively, you can let us take care of all of your social media worries and leave the copy, graphics and scheduling to our team.

Hate doing social media posts? You’re not alone

At best, it can feel like an inconvenience. At worst, it feels like you’re missing out on valuable working hours as you slave over the keyboard wondering what to write next.

Removing that stress is simple, and it might be more cost-efficient than you think. Wanna chat about social? Talk to our team.

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Essential social media tips for small businesses

5 tips for social media stardom? Oh, go on then…

As more businesses are embracing social media, it’s becoming an integral part of digital marketing strategies, no matter what industry you’re a part of.

But we know how it is. Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do, how to do it and whether you’re hitting the mark with your content.

With that in mind, here are five quick tips that are going to set you on a course to a more successful social media channel for your business.

Post more regularly

This is an obvious one. Whilst many people are struggling for time (read tip #5!), social media can often be forgotten about. But if you want it to work, and the platforms (FB, IG and LI) to love you – you’re going to need to be a bit more consistent.

We’d recommend posting either 2 or 3 times a week for most businesses. The more you can post, the better – with one caveat…

Some platforms will actually limit the reach of your posts if they’re deemed to be low quality or you’re simply reusing content again and again. So, yes, there IS such a thing as posting too much.

Make every post look the part

One way to avoid low-quality content getting limited? Don’t make it! Keep every post on brand according to your brand guidelines, and make sure you’re representing your company in the best light possible with every post.

Alongside looking great, stick to a consistent tone of voice and try and present your brand identity within every post. When your posts look like they’re coming from all over the place and written by 5 different people, it’s going to diminish the value people feel by following you.

Engage and become part of the conversation

If your audience is talking to you, talk back. There are countless examples of huge brands that communicate with personality and show their funny side. This generates a more positive brand image and helps you build longer-lasting relationships with your customers and wider audience.

You can even communicate with other businesses within your industry, share insights and invite conversation. By doing so, you’re reaching out, extending your network and showing you’re social media savvy all at the same time.

Post a mixture of content

NOTE: We’ve tried to cut down on the dog pics, but sometimes we can’t resist.

A mixture of content across your platforms helps customers know what to expect, without it becoming formulaic. For example, if you’re going to post 5 times in a month, try and split it into categories. A sales post, a fun post, something entertaining and a couple of posts that offer free value to the audience.

By doing this, you’re keeping things fresh and also making it MUCH more palatable to follow your page. Sales posts every day are going to make your unfollows go through the roof – and they’re often hard to win back!

Try a scheduling tool to help your workflow

Manual posting can feel like a bit of a chore. Creating a more positive and simple workflow for your social media will not only save time but potentially your sanity too.

A scheduling tool means you could spend a few hours every month writing content and then schedule it to go out over the next month without any manual posting.

We’d recommend giving Hootsuite, Buffer and Sendible a Google, and seeing what suits your needs.

What we can do to help

Know you should be posting more on social media? Great! Struggling for time? Not great.

Freestyle provides social media management that guarantees a fresh cocktail of tailored content going live across your platforms each and every month. All we need is 15 mins per month to make it happen. Want to know more? Get in touch to hear about our social media packages.

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What are brand guidelines – and why are they important?

Heard about brand guidelines? You’re gonna need them if you want to wow people and keep them buying from you.

We speak to a lot of people who are ready to invest in a brand-new website. But before they take that step, it’s important they’ve got their brand bang on. Otherwise, you’ve got the equivalent of a brand new Tesla with your old 1-litre Ford Fiesta engine inside. It might look amazing, but it’s not going to work too well.


If you want to get your brand remembered, getting consistent branding across all your digital and print is essential. With the speed of changes within organisations, not every new starter or team member is going to necessarily know what logo to use, what colours to print or what business card to hand out. Brand guidelines help ensure everyone is on the same page.

What are brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines are a set of rules that help everyone know how to use branding elements. They are created by designers, writers and anyone else involved with your brand’s initial design.

They often exist in a digital format, but can also be found in books or pamphlets with bigger organisations. This shows how to effectively use all of your brand assets to create a coherent brand identity.

They often contain:

  • The different versions of your logo design and suggested usage
  • The colour palette that your brand uses
  • The different typography associated with your brand
  • Your tone of voice for copy across all platforms

Example brand guidelines

Identity

Having a logo that is recognisable and stands out from the crowd isn’t as hard as it seems. Often, investing in your brand identity allows for your business to appeal to more customers who may have been less interested if a company was still using their MS Paint logo from a decade ago.

Tone of voice (TOV) is also an essential element in helping customers build rapport with your business. If it feels more personal, the likelihood is your customers are going to feel more comfortable talking to you.

Consistency

When you use the same brand guidelines across all your marketing materials (social media, blogs, advertising and corporate items) you can increase your revenue by as much as 23%.

Guidelines allow every staff member to know what font, colour and language style to use if they need to write something to quickly throw out on social media. Because repetition promotes brand identification, consistency is often transformative for businesses that invest in their marketing strategy.

