The businesses and any brand or company extending their services online is not news to a lot of us. It is already expected due to the prolonged exposure to the internet during the years of being stagnant within one’s own homes also contributed to most people’s increasing dependence on the internet. It is only natural for brands or companies to adapt to people’s needs. So as important as their businesses are, their online presence also holds enough power to be a priority.
As more and more companies continue to spend huge amounts of money to ensure the quality of their website design, it is also necessary to understand why they are more than willing to consume good money when the whole functionality of a website is supposedly much more important than how it looks.
Spoiler alert: That is not the case anymore nowadays!
Why is Web Design Important?
To not put any attention to the visual representation of websites is now considered to be an ingredient for losing potential customers. As much as the content matters in a company’s website, the way it is designed is also a recipe either to success or to their loss.
So why exactly is web design important? According to Web Design Kingston, there are 10 benefits:
- Creating a good first impression
A website’s design is, unfortunately for some, the basis of most people regarding their first impression for a brand or company. So it really requires a lot of planning as if it was one of the businesses’ content. Web designers are around to help companies and businesses navigate through this and earn them positive feedback after taking a look at their perfectly-designed official website.
- Improving a business’ SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s visibility on search engines’ results page. This is highly important as a part of website building because it would make the websites pop-up organically and make the site be part of the top search results. A good website design is curated perfectly well to fit into this process and will most likely improve the reach the website or the business would achieve. Higher customer retention rates would also be achieved when SEOs are included in the lists of focus by the web designer.
- Sets an expectation for customer service
As the website creates the first impression for the business, it could also provide the audience the idea on how the company and its people would be treating their customers. It should emanate a welcoming vibe that will surely come across through the design and make other people feel that certain kind of warmth as if walking into a safe space.
If the customer ends up not feeling this way about your website or even getting intimidated, they might leave and move on to a different site. This does not necessarily mean it has to conform to a different design that would not really connect with the business. It could just be a modernized look that is not too heavy on the eyes, yet shows all the customer needs to know.
As long as it looks clean, inviting and is well maintained, it will surely attract a lot of people. Outdated websites would also lessen the quality of the business to the customers’ eyes and most probably give a bad impression. As good website design would totally control how people would look at the business in itself and will increase customer retention.
- Improved User Experience
User Experience is a highly significant aspect of web design as it determines the way users would react depending on how the business would reach out through the website. Emotional connection matters. But how will it happen if there is the challenge of having the barriers in a virtual setting? Use emotional words. This could reach out to the audience the way you intend to.
The graphics decided to be placed in a website could also be another aspect that would evoke that connection among the users. Adding to this would be the sense of unity in the design of a website’s layout, text, and any other interactive elements such as buttons and navigation would garner unique experience from the users. Never ignore any user feedback and act on it when necessary. This ensures efficiency and satisfaction towards the customers.
- Builds actual trust with the audience
Always remember: the more trust users or simply visitors would have towards a website site, the easier a business can build a connection, extend their business, and convert them into potential customers or clients. Trust is really important, especially when customers would be availing services or simply just looking through availing services.
A good and well maintained website design would be less likely to earn negative reactions from visitors and better, keep them engaged as they navigate themselves through the site. A well-kept and professionally-looking website can strengthen a website’s credibility as well as a potential customer’s trust in its services.
- Maintains well against the competition
Aside from having a good website in order to maintain a good user experience, it could also highlight a business against their competitors. As there are a lot of businesses who have already extended their reach on social media, competition is greater than ever and businesses need to have something that sets them apart.
As mentioned, SEOs are more likely to show websites that fit under their category first before others. Ranking first or high through a business’ website would help generate the leads a website would be having a good web design will help improve a business’ online presence. It also helps to ensure that the website has fast loading time and good internal structure. All these tips would help maintain or even surpass the competition.
- Provides brand consistency
Generating leads would also stem from good brand reputation from your business. As said in the last points, earning a good impression is really important in a business. Highlighting the brand in a website design would provide the idea that there is focus on the business. Keeping the same energy in all of the pages included would strengthen this ideal and will definitely bring that thought together. It could also incite familiarity of the business, the brand, and the services being offered towards the customers and potential leads.
- Puts focus on responsiveness
Quick loading time and responsiveness of the website would definitely earn a great impression among its users. A good design for a website usually is one that listens and puts focus on what their potential customers might want to experience while going through their offered services. It should also be guaranteed that the website for businesses should not take longer to load despite the slow internet connection. If a website takes a long time to load, businesses might not only lose its visitors but also its potential leads.
- Increases the longevity of customer visits
High quality websites that are interpreted as those containing equally great content and resources are filtered through the time spent by a visitor within the website, among many other factors. So it is important to give something that would make customers stay on the page instead of clicking on the exit button right away.
The longer users visit the website, the more it adds into being a high-quality resource. It could also help in converting the leads into potential customers as it could mean that they are highly interested in what the website and the brand has to offer.
- Determines the position of the business as an authority
With this one being more on the technical side, it definitely helps put more worth on having a good web design. Including a sitemap, or a file to contain information for all the information inside the website, helps invite web crawlers within the website and find the content that they could showcase. Google, as a search engine, puts emphasis on using sitemaps to go through a website’s content.
Sitemaps, however, are very much needed in larger websites with a lot more content and external links; smaller websites, not so much. However, it is still essential for web crawlers as they would be placing emphasis on your website. Title tags and keywords included in it would also add on to the optimization for a lot of search engines.
A poor and complicated design would most likely drive away customers, so in establishing a business, it really becomes a necessity to rely on a good web designer to either make a new and effective design and rebrand for better online presence. It could be very challenging when businesses are either just starting or are still growing.
However, establishing a good website with an even better web design is an investment that will eventually earn you more than you are hoping for.
Read more: How to Use Web Design to Enhance Your Content Marketing Strategy
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