As of today, your website design is one of the most important components of your digital brand identity. For this reason, your website must be design right. Many businesses are willing to pay top dollar for new and innovative website designs while others are struggling to understand why.
Creating a website nowadays is not as complicated as it was 10 years ago. There are plenty of website builder platforms that offer easy and elementary solutions for businesses and individuals who are willing to build their websites by themselves. Individuals can build websites on these platforms without even the knowledge of code.
These website builder platforms are an easy and simple way out for many small businesses. Custom code and web design can be expensive. Although a self-built website can seem cost-efficient in the beginning, without proper knowledge, a bad web design can cost your business a very expensive price in the end.
In this article, we will cover the importance of web design and the direct influence it has on your business. If you are looking to build a website for your business or redesign your existing one, this article is made for you.
Treat your website as a financial asset
There is a misunderstanding many businesses make. Many businesses treat a website as an expense rather than an asset. While it is true that building a successful website and advertising campaign will require either a substantial investment of time or money, it is more of an investment of an asset than an expense.
Should you be treating your website as an asset? If you are looking to generate any kind of income, cash flow, or data from your website – you should treat it as an asset. The answer is clear for some of us, but sadly for many businesses out there, the reality is different.
We believe that a website can and should become the most valuable asset your company owns. The reason is simple: a good website contributes and adds to your organization's values. It not only needs to generate money, but it should also save your business time by automating repeating works and collecting important data.
To identify your website as an asset, you need to know how to measure the costs of your website and the potential financial benefit it can drive to your business.
As the majority of businesses use their website as an online traffic engine that helps them attract and grow their customer base or audience, the demand for a professional web design is growing.
For you to understand the importance of web design, we have put together the main benefits every business owner should know before investing in a web design. How is it going to help your business? How is it going to affect your brand? And why web design deserves much more attention than you are currently giving to it.
The first impression might be the only impression
In modern business psychology, the first impression is the event or the moment when a user first encounters your business and forms a mental image of your brand. It is difficult to measure how good a website's first impression is. It varies for every individual who visits the site, but some tools can help.
Your future customers are making snap judgments daily. According to The Guardian, first impressions only take one-tenth of a second. Great visual designs are essential for capturing the event of the first impression.
It takes only 0.05 seconds for your users to form an opinion about your business, and only one click to leave it and go to your competitor's instead.
Nowadays, users have way higher expectations of the websites they come across. People have a fixed idea of how a trusted and reliable website looks. When it comes to web design, staying too much within the lines and boundaries may make a website appear boring and unoriginal.
But if the design strays too much from the norm, it may become hard for the masses to accept. Building an extraordinary website based on specific design principles is not a simple task.
Professional web design prioritizes making a positive impact on a user’s first impression. If your business website does not fit the latest internet standards, new users will most likely have a negative impression of your brand. A good web design will help you keep your visitors on the website, rather than leaving for a competitor.
Gain customer’s trust through web design
When it comes to business relationships, lack of trust is a deal-breaker. Understanding trust is crucial to any business. It plays a key role in your customer's purchasing behavior.
While web design trends are constantly changing, a trust-focused design remains the same. All website should stick to the following 4 credibility factors:
- Design quality – Your website design must appear legitimate and professional regardless of your industry. Your website should be easy to navigate and stick to the color scheme of its brand manuals. Website organization or sitemap has a huge impact on how your customers are going to discover your content. If your website has hundreds of web pages, remember that your customer only has one screen. They can only access one page at a time. Make sure your customer can easily access and navigate to the page they are looking for. This includes naming your buttons and categories with easy to read fonts and a vocabulary your audience is familiar with.
- Transparency – Would you trust somebody who is hiding something from you? Probably not. When it comes to websites, people appreciate upfront information and disclosures. Transparency converts better. An example is using login walls and gated content. The uses of this depend on the nature of your business. But as a business owner, you should not ask too much from your customers like signing up or paying for additional access before you have provided real value to your users. Remember, if you are limiting your users to access information, they might find it on your competition's website.
- Stay Updated – Users tend to trust websites that provide helpful and reliable information. Additionally, users favor more updated and accurate content. Support your idea with related images, videos, and blogs. Help your audience learn more about your business and help them solve their related problems. Building trust through updated content creation is probably one of the best marketing strategies you’ll find.