Loyalty

Loyal customers aren’t just because of you delivering a fantastic service. People love familiarity and reliability when they’re purchasing.

It’s a cold night driving down the motorway, and you spot the golden arches of McDonalds over the edge of the horizon. Immediately you can taste the flavour of the food, you can imagine the interior of the restaurant, and you know exactly what you’re going to get.

Consumers develop emotional connections with companies they believe they can trust. Your brand guidelines are a way to ensure that people aren’t surprised or shocked when they do business with you – instead, they feel reassurance knowing they’re working with a brand they can trust.

Need to rethink your brand before a redesign?

Taking the decision to get a new website built is a biggie. But it’s also a good one.

Making sure your brand is modernised and up-to-date is an integral part of our process when we build new websites.

So if you’re looking for a fresh lick of paint of a complete redesign, let’s talk it over.

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Recipe for a perfect website in 2023

Let us dig out our chef whites. We’re going to help you cook up a storm.

When you decide to work with a web design agency, they’re going to help you create something special. That’s their job, after all.

But there are a few important elements to a website that are often forgotten by clients. Without them, the impact of your new website could be a lot weaker.

If we’re to consider building a website being like a recipe, we’re here to explain all the ingredients that are going to make the best cake. Try not to get too hungry whilst reading.

Content

It’s all well and good having a website that looks the part – but if it’s reading poorly and you’re not keeping visitors interested, it’s not going to convert.
Engaging copy that tells a story and hooks the reader is vital in helping your website achieve more success for your business.

Gone are the days when text was just something that filled gaps on a website – you’ve only got a few seconds to impress in the modern day, and great copy is going to help that conversion rate creep up.

We understand that many companies feel like copy is an extra cost, and will often consider completing it in-house. But if the end results are bad, you’re reducing the value you’ve received for an investment into a new website.

Imagery

What are people’s eyes drawn to first when they visit a website? Pictures.

If your website is full of rubbish imagery, it’s going to immediately impact your chances of generating a response from your visitor. But if it’s full of beautiful imagery that’s been taken by a professional, they’re going to be much more interested in scrolling on down.

Imagery can be hard to source within certain industries, and we know that stock imagery isn’t for everyone. When you work with us, we work hard to get the best imagery we can throughout your website. Whether that’s by utilising our stock library or putting you in touch with our network of professional photographers – these images are going to be essential during your build.

Branding guidelines

Having a brand is one thing. Keeping it consistent is another. With so many stakeholders, it can often feel like business owners aren’t in control of how their company is presented to the big wide world.

Branding guidelines allow you to stick to a regimented formula when you’re creating marketing materials, either for digital or print use. They can be shared with employees and help keep everyone on the same page when they’re representing the business.

When it comes to building your website, having brand guidelines that exist makes our designer’s job simpler, and helps you get a better website faster.

If you haven’t got any? We can help you create some that will help you within your website project and beyond.

Fonts/typography

More than just your logo, brand guidelines will also contain information on typography that should be used across your platforms.

If you’ve got a pre-determined set of fonts that you always use, we need to know. This ensures that your new website is in keeping with your existing guidelines and is going to look the part.

However, we are designers. When we take on a project, we will take a holistic look at your brand and how we can best represent it. This sometimes means we like to suggest alternatives to fonts or typefaces, that help make the website look even better.

Colour scheme

Using the wrong colours can instantly lose your brand identity and make audiences question their familiarity with your business.

It’s integral that you have a colour scheme in place for use on your new website. Similarly to brand guidelines and typography, our design team can work from your existing colour scheme to match your existing architecture and present a recognisable, trustworthy brand to your visitors.

But – if you think it’s time for a refresh, we can take care of that too.

You’ve got the recipe – now you need a chef

AA Rosettes, Michelin stars, you name it – we haven’t won them. But what we have achieved, we believe, is pretty cool.

We’ve helped hundreds of businesses create an online presence which is not only a beautiful, bespoke and effective, but made up of all the right ingredients, with a few cherries on top for good measure.

Book a call today to get started working with Freestyle Digital.

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Web design inspiration: where to get ideas for your new site

Seeing a website that you love is usually what makes people decide it’s time for an update. We’ve given you a few ideas on where you can find that inspiration.

Endlessly scrolling the internet. We all do it – and most of the time, it’s looking at funny videos, not necessarily inspiration for a new website. But… every now and then, we hear from customers who are looking for a new website design agency in Southampton and they’ve come across our website. Or, they’ve seen our work on another website and want to chat to us about their own.

(We love those conversations, by the way!)

For those who might be considering a new website, we wanted to lay out a few options you could try out to find some inspiration before you have a chat with a web design agency.

Research the big players

The world’s biggest organisations spend millions every year on their marketing. Why is that interesting? Because you can see the results of their investment, and take influence from them without paying a penny.

We’re not suggesting that you copy their work – we preach that every business needs to be unique and appeal directly to their own audience. But it would be silly NOT to take a look at what the world’s biggest brands are doing.

Whether it’s tips on UI and UX or a certain communicative style, you can take notes from these websites and take them into your conversation with a design team.

