Biker Site Design Elements

Are there website design elements on your motorcycle website hurting your rankings, engagement, and sales? Here are some important aspects to check when building a motorcycle website. And if all these items are done correctly, it will help your bottom line.

You have a lot of control over how your motorcycle site ranks in the short-term. You also have even more control over how your biker audience interacts with your site.

1: Types of Motorcycle Sites

Below are the most common types of biker websites:

• E-commerce motorcycle sites
• Services sites
• Biker business websites
• Informational websites
• Brochure sites
• Entertainment sites
• Biker event websites
• Nonprofit websites
• Membership sites
• Motorcycle forums
• Motorcycle blogs
• Personal websites
• Portfolio websites

Notably, the purpose/goal of your motorcycle website helps to determine the design aspects. For instance, the layout, functionality, etc., will differ for each type of motorcycle site. Another important part of your web design is that it must get visitors to interact the way your company needs them to.

Now, this next motorcycle website design tip might sound like a given, but the type and goal of your website must constantly be thought of during development. Too often, it isn’t.

And this can lead to lower traffic, conversion rates, revenue generation, etc., for your biker business down the road. Notably, even if your motorcycle website gets 10% fewer sales because of design issues, that is huge! Especially when this amount can be the difference between growing and struggling to keep your company’s doors open.

2: What Brings Value?

All websites need both enough functionality and a solid look. But you don’t want to add every functionality you’ve seen on your biker website. Also, you don’t want the most impressive graphics and flash online.

Why are these problems? It is because massive site builds and upgrades might not be what your target audience wants and needs. And your focus must always be on what your biker target audience needs to buy from your site. Often, the over-the-top design sounds better than the actual value they bring.

Now, many website design agencies will try to build you the coolest biker site on the internet. Granted, it is great for their bottom line. But if the extras aren’t generating the necessary revenue, you’ve wasted a lot of money.

Invariably, when there are massive site upgrades, two things happen. The first is that changes must be made after your website launches. Secondly, your analytics and reporting data will show you how your site would perform better without an upgrade(s). Subsequently, the upgrades that aren’t used are removed.

In addition, massive sites can be overwhelming and distracting. And you always avoid your website from distracting your audience. Instead, it would be best to focus on giving your biker audience what they need to do what you want quickly and easily.

3: Data-Driven Website Design:

Guessing what elements to build or change on your motorcycle website is a horrible strategy. You need to know what is and isn’t working to ensure that you are changing what needs improvement and not what is working.

As noted on previous pages, guessing and hoping is the strategy for picking lotto numbers. But with today’s website tools, there is no need to risk your motorcycle company’s revenue by guessing and hoping.

Subsequently, Revolution Marketing recommends using the minimum viable product (MVP) approach. With this approach, you design a solid-looking site with core functionality. After launching it, your website uses online traffic tools (Google Analytics, SEM Rush, etc.) to collect and analyze data.

Next, these website content audits will clearly show what is and isn’t working for your end users. Then, further designing is based on the data/facts and not guesses. Afterward, you improve your motorcycle website’s design strategy and implement it. Finally, this process starts over again.

Also, there are several benefits of the MVP web design approach. First, your new or revamped website is finished faster. And this is because you are not adding unnecessary visual and functional items, which takes time to build.

Plus, money is saved because the functionality and visual upgrades wait until data supports their implementation. Some site design services don’t design sites this way. Here are some of the many reasons why:

• They want a quick payday.
• Guessing might be their poor, outdated methodology of design.
• They don’t value your company has limited resources.
• Their focus is on something other than how to build the best motorcycle site.
• They do not know the MVP web design strategy.

Now, you need an expert web designer for your biker business to be successful. Subsequently, if they don’t know that the MVP web design approach is the best, it might be time to leave. And the reason is that they are not experts.

As you know, having expensive parts of your site that do not bring value is stressful. And this stress can be avoided by applying the MVP approach to the design of your motorcycle website.

4: Website Design Simplicity

Next, you might have heard the axiom, “People are impatient on the internet.” And another axiom you might have heard of is, “People need to quickly and easily…” Both of these items lead to another vital component of a biker website design – simplicity.

