Salem County NJ Website Design: Evaluation of the Best and Worst

Sam Natello

6 years ago

Salem County NJ Website Design: Evaluation of the Best and Worst

For almost a year now, DotCom Global Media has been publishing weekly reports on Salem County NJ website design, based on comprehensive evaluations intended to uncover the best and worst local websites in the business world. Over 350 business websites were selected for this NJ Website Design study, which included a full analysis and report of each website. Grades were assigned in the areas of design, features, content, and authority.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the websites for businesses, organizations, and associations located in Salem County NJ. This article is intended to be a resource for business owners and website design companies looking to create a new website, or redesign a current Salem County NJ website design.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the websites for businesses, organizations, and associations located in Salem County NJ. This article is intended to be a resource for business owners and website design companies looking to create a new website, or redesign a current Salem County NJ website design.

In this article we have included the following information:

Brief Overview of the County from a business perspective, and the need for an excellent Salem County NJ website design.
Best Website Design examples in Salem CountyNew Jersey
High Potential Examples of Salem County NJ Website Design that would do very well with some strategic design/development changes
Worst Website Design examples in Salem County New Jersey
Simple Directory of Web Designers in Salem County New Jersey, or web design companies known for their Salem County NJ website design work.

Local Towns Evaluated for Salem County NJ Website Design:

This study is ongoing, and new towns are evaluated by DotCom Global Media each week. There are sixteen different towns in Salem County NJ and to date, we have combed through the business websites in two of these towns. Here are the towns that were evaluated for Salem County NJ Website Design, so far.

Alloway

Carneys Point

Pennsville

Pilesgrove

City of Salem

Opportunity/Need for Salem County NJ Website Design

Analyzing the current business environment and growth opportunities in Salem County New Jersey

Salem County NJ is located on the western side of New Jersey, along the marsh and water of the Delaware border. The county is mostly residential but there are also industrial businesses, trucking and transportation companies, and of course some shops and restaurants. The median household income in Salem County, NJ was $61,831 in 2015, which represents a 1.75% growth from the previous year. Additionally, there were 29,226 residents in Salem County, NJ with jobs in 2015, which is a 0.87% growth from the previous year. There are sixteen towns and municipalities in Salem County and many residents attend Salem Community College. The most common jobs in this area are administrative in nature such as secretaries and assistants. Other common jobs are school teachers, truck drivers, janitors and custodial, and jobs in agriculture.

Anyone looking to start or scale a business in Salem County NJ should pay careful attention to the websites in this area and make sure not to repeat their mistakes. Your online presence is the ticket to getting new customers. There are far too many mediocre and poor websites for businesses in Salem County, and we hope that this evaluation helps current and future business owners in this area to do a better job online.

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Best Examples of Salem County NJ Website Design

In addition to the most obvious features, there are many little things that make a website design great and effective. Top marks go to beautiful websites that have useful information AND are doing the types of things that make them attractive to Google, while also providing a positive user experience. Through our search, we came across some good and bad local examples of Salem County New Jersey websites. Here’s what we found:

1. McLane Company, Carneys Point NJ – https://www.mclaneco.com

Numerical Score: 78/100

Design Grade……… C

Features Grade…….C

Content Grade…….. B

Authority Grade…… F

This website design is leaps and bounds better than any other website we’ve seen for this specific type of business. The company is a food service supply chain and transport company- not so interesting to the everyday Internet user. Still, the website designer managed to create an organized, eye catching website that looks professional and has crystal clear messaging. The imagery is visually pleasing on a whole, which is commendable, and the content side of the site is very strong. This website is set up to provide a great user experience with detailed information and useful features, and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for thanks to the smart layout and clarity. It’s a common mistake to cram a ton of menu options into the navigation bar, but this website has a few different menus to make it easy on the eyes. The use of icons makes the site feel modern and interesting. Perhaps the most impressive on the content side is the news category where updates are posted often and sorted into categories. There is also a jobs section that allows you to search the map for a location near you and browse the job listings to see what positions they’re looking to fill. There is a login screen, so it’s clear that you can set up an account to access other parts of this website. It’s a mobile-friendly website and the calls to action are clear. If anything, the website could use more photos of people in the space instead of just showing warehouse interiors and stock photography. The authority and SEO on this website needs the most work, but that’s not obvious to the everyday visitor. It will, however, impact the traffic and leads that convert through this website.

