Peformance Ranking of the Best Web Design Companies in Ghana

Which web design companies in Ghana have the fasted websites? How well-optimised are the websites of Ghana’s best web designers? Which web designers in Ghana put in the effort to optimize their websites? This article analyses and ranks the best web designers in Ghana by the speed of their websites.

Why is website speed important?

Is it a red flag for a web design company to have a badly optimised website? We answer that at the end of this article, but website speed optimization is crucial for your business website for the following reasons:

1. User Experience: A fast-loading website enhances user experience. Visitors are more likely to stay on a site that loads quickly, reducing bounce rates. Slow websites can frustrate users and lead to abandonment, negatively impacting customer satisfaction.
2. Conversion Rates: Speed directly influences conversion rates. Studies have shown that even a one-second delay in page load time can result in significant drops in conversions. A faster site encourages users to complete actions like purchases, sign-ups, or inquiries.
3. Search Engine Ranking: Search engines like Google consider website speed as a ranking factor. A faster website can improve search engine rankings, leading to higher visibility in search results and increased organic traffic.
4. Mobile Performance: With the rise of mobile browsing, optimizing site speed for mobile users is essential. Mobile users expect fast load times, and a slow mobile site can lead to higher bounce rates and lower engagement.
5. SEO Benefits: Beyond rankings, a fast website can lead to better crawl efficiency by search engines, which helps with indexing and can improve overall site authority.
6. Competitive Advantage: In a crowded market, a fast website can be a differentiator. Businesses that prioritize speed can gain an edge over competitors who neglect this aspect.
7. Reduced Operational Costs: Optimizing website speed can lead to reduced bandwidth and server costs. Faster sites often require less server resource usage, which can save money in hosting fees.
8. Improved Customer Retention: Customers are more likely to return to a website that offers a seamless experience. A fast site can help build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
9. Enhanced Brand Reputation: A slow website can damage a brand’s reputation. Businesses are often judged by their online presence, and a slow site can create a negative impression of the brand.
10. Analytics and Data: A faster website can lead to more accurate data collection and analysis. Slow load times can distort analytics by affecting user behaviour tracking, leading to misinformed business decisions.

The Best Web Design Companies in Ghana

So let’s get started on our ranking of Ghana’s top web designers with the most well-optimised websites. The rankings used the websites’ performance on Google Pagespeed Insights. We analyse what resulted in the site’s performance and some recommendations for speeding up the website.

We plan to keep monitoring the performance of sites that make it to the first and second page of Google Search for “Web Design Companies in Ghana”, and we’ll update this ranking anytime a site’s performance changes, of if we get a new wonderkid on the black.

So let’s dive in, here are the most well-optimised web designer websites in Ghana:

1. WopeDigital

Though not ranked number one in Google, WopeDigital website is the most well-optimised website among all the best web design companies in Ghana. You can easily see from the performance details below that their decision to not use slides and cut down on animation to the barest minimum has paid off.

Here is our assessment of WopeDigital’s website based on performance on Google Pagespeed Insights.

WopeDigital’s website performs well, scoring high across most metrics but with some room for improvement:

1. Performance (Score: 93): The site generally performs well, with First Contentful Paint (FCP) at 1.8 seconds and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) at 2.7 seconds. However, it fails Core Web Vitals due to a slightly high LCP on mobile (3.1 seconds). Reducing render-blocking resources and deferring offscreen images could further boost performance.
2. Accessibility (Score: 98): The site has minor accessibility issues, such as non-sequential heading levels and redundant alt text in images. Fixing these would improve usability for assistive technology users.
3. Best Practices (Score: 100): The site adheres fully to best practices with no issues, showcasing strong security and performance standards.
4. SEO (Score: 100): SEO is optimized effectively, with valid structured data and no major areas for improvement.

Recommendations for WopeDigital

• Optimize LCP by deferring non-essential resources and minimizing render-blocking elements.
• Improve Accessibility by organizing heading structure and refining alt text for clearer screen reader navigation.

WopeDigital’s website is well-optimized overall, with minor adjustments needed for top-tier performance and accessibility.

2. EnspireFX Websites

StellerHost sister company EnspireFX Websites comes second on this ranking of the most well-optimised web design company websites ranking. Clearly, the developers at EnspireFX were not ready to sacrifice their home page hero slider for better performance stats than that of Wopedigital.