Again, your biker site’s design needs to accomplish the purpose of your motorcycle site. And the focus must be on what is best for your target audience of bikers. Too often, things are designed that are unnecessarily complex. These items can hurt your motorcycle site’s conversions because of the following:

• Bad layout
• Poor navigation
• Too much functionality is just that, too much.
• Poor buyer’s journey
• Distracting flash
• Overwhelming graphics
• Poor color choices
• An annoying amount of popups
• Poor mobile experience

5: Website Navigation

Your motorcycle website’s design should use a straightforward navigation structure. And what matters is that your biker audience can “quickly and easily” find what they want. Below are some site navigation items to note.

First, the best navigation varies by industry. And if your top five competitors only have top navigation, this might be a good starting point.

Your audience has probably checked out some of your top five competitors’ sites. Consequently, using their navigation location to start at least eliminates visitors from having to figure out a new navigation structure. Again, after you’ve collected data, you will know what you must change.

Next, endless options in drop-down boxes are just too much. Or even worse is when your visitor hovers over a button and the screen fills with columns of options. The above navigation styles are often used for SEO-value, but they are unnecessary and don’t work.

Importantly, too many choices overwhelm your biker audience. Additionally, better ways to present your site’s categories and options exist. So, this attempt to be helpful doesn’t work.

Then a third reason for poor navigation is that your designer might not be a biker website and search engine marketing expert. Also, the buyer’s journey must be considered when designing your navigation. Notably, a good web design, including navigation, leads your customers toward accomplishing your site’s goal.

6: Choosing Colors

First, choosing colors should focus on what is best for your visitor. Also, use the colors that work best in your specific market niche. And the fewer colors, the better. Notably, in the motorcycle world, certain combinations of colors must be avoided. And if you don’t know why, ask us.

7: Choosing the Biker Graphics

First, ensuring your graphics work the best for your end users is key. The colors on your successful competitors’ websites often clue you in on your niche’s standard. Simplicity is also vital for your biker graphics. Too many details or amazing graphics that are distracting are too much.

Significantly, in the motorcycle world, certain graphics must be avoided. And if you don’t know why, ask us.

One very important web design element is the graphic used in your website’s logo. It is the foundation for branding your motorcycle company. Furthermore, the logo gives your visitors their first impression of your site. Plus, it will set your motorcycle company apart from others.

Also, while creating a quality biker logo, it can be an excellent time to create ad banners and sliders. And this is because it helps keep the themes similar. Also, it helps to keep the same ideas going in the color, image, and typography.

8: Sliders

Here are some more recommendations for designing your website slider. Of course, before creating your sliders, you must research to see if they will benefit your site. After your changes have been live, you need to analyze the data. This way, you will know via data/facts what to keep, modify, or remove.

Typically, sliders are located toward the top of your biker site. And they are a carousel or slideshow of images or videos. Yes, sliders can help showcase your product(s), service(s), portfolio, sales, or anything else. However, the sliders must be organized well to quickly convey important information to your biker audience.

9: Typography for Biker Sites

Make sure your font(s) can be read with minimal effort. Now, you’ve spent a lot of time and money on your biker site. So don’t let poor font selection, like calligraphy, make visitors leave. Choose a font that fits your motorcycle niche.

Another website design tip is to make sure you only use Google fonts. This is because other fonts can slow your site’s speed. A slow website makes visitors leave and hurts your motorcycle website’s technical-SEO. Plus, there is no need to use other fonts when there are over 1,400 Google fonts.

10: Motorcycle Website Content

Importantly, your biker website’s content should always be written for the end-user first, with search engines in mind second. Vice versa doesn’t work. Today, visitors can end up on your motorcycle site in many ways. No matter how they arrive, each visitor is valuable. Retention is necessary, but poor reading content will make them leave quickly.

Next, after you’ve changed your content, it is time for more research. The research is done to evaluate your motorcycle website’s design performance data, formulate a new strategy, and implement changes to your content. After you’ve done the above, the process repeats.

Your content writer and on-page motorcycle SEO expert must be data-driven. After all, how would you even know if a change is or isn’t truly working? Also, you want to pay attention to your site’s data. Notably, your website’s data tells you how to make more money!

11: Website Content Organization

Correctly using the design elements on your biker website’s content is essential. Here are some important pointers to consider when organizing your motorcycle site:

–H1 tag – This is usually used for the title of your page and is typically located on top of the page. The H1 tag is traditionally the largest font on your biker site. Plus, it is also normally bold. And it should give your reader an idea of all the page’s content.

