Above The Fold Award: The 33 Best Online Agency Websites of 2016

#22 Agency Website: Distilled

About Distilled

Distilled are a digital marketing agency providing creative, consultancy, PR, and advertising services.

Content rules
The Distilled team certainly know their content. We liked the website’s clear value proposition, snappy imagery and clean, uncomplicated copy.

Plotting a course
The traditional site structure is easy to follow, and some serious thought has been given to the journey to purchase and the role each page should play.

Visitor orientated
Running tools such as Optimizely and New Relic, which help webmasters track real user experience, the Distilled team have the metrics available to ensure the site meets the needs of every visitor.

Room for improvement?

Something’s missing
It’s a great site, and it scored well across the board, but there is nothing here that makes me wish it had got higher up the list – or even remember it once I’ve closed my browser.

What can we learn?

Personality counts
It’s important to tick all the boxes, sure, but if you want to be more than mediocre, a little creative pizzazz is required.

#21 Agency Website: Yola

About Yola

Award winning website building platform Yola offers services ranging from site templates to SEO reports and business directory listings.

Identify essential components
Understanding that users won’t buy and build websites from smartphones, the Yola team didn’t waste time optimizing for mobile (importance of mobile-responsiveness in this context was hotly debated). Instead, they installed a host of analytics and tracking tools to enhance the user experience and increase the website ROI.

The need for speed
Users don’t wait for slow-to-load sites. With a load time 60% faster than the average and a tiny 500KB page size, Yola is one of the fastest in our top 33.

Every question answered
The price tag (there’s a free option) might convince some to take the leap and simply try the service, but for those who are interested, there’s a ton of information available.

Room for improvement?

It’s all very unremarkable
A blue color scheme, a design we’ve seen a hundred times before, and nothing all that remarkable about it but it’s service. The Yola website is flat out boring.

What can we learn?

Know your audience
Tailoring website tools and performance to its audience, Yola focuses on optimizing the features that will make a difference to its users.

#20 Agency Website: Amp Agency

About Amp Agency

Full-service digital marketing and advertising agency.

Top marks for usability
Everything you need to know about Amp is well labeled and beautifully displayed exactly where you’d expect it to be, namely the menu bar hanging out at the top right-hand side of the page.

Personality helps
The copy on this site is a little too wordy and overwhelming to merit top marks in the content category, but the choice of graphics and scope of the content leave a lasting impression of the agency, its staff, and its ethos.

You’re being watched
Amp haven’t lost sight of the fact that their website has a purpose. They use masses of analytics and tracking tools to optimize engagement and maximize their conversion rate.

Room for improvement?

Have we met before?
There’s some great little creative touches scattered throughout this site, but I can’t say they impressed me enough to leave an impression, or detract from the fact that I’ve seen a hundred sites with a similar design.

What can we learn?

Be original
There’s so much scope to be creative and innovative in the marketing industry, let your imagination fly and come up with something new and memorable.

#19 Agency Website: VML

About VML

An international, full-service marketing agency.

Site design
Fast, sleek and easy to navigate, with a nice balance between copy and images, the VML site certainly looks the part, and scored well for navigability and design.

Selling themselves
VML was one of very few sites on our shortlist that actually used lead generation platforms to monitor visitor behavior. Lead Forensics, a tool that assesses which companies land on a site and their progress through it, means VML always know which organizations are in the market for their services.

Mobile ready
Another one that’s a bit heavy on the data, VML more than made up for it with speed and responsiveness. The image-heavy design works very well on a small smartphone screen and made navigating from a mobile device a breeze.

Room for improvement?

Copy. Just copy.
While VML are waxing lyrical about universal truths and fundamental human needs, visitors are wading through directionless copy looking for incentives to hire them.

What can we learn?

Always leave them wanting more
Some sites lost marks for a lack of information, and VML proves that too much information is just as bad. The best sites balance the need to introduce and sell their services with hints, invites, and calls to action that encourage visitors to reach out.

#18 Agency Website: Studio Thick

About Studio Thick

A digital marketing agency with a twist, Studio Thick combines design services with technology and operations solutions.

Stand out
No playing it safe for Studio Thick, this website is delivered in glorious technicolor and features a sleek design peppered with a bit of personality and humor (scroll your mouse over the team page if you want a giggle).

Access all areas
One of the leaders in the usability category, we were particularly impressed by the simplicity and easy navigability of the site. Contact information in the footer of each page means you’re only ever a click away from the team.

Tracking and analytics
With tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar, Studio Thick have all the insights to maximize lead generation, enhance the visitor experience, and optimize web ROI.

Room for improvement?

Let’s save some data for everyone else
This site loads at a decent pace, but boy does it guzzle data.

What can we learn?

Be colorful
Paint with all the colors of the rainbow and make sure your visitors don’t forget you.

#17 Agency Website: iProspect

About iProspect

A digital marketing agency, iProspect provide a range of services across SEO, PPC, and Analytics.

A website built for the brand
With good scores in both the design and content categories, iProspect’s website is a true extension of their brand. Understated animations follow you down the page, and current job vacancies are advertised alongside an introduction to the team leader. It’s all very personable.

Masters of content
There is a lot of content on this site, and it’s been carefully structured to deliver reams of information without overwhelming visitors. The site design follows a standard format, but this does mean that users can instinctively find specific information.

Crowd pleasers
Featuring a host of tracking and analytics tools, including HubSpot and Hotjar, iProspect have clearly invested in the user experience, collecting metrics on behavior, conversion, and searches to maximize the value of their site and optimize customer experience.

Room for improvement?

Technical configurations could use a very (minor) boost
Both PageSpeed and YSlow liked this site, with former doling out a 98% score and the latter landing on 80%.

What can we learn?