Take a look at our assessment of the nspireFX’s website based on performance on Google Pagespeed Insights.

The performance of EnspireFX Websites’ site shows strong overall results, with room for improvement in some areas:

1. Performance (92): The site performs well, with a First Contentful Paint (FCP) of 1.5 seconds and a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 2.8 seconds. The Total Blocking Time (TBT) is low at 200 ms, and there is no Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), indicating stable content during loading. To further enhance performance, consider serving images in next-gen formats and reducing unused CSS.
2. Accessibility (94): While the site scores high in accessibility, issues include insufficient contrast ratios between text and background colours, and a non-sequential order of heading elements. Addressing these concerns will improve usability for individuals using assistive technologies.
3. Best Practices (100): The site excels in best practices, effectively mitigating risks associated with security and ensuring a solid foundation for user safety. All audits in this category passed successfully.
4. SEO (92): SEO practices are generally good; however, one link lacks descriptive text, which could hinder search engine optimization. Improving link descriptions and ensuring all HTML is well-structured for crawlers can enhance visibility in search results.

Recommendations Summary

To maintain and improve the site’s performance, focus on optimizing image formats and minimizing unused resources. Additionally, addressing accessibility issues and refining SEO elements will contribute to a better user experience and higher search engine rankings. Overall, the site is in good shape, showcasing effective design and functionality.

3. Kava Ghana

The highest-ranking web design company website in Ghana is actually not the best-performing website in the industry. That goes to show that ranking number one on Google goes beyond website speed optimisation. Kava Ghana and WopeDigital domains were first indexed by Google more than 10 years ago.

Here is our assessment of Kava Ghana website based on performance on Google Pagespeed Insights.

The Kava Ghana website shows several key areas for improvement to enhance performance, accessibility, and SEO:

1. Performance (Score: 34): The site loads slowly, with First Contentful Paint (FCP) at 1.2 seconds but a delayed Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 12.4 seconds. Total Blocking Time (TBT) is high at 3,350 ms, mainly due to extensive JavaScript (6.1 seconds) and third-party code blocking (2,510 ms). Optimizing JavaScript, reducing main-thread work, and serving images in next-gen formats can help improve load speeds.
2. Accessibility (Score: 84): Accessibility issues include insufficient colour contrast, missing accessible names for buttons and links, and improper heading structure. These elements can impact the experience of users relying on screen readers and other assistive technologies.
3. Best Practices (Score: 100): The site adheres well to best practices, though minor improvements in JavaScript could benefit overall performance.
4. SEO (Score: 85): For SEO, issues include missing descriptive text on links (8 found) and non-crawlable links, which hinder indexing and search visibility. Adding descriptive text and ensuring all links are crawlable would improve discoverability.

Recommendations for Kava Ghana

• Optimize JavaScript and reduce main-thread tasks to lower TBT.
• Optimize images by setting explicit dimensions and using modern formats.
• Improve Accessibility by addressing contrast, adding ARIA labels, and improving heading structure.
• Enhance SEO by adding descriptive link text and ensuring all links are accessible for crawlers.

Addressing these areas will help speed up the site and improve usability and search performance.

4. Ghana Web Designs

Ghana Web Designs teaches you a great lesson on how to choose a company name, and domain name for that matter. The ghanawebdesigns.com website was ranked number one in Google searches until recently when it was outranked by Kava Ghana.

Below is our assessment of the company’s website based on performance on Google Pagespeed Insights.

The performance report for GhanaWebDesigns.com reveals several areas needing optimization to improve user experience and search visibility:

1. Performance (Score: 20): The site has slow loading times, with a First Contentful Paint (FCP) of 5.1 seconds and a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 10.2 seconds. The Total Blocking Time (TBT) is high at 1,970 ms, and the Speed Index is 9.6 seconds. Heavy JavaScript (7.8 seconds) and main-thread work (17.9 seconds) are major contributors to these delays. Optimizing JavaScript and CSS, minimizing main-thread work, and deferring offscreen images could help reduce load times significantly.
2. Accessibility (Score: 70): Issues include low contrast ratios, lack of accessible names for buttons and links, non-sequential headings, and reliance on colour alone to distinguish links. These factors reduce usability for assistive technology users and could benefit from improvements in semantic HTML and ARIA labels.
3. Best Practices (Score: 93): Most best practices are followed, though there are minor issues like incorrect image aspect ratios and some browser console errors. Addressing these can improve compatibility and maintain code cleanliness.
4. SEO (Score: 85): The site has SEO improvements to make, such as adding descriptive text to links (6 links are missing this) and ensuring all links are crawlable to enhance indexing. Optimizing these elements will improve the site’s discoverability by search engines.