Check out your competition

Yeah, yeah – we know you’re doing it already. It’s only natural, right?

Looking at competitors within your industry, locally and nationally, is really useful to get a better understanding of what you’re up against with your new website.

If you spot something you wish you had on your website, it’s ok to want it too. But it’s also an important exercise in understanding what you don’t want.

You just need to ensure you’re working with a reliable partner who can help deliver the best features you’ve found, mixing it with their knowledge and experience in delivering what works.

Find out what’s hot

Discover what’s winning awards and changing the game – and then get inspired.

Our favourites are Awwwards, CSSwinner and Curations. All these sites are full of inspirational designs that are ahead of the curve, breaking the mould and simply looking fantastic.

We know those websites because our designers always check them out. Knowing what the industry is loving right now is essential in understanding modern design, development and how we can deliver future-proofed websites to our clients.

Talk to a designer

Similar to the last point, by talking to a designer you’re guaranteed to get the latest, most relevant guidance on how your new website should be optimised and built.

You’re an expert at what you do – and our designers and developers are experts at what they do. We listen to your requirements from your website and go about building the best result that ticks all the boxes, from your perspective and ours.

Get inspired – let’s have a chat

Whether you’ve seen something you love, or want some help finding something you love – we’re here for you.

Our team love talking design, and we’ll take the time to understand your goals and design a website that you’ll love. We can work within your existing brand or create something new entirely. All you’ve got to do is ask.

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The website trends we’re watching in 2023

As the end of 2022 is fast approaching, we’ve been studying what 2023 has to offer in the world of web design, and how we can best help our customers achieve more from their websites.

The world of technology moves at a very high pace. What’s an essential must-have feature in 2020, could be redundant by 2023 – replaced by something even better, or maybe just with more bells and whistles.

We’re always looking to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new features and trends that are taking hold within our industry. Our customers know that if there’s something we think would make their site even better, they’re going to hear about it.

With that in mind, here are some of the biggest things you’ll hear us shouting about more in 2023 and beyond.

Mobile first

Mobile first is a development style that – yep, you guessed it – prioritises mobile design over desktop. This means that the actual design of your site is optimised for mobile web viewers, and then scaled up for those viewing on a tablet or desktop.

You might think that’s not a huge deal. But what it actually delivers is very valuable. With more web traffic coming via mobile, it’s not just about having a responsive, mobile-friendly site anymore – but rather a website specifically built and tailored for use on mobile.

Commonly these websites will also load considerably faster than their desktop-first brethren and therefore be very useful in retaining visitors, reducing bounce rates and gaining better SEO scores.

User-focused design and experience

We’d like to think that if you’re considering working with a web design agency, you’ve understood that design and user experience are integral. Creating a user-focused experience that makes viewing your website pleasurable rather than a fiddly headache should be a priority.

If your website loads too slowly, you’re going to lose traffic. If it’s hard to navigate, you’re going to lose potential leads. If customers can’t contact you when they have the desire to do so, they probably won’t bother at all.

We know the tricks of the trade to help increase conversion rates and keep your visitors scrolling for longer. We do this by creating simple, easy-to-use websites that look the part, but also stop your potential customers from falling through the net due to the problems above.

WhatsApp/live chat integrations

On the subject of contacting businesses via their website, we need to talk. And so do customers. Our customers benefit from WhatsApp integrations that send new leads directly to the mobile phone of business owners.

Another option is the inclusion of a live chat function via a third-party plugin that allows you to communicate with your web visitors when they land on your website and start a conversation that could turn into business.

Often, a web visitor may not want to commit to a phone call or wait for a reply to a contact form enquiry. These integrations offer a middle ground – letting a customer who is on the fence talk to a human (you!) and get the answers they’re looking for, without having to pluck up the courage for a phone call.

Remarketing integrations

You’re shopping online. Decide not to buy something, and all of a sudden you see it advertised everywhere. That’s remarketing, and it’s a big part of many businesses digital marketing strategies.

Whether it’s Google Ads, Facebook or AdRoll – there are loads of remarketing options out there for businesses that want to increase conversion rates.

We build nearly all of our websites on the versatile, industry-preferred platform WordPress. That means you’ll be able to integrate all of the above remarketing strategies with ease.

Cyber security from Cloudflare

Cyber security is only getting more important. Since the war on Ukraine began, it’s been thought that the UK and other western countries are at increased risk of cyber threats.

The benefits of Cloudflare’s cyber security are huge – and they’re already being felt by some of our clients who have chosen to invest in the add-on we offer.

You get great security, speed and reliability for your website and increased SEO rankings for international searchers. This is a huge plus for businesses with international operations, but also is just really useful for any businesses that value their website being live with minimal downtime and risk of attack.

Wanna know a secret?

Freestyle Digital do all of these things. That’s right – we’re so 2023, and it’s not even arrived yet.

We’ve helped customers all over the UK build websites that are completely bespoke, expertly developed, look AMAZING, and they’re proud to shout about too.

Talk to our team now to get started on your website refresh for 2023.

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