Baton Rouge web design: keep the light page, fix the pictures.

Construction runs about 1.8 times the national job share in East Baton Rouge Parish, so we'd expect a lot of firms here to have something to show for their work. The sites we tested don't always show it well. 10 of 43 had images too small for the screen, 23% against 13% in our 31-city sample. Text descriptions were missing from at least some images on 11 of 41, 27% against 18%. A fail means some images on the page, and it's a modest sample. Still, a builder or roofer with sharp pictures of real jobs would stand out, in our view. The pages have room for them, at 2.55 MB against 3.08 MB, as long as each picture is sized for a phone.

Then give the visitor something to do. Color contrast runs 63% against 62%, which is the same problem we found in the other cities. Tap targets hold up, with 5 of 42 failing against 22%. So we wouldn't redo the buttons. We'd add a short form beside them, since 9 of 45 homepages have a lead form. With 47.8% of occupied homes owner-occupied, a home-service firm may also want a section for landlords and renters, each told what to expect. Someone who owns a home near the $234,700 median and a tenant with a broken heater aren't asking the same question.

Websites run from $1,500 to $5,750 at a fixed price, up to 70 pages, and online stores start at $2,500. If the page is sound, a design upgrade may be enough, and repairs start at $149. The Baton Rouge report has the whole test. Send us your homepage and your three best job photographs, and we'd tell you what to keep.