- Stay Connected – Your audience should have the ability to research your name, and find out you’re not only active in your website, but you are active in the world. You should always stay active on your social media channels and third-party related websites such as reviews, blogs,etc. The linking between the social media channels and other websites will not only help you grow your online presence but also will improve your overall search engine ranking. Focus on collaborations, take care of your reviews, and get listed in every place your competitor is!
The 4 principles above are mandatory to build trust for every website regardless of your industry. Do not ignore any of those principles and stay consistent with trust-building. It will pay off.
Web design is crucial for SEO success
Some assume that web design is only about graphics, frames, buttons, colors, and fonts. Web design is that, but also a whole lot more. Your business must understand that without implementing web design to the search engine requirements, your website will struggle with SEO.
Recently, Google released information on its new algorithm ‘’Page Experience’’. The search engine giant will now pay more attention to how easy-to-use your website is. In other words, the Google search engine wants you to pay more attention to UX design (User experience design) of your website.
Other web design principles you should consider as for your SEO: Make sure all your pages are mobile-friendly, improve readability - make sure your website is easy to read, Improve your page loading speed and structure correctly your content & sitemaps.
The web design principles mentioned above have a major factor in SEO ranking. If your website is not ranking well on Google, your web design may be the reason. Pay attention to small details and always search for opportunities to improve.
How web design can increase your website’s conversion rate?
Experienced web designers and developers prefer to improve conversion rates rather than generate higher traffic - simply because it is easier to double your business by doubling conversion rate, than doubling website traffic. Several design principles can not only improve the user's experience but also increase your business's conversion rate drastically as well.
- Make your web design is responsive and think about a mobile-first approach. The majority of internet users are using mobile devices to explore the internet. Pay extra attention to the mobile experience are you offering to users.
- Add reviews and testimonials of your previous customers. Today, many consumers want to read other people's opinions and reviews on your business/product before purchasing. Show your biggest success stories first. Make your brand shine.
- Do not wait for your customers to make a decision. Help them take action with CTA buttons. Call to action buttons is crucial for navigation and conversion. Whether you are looking to grow an email list, sell more products, or generate leads, CTA buttons can help!
- Say it big and keep it simple. Over 75% of users say that the most important factor in web design is its simplicity. A good web design thinks about the user first! Make sure your client can always find what he wants and does not get overwhelmed on your site.
- Stick to your brand manuals, and if you don’t have one – get one. A brand manual is a collection of rules or visual guidelines related to your brand identity. It includes consistency in colors, fonts sizes, typography, iconography, texture, and more. Sticking to a brand manual will make your website more coherent and visually appealing.
The web design principles mentioned above can help your website increase in e-loyalty, customer trust, and your overall conversion rate.
How is your competitor treating web design?
When was the last time you dedicated some time to research your competitor’s website? If this is not part of your routine, we suggest you look up your biggest competitors and check out their web design and online marketing strategies.
Throughout advanced research, you will be able to identify their key strengths and weaknesses. The first step is to verify who your competitors are. The easiest way to find out is to check the main keywords you compete with and run a google search.
For example, a cleaning company can search keywords like "office cleaning," or more specifically, "office cleaning in London." This search will find the top 10-25 results on the search engine. Dive in and see what your top competitors are doing.
How is their web design? Do they post content constantly? Do they have several bold ‘Call To Action’ buttons? Is their message simple and clear? Do they have active social media channels?
Now take a look back at your website. Do not be ashamed to find out that you are behind. Take it as an opportunity!
Whether your competitor is posting more content or has a better website design, know that you can also improve and become better. Find your competitor's weakness and turn them into your strengths.
Vyntex will help you design and develop the website your business needs
As you know by now, web design plays a major role in the online success of your business. Vyntex can help you make the website you always wanted.
As a full-service digital marketing company, we specialize in custom website design. If you are looking for a company that can help you build and grow your business online, contact us today and get a free custom quote.
Wondering how we have helped others? Check out our case studies. See what we offered to our clients who chose our services, how we researched the challenges they were facing, the solutions we came up with, and the outcomes they received.
If you have any questions, we look forward to answering them.