2. Praxair Chemical Plant, Carneys Point NJ – http://www.praxair.com/

Numerical Score: 75/100

Design Grade……… C

Features Grade……. C

Content Grade…….. D

Authority Grade…… F

This website is very well done, especially considering the type of business. There are many industrial companies in Salem County NJ and it cant be challenging to create an interest and compelling website for a company like this. Great job here though, using great imagery and creative written content. One line specifically caught our attention: “We are steeling the lead.” That’s an amusing pun to use as a header to explaining the company’s advances in metal production. This website is easy to navigate and there are two different menus and more links in the footer, instead of cramming everything onto one line. Some of the messaging is unclear and they could better prioritize the order of the sections on the homepage. Certain sections are hard to process because there are too many elements pulling the visitor in different directions. There should be a clear journey through the website, according to what the visitor is looking for. This could be tightened up to make the user experience better. The news page has long form posts to update and educate people, but the posts are not formatted or written to be SEO-friendly. So they’re doing a lot of work with minimum return on investment. All in all, this is one of the best website in Salem County but there are some clear opportunities for improvement from a user experience and a search engine ranking and authority standpoint.

3. Laura’s Glen Apartments, Pennsville NJ – http://www.laurasglen.com/

Numerical Score: 70/100

Design Grade……… D

Features Grade……. B

Content Grade…….. C

Authority Grade…… F

This website nearly missed the list for best websites in Salem County. The grades were nearly tied with a couple of others, but this one pulled slightly ahead for its overall design. The photos and fonts and colors work beautifully with the branding. The written content is on the light end but what they do have is well done. Things get very crowded in the lower half of the homepage and they should seriously consider using what the industry calls more “white space” to make things stand out better. It’s possible that this site was built on a template with a limited number of pages available but the result is way too much crowding. From a useful features standpoint, the Floor plans page is the most valuable. Unfortunately, there aren’t any photos of the actual apartments or spaces. The photos seem to all be all stock images or graphic illustrations. There is an application link but the application is printable. It would be much better and more convenient to digitize this and collect the information through the website. There is a way to pay the rent and request maintenance online, but it’s an off-site feature. This should be easy enough to develop on the business’ website and it would be much better to have everything in one place. Lots of room for improvement, but this website isn’t a bad start.

High Potential Examples of Salem County NJ Website Design

There are a lot of websites that kind of fall in the middle. They’re not good, but they could be worse. Most of these “high potential” website design examples are placed in this category because they scored low on our evaluation, but the businesses themselves are so great that we see a huge opportunity for success. Here are the local websites we found that don’t stand on their own yet, but could be absolutely killer if they made the right moves.

4. Camp Edge, Alloway NJ – https://campedge.org/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade C

The media on this website is top notch! The photos are high quality and scaled up, showing happy kids having fun and taking on challenges and adventures in the great outdoors. There’s a great video about the camp and the instructors explain what the format and environment is like for the kids. It’s a great media gallery for a summer camp.
The website design is clean and cheery. It’s interesting, it’s mobile friendly, and easy to navigate. There are some major things missing though, such as a contact page and background information on the people running the camp.
A blog is set up but it’s not maintained well. There seems to be one test post but nothing has been developed. It’s a great step for this website to create a content marketing strategy. They need to create a posting schedule and write keyword-optimized content that informs and compels a visitor.
The calls to action are not clear. That’s another opportunity to improve this site. A clear call to action should be at the top and bottom of each page- especially the homepage- to guide a visitor through the site and drive them to action before they leave

5. New Life Worship Center, Pennsville NJ – http://www.newlifepennsville.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade C

The website design is great- very modern and easy to use. Great layout and meets all the criteria for a B level site. The problem with this site is that the content, features, and authority grade are very low.
Several pages are completely blank. Either this website is unfinished, or someone was careless and didn’t realize that pages were launched without any content.
The photos are good and the presentation is good. It would be better to see people filling the seats instead of showing large, empty church on the homepage, but overall the photos are decent.
Some attempt has been made to post updates and news, but it’s a strange format. It’s not a blog, and it’s not a social media feed. It’s a webpage that’s updated with new bits of info always placed at the top of the list. That’s not a strategic approach and won’t help the website to rank higher in Google.

6. The J Boys, Carney’s Point NJ – https://www.thejboys.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade C

The video on the homepage is great. Professional quality, to the point, and short and sweet. Well done.
The photos on the site are very good and they showcase the work beautifully. The presentation of the photos doesn’t do them justice. They’re small and stacked up with inconsistent dimensions. These photos should be scaled way up and used sparingly- Just one or two to a page.
Minor details like margins and spacing are holding back the written content. There isn’t enough content on this site and it doesn’t seem to be keyword optimized.
The Right To Know page is a strange part of the website. It’s not clear how the chemicals listed could impact the property. There aren’t any links or additional information provided on these chemicals, so it sends a red flag that may or may not be justified.

