With the new year approaching, we’re starting to explore upcoming web design trends for 2021. Take a moment to think about the websites you’ve seen over the last few months. There are probably a handful that stuck out to you based on their user-friendly interface and appealing layout. The same goes for the websites with a terrible user experience — they stick with you and might even leave you with a negative feeling about the brand.

Whether you intend to sell products online or are simply looking for ways to build your small business on the local level, small businesses today need to focus on local SEO now more than ever. The bottom line is this, making your presence felt online is the only way to get ahead of your competition and grow your small business.Think about it, no one really uses the yellow pages anymore. Most people simply turn to Google or their favorite search engine, to help them find local businesses for their shopping needs. If you aren’t investing in local SEO, they are more likely to find your competition than they are to find you.

Landing pages are a great way to not only increase your leads and sales but overall help you build and grow your online business. So if you’re going to be planning on using landing pages, then you better be sure that you know how to use them effectively.

Designs systems are sweeping the tech world right now, with advocates like Trello, Atlassian, Stacks, and Shopify (Check out a complete list of companies with links to their design systems here at Adele). This wave of popularity explains why 69% of designers surveyed in the 2017–2018 Enterprise UX Industry Report said that they either already had a design system or were currently planning on building one.