Check out these web design tips to help get a clear understanding of what’s expected by consumers today from your website.
In today’s modern and highly connected world, there’s one thing many business owners get wrong: they take their websites for granted.
Many business owners view their websites as nothing more than their online identity, just a mere virtual representation of their physical store.
If truth be told, your website is more than just your online business card.
Without a great website, you limit your reach and your ability to boost brand awareness and profitability significantly.
Your digital marketing strategy revolves around your website. If it’s not up to scratch, all else will not make much of an impact.
Related eBook: What Makes a Quality Website?
The Impact of Web Design on Your Online Sales
On the other hand, there are also business owners who invest in the services of the best eCommerce website designer they can find as they know their website design can make or break their business. But how?
A well-designed website can boost your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and the likelihood of someone finding your business online.
And that’s just for starters. The better the website is, the more you can “impress” the Google bots that help determine your site’s ranking.
Related Post: Google’s New Search Ranking Algorithm and What It Means for SMBs
Below are some of the ways your site can influence your online sales:
Customer Engagement and Conversion
If your site is well organized and well designed, your visitors will find what they need quicker.
This helps ensure they don’t leave and look for what they need someplace else. Moreover, the more standardized your website is, the more likely you will give your visitors a good user experience.
The importance of organizing your site with careful thought and consideration cannot be stressed enough.
As a general rule of thumb, ensure your visitors can easily navigate your website without any hiccups.
If they are have trouble getting from point A to point B, it might be a good idea to have a rethink.
If you notice the following red flags, it is recommended that you consider whether your design is effective in its current state:
- Complex or busy layouts
- Small prints that are difficult to read
- Flashy ads and pop-up advertisements
- Lack of color
- Bland or boring web design
- Slow load time
Better Brand Perception
Undoubtedly, a plain and sub-par website won’t give visitors a great perception of your brand.
Let’s face it, people’s perception of your brand can significantly impact your sales. Would you eat in a restaurant that looks dirty, run-down, and outdated?
Chances are you would rather eat in a restaurant that looks well-kept, brand new, and inviting.
The same principle applies to your website.
Whether you like it or not, a great and visually appealing website can give people the impression your brand provides top-notch products and services.
It will also make them believe you can provide a better option than your competitors. A great website can also increase people’s trust in your brand.
Give people a better impression of your brand by:
- Providing a good set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and answers
- Making sure the site is arranged in a logical way
- Writing useful articles and other informative content
- Ensuring your website is always up-to-date
- Ensuring the site looks professionally designed and visually appealing
- Having good search engine optimization (SEO) for your content, allowing prospects to see your presence more frequently
Regardless if you are still in the process of building your website or doing a redesign, there is one important component you should always keep in mind: SEO.
If you incorporate SEO from the get-go, you will be saving yourself from a lot of headaches later on.
If you focus primarily on your website’s visuals and neglect SEO, you can end up with a visually appealing website no one can see or find online.
If your site does not follow a conventional structure, you might raise a few red flags for search engine algorithms.
Fortunately, there are countless ways to create a visually appealing site with a great structure.
Another critical thing you should look into is responsiveness. Come to think of it, if your website is readable across various browsers, devices, and platforms, you will be able to reach a broader audience and show up higher in search results.
Also, since many consumers now use their mobile devices, they prefer websites with a responsive design.
Builds Trust
Understandably, most people won’t trust websites that are designed poorly.
Back in 2002 a study showed that nearly half of people judge a site’s credibility on the appeal of its visual design. Today, the exact same principles remain, and businesses that fail to understand the importance of their site design will have difficulty keeping visitors coming to their site.
If your website design is mediocre and your content is outdated, it would be difficult for you to get visitors to appreciate and trust your site, much more so for your brand.
People might even perceive your site as deceitful.
If your site is not seen as trustworthy, people might hesitate to purchase your products or pay for your service—this is especially true if they intend to spend a considerable amount of money.
On the other hand, a visually appealing and well-designed website can be perceived as professional, authoritative, and trustworthy.
Also, when people trust your site, they are more likely to spend more time there.
When visitors remain on your site for an extended period, you have more opportunities to turn them into buying customers.
Creates Consistency
When in the process of generating new leads for your business, you want prospects to become familiar with your brand.
If they are familiar with your brand, there is a high possibility they will choose you over your competitors when the time to convert comes.
Apart from creating a great representation of your brand, your web design can also help create consistency across your page.
When you use the same styles, layouts, and fonts across every page, your brand will not only look professional and polished, it will also come across as top-of-the-line.
More importantly, when your site is consistent, it’s easier for you to build brand recognition.
Related Post: Infographic: How Important Is Your Website User Experience?
Designing a Website That Converts: 5 Web Design Tips to Keep in Mind
To ensure your web design converts leads into paying customers, keep the following tips in mind:
Keep things simple
Have you ever got frustrated when you can’t find what you are looking for on a website?
Make sure your customers won’t feel the same way when they visit your site; otherwise, they will leave your website and find what they are looking for somewhere else.
In line with this, make sure you also have easy-to use-menus, and that navigating from one page of your website to another is quick and easy.
The main idea is to ensure users won’t have difficulty finding what they are looking for and enjoy a positive user experience (UX) with your site.
Just 55% of companies currently conduct any UX testing at all.
Keep things recent
If your website design looks outdated, you might give visitors the impression you don’t take your brand image seriously.
You need to exert effort and keep your website as updated as possible.
You don’t need to tweak your website daily, you just need to make sure that it’s been gathering dust for the last decade.
Check other successful sites and see what they are up to in terms of design. Make sure you are able to keep up.
Be mindful of load time
How long does it take for your website to load? When online, a minute can seem like an eternity.
If your website loads slowly, you will lose customers because they will be hitting the “back” button before they even see what you have to offer.
To make sure your website loads quickly, get rid of content, images, and videos that are not really necessary and compress those that are.
Your web hosting can also make a world of difference in the loading time. Check with your web host if there’s anything they can do to ensure your site loads as fast as possible.
53% of mobile site users leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.
Remember: mobile is king!
Over the years, more and more people have been using their mobile devices to find the information they want online.
If your web design is not viewable on a mobile device, you will be losing potential sales and customers to competitors who have optimized their sites for mobile devices.
Fortunately, there are several ways to add a mobile version of your site to your website design.
If you don’t have any idea how, you can always leave this task in the hands of experts.
83% of people say a seamless experience across all devices is very important.
Monitor your bounce rate
In essence, the bounce rate indicates the number of people that visit your site, check the page they have landed on, and then leave without visiting another page on your site.
When it comes to bounce rate, you need to remember that the lower it is, the more likely you’ll be able to convert those visits into sales.
You also need to remember that the more time your visitors spend on your site, the more likely they will be loyal to your brand.
To monitor your bounce rate, use Google Analytics.
Google Analytics will give you the exact bounce rate percentage and the pages they have visited.
You can also use the data in Google Analytics to monitor if any changes have helped keep your bounce rate low, as well as many other useful metrics to track user behavior, leads, and conversion rates.
Over to You
The importance of understanding the full impact of your website cannot be overstated.
From branding to SEO, your website’s design can help shape how people perceive your site.
Your website can also make or break your business, so make sure you are doing it right by following these web design tips. Or take a step further and learn more about the types of custom web design and development services Impact offers.
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