Web Design services carry some serious weight when it comes to your business’ success. Despite the fact that technology encompasses nearly every aspect of our lives, some business owners just can’t grasp the importance of a professional online presence. But, why are they missing the connection between engaging web design and business success? It could be the seemingly intangible connection between web design investment and its benefits.
With the explosive of the internet, and a device at our fingertips at all times, web design services embody so much more than just an attractive-looking website. Your business’ web design affects your entire internet presence, from brand awareness and traffic to SEO and conversion rates. That’s why it’s crucial for businesses to understand the importance of web design in business success. Let’s take a closer look!
Understanding the Impact of Web Design
Most business professionals have come to understand the importance of an online presence over the years. But, some still don’t see a sign at all. Still, some know that web design is important, but can’t fully grasp why. This fact often leads decision-makers to shy away from investing enough in web design and development. It boils down to tangible ROI for most business owners.
When your business invests a certain amount of money to purchase a product for your business, you generally know what your margins are before you make the purchase. You can calculate your ROI before deciding to invest or not to invest. When it comes to web design services, however, it’s harder to see the direct ROI which leads to some serious skepticism.
If you want to fully understand the impact of web design services, you need to do your research. The findings may not be groundbreaking, but they will offer insight that helps you understand the importance of a good website. When it comes to web design, studies show that 94% of participants mistrust a business based on poor web design elements. Web design is exponentially more powerful than most of the major investments you put into your business.
When it comes to design, the following elements can lead to mistrust among your viewers:
- Busy, complicated layouts
- Pop-up advertisements
- Slow page load times
- Boring design
- Lack of color/ poor contrast
- Small print that is hard to read
- Difficult navigation
On the contrary, content plays a significant role in a viewer’s ability to establish trust you’re your website. Content that is informative, updated, relevant, clear, and unbiased builds a sense of trust with your viewers. While web design is the most important element of your online presence, content still holds great value.
Both content and design are incredibly important to your business’ success. Which ultimately makes sense because the two go hand-in-hand. Without great design, viewers won’t stay long enough to read your content. Without great content, viewers won’t continue their trust in your business.
How Does Web Design Affect My Business’ Success?
While you may finally be gathering an understanding of the importance of web design services, you may wonder how it affects your success. Here are the top reasons why you simply can’t ignore web design when it comes to your business.
1. It Enhances SEO
If you want your website to rank high in the SERPs, you need to invest in your web design. Believe it or not, quality web design can enhance your SEO. And, poor design can hurt your ability to rank. As the future of internet searches continues to move toward mobile trends, search engines reward sites that invest in responsive design. Businesses that fail to meet mobile responsiveness standards have a hard time ranking in search engines.
When you invest in professional website design, you will become more visible to potential customers who are looking for your products and services. Additionally, responsive web design leads to faster load times for your website pages. Speed matters when it comes to your viewers and your SEO results. Every additional second it takes a page to load will lead you to lose potential visitors. This also increases your bounce rates and negatively impacts your SEO.
2. It Helps Attract Traffic That Brings Value to Your Business
Once your business begins to build traffic, this is just the start. You need to make sure you bring in traffic that brings value to your business. Your goal is to gain viewers that will convert into paying customers. As your business gains credibility through effective design, your website will attract people who are more likely to turn into paying customers while also building brand awareness.
It may be hard to fathom how a business can attract specific viewers that they know will become paying customers, but this is where the professionals step in. Web design and development companies have extensive training in targeting your audience. They perform extensive research and testing to get your brand in front of the right viewers. They can incorporate special design features, custom widgets, unique style elements, and engaging imagery and content that appeals to the type of customer you need to target for business growth.
Project managers from web design and development teams sit down and identify:
- Who your target audience is by creating a sales persona.
- Which keywords do you need to target to meet the demands of your market?
- Finding the type of imagery that appeals to this type of audience.
- Which platform will be most effective in reaching your audience?
- What your typical viewer is looking to gain from landing on your website.
- How you stack up against the competition and what your competitors are doing to find success.
3. Professional Web Design Creates a Better Customer Experience
Even if you are the business owner or CEO of your company, it’s always good to think in terms of the customer. Have you ever landed on a website that was poorly designed? What actions did you take? Did you follow through with a purchase or did certain elements of the design cause you to leave the website? When you implement professional design services, you create a better experience for your customers.
In addition to better customer satisfaction, you can intentionally guide your viewers where you want them to go them casually encourage them to take the action you want them to take. That’s where experience comes into play. Your design should flow so that your viewers are guided through your website seamlessly. They should be able to find what they are looking for, and if they weren’t looking for anything specific, you can use your website to encourage them to learn more. A better customer experience leads to more sales, repeat customers, and a better brand reputation for the future of your business.
4. Better Design Enhances Branding
While your web design services are not your brand, it certainly compliments it. In today’s business world, brand reputation is extremely important. The consumer world is heavily driven by online reviews. Consumers are driven by brands they trust. As mentioned earlier, web design can create a sense of trust with your viewers. It can also create a better feeling about your brand. There are several ways that the design elements you choose can affect your brand strategy and reputation.
Builds Better Reviews
If your website leaves a positive impression on your viewers, they will begin to feel good about your brand. Viewers that feel good about your brand, then they’ll want to invest in our business. When you deliver the ultimate customer experience, your customers will be more willing to leave quality reviews. When it comes to design, your web development team can even implement plugins that encourage your visitors to leave reviews. It’s a great way to increase your brand awareness and create a buzz about your business.
Spreads the Word
As you continue to maximize your visibility, your web design can implement widgets that help your viewers get to other areas of the internet that feature your business. Social media sharing options are a great way to increase brand awareness. Personal recommendations and social sharing are so much more effective in spreading the word about your business than a paid ad. As you build brand awareness, you can increase your high-quality traffic and boost your SEO. This will give you better search engine algorithms and further build your online presence.
5. It Provides/services/affordable-seo-services/ a Long-Term Return
Although it might be difficult to measure the exact ROI when it comes to your web design investment, it continues to pay you back as long as you maintain it. You can get a pretty inexpensive monthly hosting package to maintain your website. If you throw in a monthly SEO strategy, you will see a snowball effect as your business grows. In the first few months, you will notice a change in the way viewers interact with your business through your website. They might stay longer or click through other pages. The more you are consistent with your design, content, and updates, the more you will see your business grow as the months go on.
Web Design and Conversions
Now that you understand some of the benefits of web design, let’s talk about one of the impacts that matter most. You can attract all the interesting viewers you want, but you need to close the deal! Effective web design increases your conversion rates. There are so many ways you can get your customers to convert.
Obviously, the most valuable conversions are purchases, scheduling appointments, or signing up for a paid service. But, there are other types of micro conversions that matter as well. Smaller conversions can lead to future sales. Examples of micro-conversions include:
- Click a link
- Sign up for a Newsletter
- Subscribe
- Request information
- Email a representative
Just because a potential customer doesn’t buy right away, doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in doing business with your brand. Micro-conversions give you the ability to gather customer information so you can deploy re-marketing strategies for future promotions and sales. It’s a necessary part of the future of your business. On top of that, when viewers stay longer on your website, navigate throughout, and click on links, this also drastically improves your SEO.
From SEO and branding to conversion rates and future success, your web design plays a huge role in how your brand is viewed and in its future success. Effective design is more than just picking some great colors and throwing up some content. You need to be efficient in everything you do when it comes to web design if you want to have a successful online presence. The more you put into web design the more you will get out. It’s an investment that brings a lifelong return for the future of your business.
To learn more about how Swytch Marketing can get you these measurable benefits of web design, contact us for a free consultation!