Your website is the central hub of your marketing activities. It’s where prospects form their first impressions, gain trust, and learn if you can help them solve their pain points. If your website isn’t up to par, you risk losing trust and business.

This article provides asset managers with a comprehensive guide on best practices in website design and development, why these practices matter, and how to implement effective strategies.

User Experience

Website user experience (UX) refers to the overall impression a visitor receives when interacting with a website. A great UX includes how easy, efficient, and satisfying your website is to use. Think of UX as understanding what your website visitors want.

Optimal strategies for a great user experience include:

Start with your users. Think about who will visit your site. What are they looking for? What problems do they want to solve? What are their personas? A persona is a fictional profile of a segment of your target audience, based on their demographics, behaviors, and goals. Design every page of your website with the needs of your prospects in mind, not your preferences.

Why your users matter: A persona-focused site encourages people to stay longer and return more frequently. A great user experience occurs when visitors think that you understand them and can assist them in achieving their goals.

Easy to understand navigation. First impressions happen fast. Visitors will leave if your site looks outdated or is hard to navigate. A well-designed site must be engaging. Menus should be easy to find and use. Your main navigation should have no more than five or six options. Use clear headings, tabs, and logical groupings.

Why easy-to-understand matters: If users can’t find what they need quickly, they’ll likely leave. A user-focused site keeps people engaged and coming back.

Fast loading times. Speed matters. People expect websites to load quickly.

Why fast matters:  A slow website frustrates people and hurts your search rankings. A high-converting desktop webpage loads in less than two seconds. More than half of mobile users will leave a page if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Mobile-first design. Mobile is the way of the world. The mobile-first website design strategy emphasizes that websites should initially be designed and developed for mobile devices, then scaled up for larger screens such as tablets and desktops.

Why mobile focus matters: Approximately 68 percent of website traffic comes from mobile. Google also prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in rankings.

Layout and Design

Effective strategies in website layout focus on the visual and structural organization of content elements. A great layout combines visual appearance with functionality. Good design is easy and intuitive to use. It finds the right balance between aesthetics and functionality.

Best practices in layout and design include:

Consistent branding. Consistent branding in website development means maintaining uniform visual elements, messaging, tone, and user experience.

Why branding matters: Branding builds trust, reinforces your identity, and helps visitors recognize and connect with you.

Minimalist design. Your website should look straightforward and uncomplicated. Use clean layouts, headings, and white space, and don’t overload your pages with too much information.

Why simplicity matters: Simplicity reduces confusion and helps visitors focus on what’s important.

Clear visual hierarchy. An understandable grid helps guide visitors to where you want them to go quickly. Your headings, subheadings, and bullet points should break up content.

Why website structure matters: Good visual order assists users in finding key information quickly, and helps Google rank you high in SEO.

Easy-to-read text. Write as you talk, which is to say conversationally. Choose two or three fonts and use type sizes that your audience can read without squinting or using a magnifying glass. Use short sentences, small paragraphs, and bullet points. Nix the jargon. Score your website’s readability with Readable, the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test, and others.

Why easy reading matters: Readable content can make complex financial ideas accessible. People won’t stick around for text that is difficult to read.

Consistent color scheme. Colors trigger emotional responses and help communicate your brand’s personality. Use color to highlight essential elements. For asset manager websites, different colors may convey psychological meaning. For example, blue represents trust and stability, and green signals growth and prosperity. Neutral colors like white, gray, and beige say professionalism.

Why colors matter: Good color choices make your site professional, attractive, and usable. Poor color choice and bad contrast render your website unreadable for many.

Optimized images and videos. The images on your website should be high-quality, sized correctly, and load quickly. An image that’s the right size will prevent your pages from loading slowly and your visitors from bouncing. Images should be relevant to the message you are illustrating. Avoid using clichéd images that you may see everywhere, or pixelated or stretched images. Videos and graphics must support your message.

Why images matter: Great visuals enhance your message and make your site memorable. Bad visuals can make your site look unprofessional. Also, make sure to use alt text, which is descriptive text that explains what an image shows. Alt text is important because it helps search engines understand and rank images.

Content Strategy

Best practices for developing a website content strategy include defining your target audience and their needs, creating valuable content that addresses those needs, and establishing a consistent publishing schedule with goals you can measure.

Have a clear value proposition. Why you, why now? You should write text, headlines. and descriptions that say what you offer and why visitors should choose you over your competitors.

Why identifying your uniqueness matters: Clear differentiation helps prospects quickly understand the unique benefits you offer.

Be an expert. You should regularly post informative thought leadership articles. This is how you share your perspective and how you solve pain points.

Why expertise matters. Publishing fresh, unique, and timely content keeps your website active and provides reasons for visitors to return regularly.

Post new content consistently. Publishing unique and timely thought leadership content keeps your website active and provides reasons for visitors to return regularly.

Why new content matters: Fresh content signals to search engines that your site is active, improves SEO rankings, and establishes you as an industry authority. Regularly review and update your content. Outdated information can damage your credibility.

Create mobile-first content. More financial services consumers now view content on their mobile phones and smartphones than on desktops.

Why mobile-first matters: Nearly 60 percent of web traffic comes from mobile devices. A poor mobile experience will drive users away.

Use multiple formats. Leverage your ideas by offering similar content on blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts.

Why multiple formats matters: People learn in different ways. Different formats can increase the number of people you reach, and visuals help users understand complex information.