7. Zane Western Apparel, Pilesgrove NJ – http://www.zanewestern.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade D

At first glance, this looks like an online store. It’s easy to miss that fact that there’s a physical store located just down the street from the famous Cowtown Farmers Market. This is a missed opportunity and the problem lies mostly in the messaging and the visuals.
The ecommerce element is well done. It’s clear that online sales was the primary focus for this website design. It’s a shame that the rest of the website isn’t equally impressive, such as the About Page and location-specific information.
The contact page is unacceptable. There’s an email form and absolutely nothing else. The address and directions and phone number should all be on the contact page without a question.
The authority grade for this website is obscenely low. It could be the lack of optimized written content paired with the outdated website design. This site isn’t mobile friendly so that automatically sabotages the ranking and limits the traffic.

8. Cowtown Farmer’s Market, Pilesgrove NJ – http://www.cowtownfarmersmarket.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade D

The website has all of the basic information and it’s easy to use, but it’s nothing special. The design and visuals and mediocre.
There is a blog, but it’s used for posting recipes. It would be much more useful to post about the famers market itself and the rodeo, and build in keywords to help the website rank better.
Even though the rodeo is a huge draw, there is hardly any information on the website about it. You can click to buy tickets but it takes you to another website altogether. That’s not a strategic approach.
Most of the content is geared towards vendors, and there are plenty of resources there including an application form and policies for vendors.

9. Southgate Health Care Center, Carneys Point NJ – http://www.southgatehc.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade D

The layout of this website is not helping! The colors and fonts and spacing really hurt the image of this business right off the bat. It’s mobile friendly though, so that’s a helpful perk.
Photos, especially those on the gallery page, are very impressive and they deserve to be showcased.
The calls to action are clear, especially those at the bottom of the homepage.
While there is some written content to explain the services and environment, there could be a lot more in terms of education and information. All medical/health websites have a responsibility to educate visitors and show their authority and expertise in the field. This website doesn’t have those resources.

10. Auburn Road Vineyard and Winery, Pilesgrove NJ – http://www.auburnroadvineyards.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade D

The website design is mediocre. It doesn’t match the brand. The background and fonts make it look very generic. Although the website looks like a template, and it’s on the outdated side, the site is mobile friendly- so that’s a big plus!
The navigation bar isn’t bad at all. Some thought out the site, but the execution is where it all kind of falls flat. They should take all of this content and revamp the site to make it more compelling.
The photos aren’t very good. So many shadows, oversaturated, and not high resolution. A professional photographer would make a big difference for this company. The vineyard would look much more upscale and alluring with better photography.
Content marketing is huge, and this site is on the right track with the blog. Unfortunately, there is only one post there and it’s over a year old.

11. Cowtown Cowboy Outfitters, Pilesgrove NJ – http://cowtowncowboy.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade D

This is a missed opportunity for the store, because the messaging and layout is all focused on shopping online. At first glance, this looks like an online store. It’s easy to miss that fact that there’s a physical store located just down the street from the famous Cowtown Farmers Market.
On the ecommerce side, this website is well done. It’s clear that the online store was the primary focus for this website design. It’s a shame that more care wasn’t given to the other areas such as community events and getting people to visit the physical store.
It’s a mobile friendly website which is important, and a common mistake that websites are making in Salem County.
There are additional services and community events on the website but the page links are hidden in the footer section. Most visitors probably don’t notice any of these extra features. The best thing this website could do to improve is start a blog where the events and products and rodeo-relevant happenings are posted, using search engine optimization and keyword targeting. That would help to improve the authority and tanking dramatically, if done the right way.

12. Deepwater Diner, Carneys Point NJ – http://deepwaterdiner.com/

Salem County NJ Website Design Grade D

Judging from the homepage, this website didn’t look too bad. It’s mobile friendly and there’s a clean layout. There is a scrolling slideshow of images, a clean layout, and 3 modern looking graphics. But beyond the homepage, everything else about the website is terrible.
The food menus are terrible… nothing is digital. Overcrowded paper menus were scanned in and placed on the pages. This is the worst way to show a restaurant menu online.
The photos on the homepage aren’t bad at all. They might be stock images, or maybe they’re original. There aren’t any photos of the restaurant or the staff, or most importantly of happy people eating scrumptious-looking food. It missed the mark, totally.
This website is virtually invisible to Google and Bing and other search engines. It’s practically all images, and no written content. The traffic numbers are probably very low.

Worst Examples of Salem County NJ Website Design

Choosing the worst websites in a town like this is painful. As a web designer in the Salem County NJ area, I’ve seen these types of mistakes over and over that are wreaking havoc on these businesses and killing their SERP ranking. Some of these websites are so terrible that I’m assuming they came free and ready-made with a domain purchase. The mistakes are numerous and easy to avoid if you’re a web designer who know’s what you’re doing.