–Other H Tags – The other H tags are often used for your subheadings. These letters and numbers in other H tags will stand out from your primary text. The other H tags can be larger, bold, in italics, use different colors, etc. These other H tags help break up the page, making it easier for visitors to read. In addition, subheadings are also part of the on-page website SEO.

–First few sentences – The first few sentences on your pages should give a solid overview of what is on that page.

–Paragraphs – It is easier for visitors to read what is on your motorcycle website if each paragraph has only a few sentences.

–Bullet Points – Using bullet points works better than using long sentences to list items. Notably, bullet points help visually break up your page. Next, only seeing endless paragraphs on your motorcycle site can be overwhelming to your biker target audience. And happy visitors buy more. What better reason do you need?

–Infographics – These are images that include words and visual elements. And these can help visually break up pages on your biker site. Plus, some visual items like graphs are best presented with an infographic.

–Underlining words, phrases, or headings also helps with the visual hierarchy of your website. Furthermore, using blank spaces, bars, or lines to break apart sections, images, and the like is helpful.

And the reason to do this is to help guide your visitor’s journey. Another reason to do this is that it helps them find the information they need to know to make a buying decision.

12: Grid-Based Layout

Grid-based layouts mean that your content is broken up into rectangular sections. These sections often have lines or design elements like bars to create boxed areas. For instance, the far left or far right column of your biker site will usually be separated from the body of the page. And space/”padding” between areas can break up your motorcycle site’s look.

13: “F”-Pattern Web Design

The “F”-pattern design is often the best for websites designed for people in the Western world. Note, the “F”-pattern web design means your viewers read from left to right and top to bottom. And this is because our eye-scanning most often follows this pattern.

14: Site Page Load Speed

If your motorcycle site does not load fast, visitors will leave. Often, they will leave before your entire site fully loads.

You’ve spent a lot of time, effort, and money to get visitors to your site. Therefore, you can’t lose them for an avoidable reason. Visitors leaving your website quickly kill your conversion rate. Importantly, page load speed is also a significant ranking factor for Google.

Your expert motorcycle site designer should always focus on your site’s page speed. But if your biker site has a slow page load speed, it signals an issue. One issue is that your designer and/or website developer must ramp up on technical-SEO. Sure, the site might look amazing, but that doesn’t matter if people are leaving or the site doesn’t rank.

15: Mobile-Friendly Design

Today, over 50% of your site’s traffic comes from mobile users. Consequently, having a site that presents correctly on mobile is huge. Here are just some of your motorcycle website’s design elements that must be appropriately presented:

• The overall design/look
• Navigation
• Images
• Text
• Videos
• Forms (like a contact form)
• Product options
• Buy buttons
• Shopping cart
• Checkout page

The bottom line is to make it easy for mobile users to buy. Once more, the way to know what to change is by looking at your data.

16: Clean SEO Biker Site

When qualifying your motorcycle SEO agency, ask them how many ranking factors there are. And if they say there are 200, they aren’t up to date with search engine optimization.

Subsequently, your rankings will suffer if they do the work on your site. And you can see how needing to be current on search optimization strategy is a big problem. After all, you must have excellent SEO to maximize your revenue.

One reason for the lack of knowledge is that search engines are evolving quickly. Therefore, the behind-the-times SEO design techniques that yielded good search results have changed. Another reason your motorcycle website’s rankings drop is because of your competitors. If they invest in quality SEO, they are moving up the rankings.

Of course, if your designer is not up to date with SEO, you are wasting time, effort, and money. Not knowing the current SEO factors will hurt your motorcycle site’s rankings.

Many of these SEO factors are addressed while designing your biker site. Your motorcycle website design experts must pay close attention to SEO factors throughout the build. Again, having a cool-looking site that no one visits is of no value; it is of a negative value since you’ve lost money.

Finally, Revolution’s marketing consultants can design your company a new motorcycle website or upgrade and fix your existing site. Our quality biker design and development experts deliver quality, search-optimized motorcycle sites. In addition, our 19 years of web design and marketing have been exclusively in the biker industry. Plus, our riding background is essential because when designing motorcycle websites, we know what bikers like and dislike. Also, we know motorcycle products because we use them.