Be interactive. Use interactive surveys, charts, quizzes, and infographics.

Why interactivity matters: Interactive website content can increase user engagement and provoke interest and curiosity.

Lead Generation

A great website should build business. Every element must encourage visitors to take the next step you want them to take.

Value-added content. Create value-added content—articles, market insights, commentary, and more—that makes visitors want to learn more.

Why value matters: Providing valuable information establishes you as a credible authority.

Digital distribution. Digital distribution is how you deliver content and nurture prospects through online channels like your newsletter and emails and via social media like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

Why digital marketing matters: Digital marketing helps you reach your best value prospects where they spend time by leveraging technology. Digital enables you to reach a broader audience more effectively than traditional marketing methods.

Develop search engine optimized (SEO) content. SEO is the practice of improving a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results to attract more organic traffic.

Why SEO matters: Good SEO brings more visitors to your site because you appear at the top of search results in Google. This drives organic traffic, improves search rankings, and may attract the prospects you want.

Compelling CTAs. CTAs are your call to action. Effective CTAs make it easy for investors to take the action you want them to take. Place them at the end of blog posts, at strategic points in long-form content, and in footers.

Why CTAs matter: Strong CTAs can turn passive browsers into engaged customers.

Benefit-driven landing pages and forms. A landing page is where your visitors land after clicking on your interesting CTA. Its singular purpose is to incentivize people to provide their contact information in exchange for your free offer. A landing page must have a strong headline, concise copy, bullet points, no distractions, and an easy-to-fill-out form.

Why landing pages matter: Landing pages convert visitors into customers by focusing on a single goal without distractions.

Insert lead capture options. A lead capture popup is an image and form that “pops up” when people click on a timely offer on your website—and invites them to download or subscribe to your valuable offer. Popups can also be used when people attempt to leave your site, and you offer them a chance to view more. Popups can increase lead conversion rates without being intrusive.

Why lead capture matters: For asset managers, lead capture pop-ups matter because they transform anonymous website visitors into identifiable prospects.

Security and Privacy

Your website must protect sensitive client information. Clients want to know that their financial data is safe and that your firm takes compliance seriously.

Proven techniques for security and privacy include:

SSL encryption. Think of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption as an envelope that wraps around the data traveling between your client’s browser and your website. SSL ensures that your client’s passwords stay private.

Secure client portals. Use strong authentication procedures where clients log in to access sensitive data. A well-built authentication system combines multiple security layers, including unique passwords, two-factor authentication (2FA), and account lockout protection.

Regular security updates. Keep your content management system, plugins, logins, and security certificates current. Outdated software is a risk.

Privacy policy. As required by law, clearly explain how you collect, use, and store data on your website. Make your privacy policy effortless to find on your website and easy to understand.

Compliance. Your legal team will, or should, regularly review your website for proper and up-to-date disclosures in accordance with FINRA, SEC, GDPR, and other relevant regulations.

Accessibility

Some visitors have disabilities or need technology to give them an assist.

Why accessibility matters. Accessibility is often required by law. It also expands your audience to include people with disabilities.

Follow WCAG standards. Adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This includes providing alt text for images, using sufficient color contrast, and ensuring keyboard navigation.

Accessible forms. Label all form fields clearly. Provide helpful error messages. Make sure forms can be submitted without a mouse.

Use descriptive links. Avoid “click here.” Use meaningful link text that describes the destination.

Testing, Analytics, and Improvement

Use analytics tools to track how people use your site. Look for patterns. Where do users drop off? What pages are most popular? Use data to make informed improvements.

A/B testing. A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or element to determine which one performs better. You can test headlines, action buttons, CTAs, forms, landing pages, layouts, and more.

Assess performance speed. Performance speed refers to how quickly your website loads and responds. How quickly does your website load?

Why speed matters: A fast website keeps visitors engaged and increases their likelihood of staying on it. Slow sites frustrate prospects, who will leave and go to a competitor.

Track engagement. Website usability tests, such as heat maps, click tracking, and user recordings, reveal how visitors interact with your website.

Test accessibility. Use tools like WAVE or Google Lighthouse to spot and fix accessibility issues.

Why testing matters:  Testing catches problems you might miss. It ensures your site works well for everyone and helps you improve over time.

Final Thoughts On Best Practices in Website Design

A poor website is bad for business, can erode trust, frustrate users, and drive business to competitors. Keep these best practices in mind in implementing effective website design and development strategies:

• User experience (UX): UX is the overall impression a visitor gets when interacting with your website.
• Layout and design: Strategies in website layout focus on visual and structural content elements.
• Content strategy: Great content helps prospects know how you can help them.
• Lead generation: Your website should generate business.
• Security and Privacy: Your website must protect sensitive client information.
• Accessibility: Some visitors have disabilities and need technology to give them an assist.
• Testing and analytics: Use data to track how people use your site and to make informed improvements.

Is your website holding your business back? Take our complimentary 3-minute website assessment. You’ll receive an actionable report that helps you understand what’s working, what’s not, and specific actions you can take to improve your website’s performance.

Schedule a complimentary strategy session with Dan Sondhelm, CEO of Sondhelm Partners, to learn more about how to build an effective website.

Frank Serebrin is the Content Marketing Director for Sondhelm Partners. He leads strategic and creative content and marketing services for our asset management and wealth management clients.