Recommendations for Ghana Web Designs

• Reduce JavaScript and CSS to minimize main-thread workload.
• Optimize images by using next-gen formats, setting explicit dimensions, and compressing them.
• Improve Accessibility by ensuring better contrast and adding descriptive names for interactive elements.
• Enhance SEO by adding descriptive link text and ensuring all links are crawlable.

Addressing these areas will boost performance, accessibility, and SEO, enhancing user experience and site visibility.

5. JobHouse Ghana

JobHouse Ghana is a web design company in Ghana and also an HR recruitment agency. They run one of Ghana’s largest jobs board on the same website jobhouse.com.gh.

Below is our assessment of the company’s website based on performance on Google Pagespeed Insights.

JobHouse Ghana’s website has several performance challenges, impacting user experience and SEO:

1. Performance (No Score): The site fails Core Web Vitals due to very slow loading times. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) takes an extremely long 38.5 seconds, and First Contentful Paint (FCP) is 7.3 seconds. Heavy JavaScript and excessive main-thread work (32.3 seconds) are major contributors. Optimizing or deferring these resources, lazy-loading images, and reducing network payloads could significantly enhance performance.
2. Accessibility (Score: 70): Accessibility is limited, with missing button names, insufficient contrast, non-sequential headings, and unlabeled frames and links. Improving contrast, adding labels, and restructuring headings would aid assistive technologies.
3. Best Practices (Score: 71): Some issues include low-resolution images and console errors. Reducing third-party cookies and ensuring an effective Content Security Policy (CSP) can help improve overall security and best practices adherence.
4. SEO (Score: 85): Basic SEO checks are mostly covered, but some links lack descriptive text and are not crawlable, hindering search indexing. Adding descriptive link text and improving crawlability can boost visibility.

Recommendations for JobHouse Ghana

• Reduce Load Time by optimizing JavaScript and image resources.
• Improve Accessibility with proper labelling, contrast, and sequential headings.
• Enhance SEO by ensuring all links are crawlable and using descriptive link text.

These optimizations would provide a smoother, faster experience and improve accessibility, security, and SEO rankings for JobHouse Ghana’s website.

Web Design Company with Slow Website?

Now to our question, should it be a complete red flag for a web design company to have a badly speed-optimised website?

Yes, a badly speed-optimized website can be a significant red flag for a web design company for the following reasons:

1. Lack of Expertise: A web design company’s primary service is to create and optimize websites. If their own website is slow, it suggests they may lack the necessary skills or knowledge to implement effective speed optimization techniques.
2. Quality of Work: A slow website may indicate that the company does not prioritize quality in their projects. Potential clients might question whether the company can deliver high-performance sites for their clients when their own site is not performing well.
3. Attention to Detail: A poorly optimized website reflects a lack of attention to detail. Clients want to work with companies that take pride in their work, and a slow website may signal that the company is not thorough in their processes.
4. User Experience Concerns: A slow-loading website can deter potential clients from exploring the company’s services. If the company does not prioritize user experience on their site, they may not prioritize it for their clients’ sites either.
5. Negative Impact on Reputation: A web design company with a slow website may develop a negative reputation in the industry. Clients often rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, and a bad first impression can harm future business opportunities.
6. SEO Implications: If a web design company’s site is not optimized for speed, it may struggle with search engine rankings. This can affect their visibility and credibility, making it harder for potential clients to find them.
7. Inconsistent Messaging: A slow website contradicts the message that a web design company is trying to convey about being able to create high-quality, effective online solutions. This inconsistency can lead to distrust among potential clients.
8. Opportunity Cost: If the web design company cannot effectively optimize their own website, they may miss out on potential leads and business opportunities due to poor online visibility and user engagement.

While a single poor performance metric does not necessarily disqualify a company, consistently slow performance and a lack of optimization across their website should be seen as a serious concern. Potential clients should look for companies that demonstrate strong performance, effective optimization strategies, and a commitment to providing high-quality web solutions.