Content before design
While the design of this site is sleek and contemporary, the agency has followed a pretty standard structure, which allows them to deliver a large quality of content without impacting navigation.

#16 Agency Website: Emma

About Emma

Email marketing agency Emma provide solutions to help marketers personalize their direct mailing.

Communication is key
Emma scored highly for customer-centricity, due in no small part to the persistent, but logically placed calls to action appearing throughout the site. It’s a really effective way to encourage communication with visitors.

Customer focused
The Emma site makes it easy for visitors to identify exactly which services they offer. The usability touch that we particularly enjoyed was the fact that they separated some services out by industry — education, nonprofit, etc.

Well structured
The site is structured to appeal to prospects and encourage sales. The homepage features minimal copy compared to similar agencies and is geared towards upper funnel prospects. Delve deeper into the site, though, and you’ll find content to encourage a sale at the middle and lower levels as well.

Room for improvement?

Tell me what you’re about
This is a versatile company that offers tools and services, but you wouldn’t immediately know it from their site. The service pages seem to play second fiddle on a hectic homepage and the images are sometimes overbearing – there’s sometimes insufficient copy to fully grasp what you’re learning about.

What can we learn?

Your website is an extension of your brand
Your website is one of your most valuable resources. It is an introduction to your brand and business; it should be representative of both.

#15 Agency Website: Social Driver

About Social Driver

Social Driver is an award-winning, full-service agency.
A technological triumph
A favorite of both PageSpeed and Yslow, Social Driver was a big hitter in the technology category. One of the fastest loading sites, it delivers almost instantly. Drop off rate? What drop-off rate?

A touch of creativity
Different colors! OK, two, but after all that blue, I appreciated the change. The site scored well on design, mixing a traditional structure (multi-page, menu bar in header) with some creative additions.

The audience is always right
Providing visitors with the information they want is important and Social Driver use powerful tracking and analytics platforms, including Google Analytics and Hotjar, to assess behavior and deliver content that meets the needs of their audience.

Room for improvement?

A little crowded for mobile
Fast, smart and functional, Social Driver earned its spot on our list. There’s really not much we can fault these guys on, but we couldn’t help noticing the sheer volume of the content on some pages meant lots of thumb action when surfing from a smartphone.

What can we learn?

Functional sites win the day
Don’t lose sight of the role your website has to play in your business. It’s there to generate sales leads and engagement metrics, not impress the neighbors.

#14 Agency Website: J.W.T (Amsterdam)

About J. Walter Thompson (Amsterdam)

J. Walter Thompson is an international firm providing services in advertising, design and all things brand development, but it’s the Amsterdam office’s website that stands out.

Top notch content
There’s no mistaking this agency for anyone else; they have a distinct look, voice, and style. No stereotypes or half-baked idioms here, the copy is original, engaging and not afraid to be funny (well, humorous). Content how it should be.

The wow factor
More than one page features an animated vista of a future galaxy, complete with a fleet of space ships. The site design’s pretty slick too, and the content is well structured, but it’s creative flair and individuality that won JWT the top spot on our list.

Faster than a speeding ticket
Despite graphics to rival Independence Day (the first one, but still), the J.W. Thompson Amsterdam website is ridiculously fast. Mobile users will be pleased to hear it goes easy on the data too, and scales beautifully to any size screen. Full marks to the tech guys.

Room for improvement?

Analytics leave something to be desired
Since they enable webmasters to optimize their site for visitor experience, analytics and tracking are major measures of our customer-centricity score. We were a little surprised to see J.W.T Amsterdam weren’t even using easy-to-access tools like Google Analytics.

What can we learn?

Creativity is priceless
This agency clearly had a hell of a budget for the website, and it shows. But what really makes them stand out is their originality and creative flair.

#13 Agency Website: Landor

About Landor

Brand specialists Landor provide strategic, content and advertising services to international brands.

Bold and beautiful
A lot of thought has gone into the content and design of the Landor site. It caters to prospects at every stage of the journey to purchase, the depth of the content is incredibly well judged, and the design is fast, sleek, and engaging.

International appeal
Landor was a high hitter in our usability category and was the only one of the international agencies to embed a multi-language feature.

Expert insights on visitors
The Landor team rely on analytics and tracking tools such as Segment.io and NewRelic to provide metrics on engagement and behavior, helping them optimize content and understand the journey to purchase.

Something’s missing…

What, no flying space ships?
It’s an excellent site, and it scored well across the board, but a lack of creative wizardry meant Landor missed out on the top spot.

What can we learn?

Functional is sexy
Interactive Media Award winners 2015, the Landor site is a great example of a beautiful design that fulfills a purpose, performs well, and still ticks the style boxes.

#12 Agency Website: Moz

About Moz

Innovative marketing agency Moz provide search and content marketing resources, metrics, and support.

Built for users
This website has a veritable feast of tracking and analytics software buzzing away in the background. Optimizely provides resources to optimize and personalize the experience of each visitor while Quantcast Measurement allows open access to tracking data. A nice touch for an agency that’s big on transparency.

Tailoring the user experience
Those boffins at Moz have put some serious thought into who uses their site and why (proving why tracking and analytics are important). The layout is effective, and there’s a well-lit path to follow from the homepage.

Speedy and responsive
From a purely technical standpoint, Moz was up there with the best of them. The site is super fast, mobile-friendly, and responds instantly to a re-sized browser. We couldn’t fault it.

Room for improvement?

So. Much. Blue
How many marketing agencies opted for safe, boring blue color schemes? It’s basically the internet version of vanilla. Don’t believe me? Think about where you’ve seen it before; Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Walmart, Bank of America…

What can we learn?

Focus on your customers
User-friendly, responsive sites might lack the wow factor, but there’s no doubting that they get the job done. Of course, a little wow factor now and then never hurt anyone.