There has never been a more critical time for good web design, especially in today’s increasingly virtual world. Strong branding and good web design have always been critical components of a successful digital marketing strategy, and it isn’t likely to go away soon.
The difference now is that businesses are under pressure to create new and imaginative ways to reach and convert their leads. As a result, we’re discovering just how effective good site design can be.
According to Google, it only takes 50 milliseconds for people to form an opinion about your website – and that opinion may have an impact on several marketing endeavors. A good website design may help boost SEO activities, build trust, encourage customers to convert, allow businesses to stand out among competitors, and much more.
The Impact of a Well-Designed Website on a Business
Join us as we explore the complex variety of ways a well-crafted website may affect your business and why it’s essential to invest in one. Read on!
1. A Good Website Design Makes a Great Impression
As previously said, a visitor’s time to analyze aesthetics and create an impression about your site is severely limited – therefore, you want to make the most of it. Effective design generates an emotional reaction from a person when they visit a website. A website that appears modern, has bright colors, and is well-organized will seem more welcoming to visitors and encourage them to remain and browse for a while. Why would anybody want to stay on a dark and frigid site with an out-of-date design and extremely complex navigation?
Consider a website to be a storefront; when you enter a well-lit, clean, and organized store with smiling employees eager to serve you, you feel taken care of, relaxed, and ready to view the product offerings and maybe make a purchase. If you walked into a business that was dimly lit, smelled suspiciously, and had some disgruntled employees lurking around, you’d feel nervous and want to leave as quickly as possible. The design of a website may cause clients to feel the same way and result in very similar outcomes.
First impressions are crucial. Potential customers visit your site to learn more about your organization, so if you get off to a bad start with an unprofessional-looking page with no design thought, you can expect higher bounce rates soon and a lower ranking on the SERPs.
Consider how much money you can spend on PPC advertisements or how much time and effort you can put into producing content for long-term SEO efforts just to get people to visit your website. Don’t waste your money or time attracting prospects only to have them leave. According to Adobe, 38%of users will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unpleasant. With that in mind, Consider how many prospective clients and dollars you may be losing due to poor aesthetics and rethink your position on investing in professional web design.
2. Builds Trust in the Brand
Trust is an essential factor in any business relationship, and it is built in many ways. According to a study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of business, “evolution has hardwired humans to trust certain things,” which is why we tend to rely on the visual appearance to decide the company’s credibility.
We often judge a book by its cover, we do the same with websites. If a site looks professional, easy to navigate, crisp, modern, and bright, it’s more likely to lead us to make a final judgment of the brand’s credibility and, by extension, its products and services. A professional-looking website allows a brand to stand out from the crowd, adding credibility and putting a trust factor into play.
3. Improves Your SEO
A robust web design that creates a professional website can improve SEO results. The website will have a clean and straightforward layout, making it easy to crawl by search engines and ultimately rank higher on search results pages (SERPs). A well-thought-out website designed for conversion should have a good balance of appropriate keywords and phrases, strategic internal linking to increase the number of pages and anchor text indexed by search engines, and a minimalist design.
When Google and other search engines crawl the website, they are looking for all of these items, ultimately leading to the website being indexed, which helps the site show up on SERPs, boosting SEO efforts. The less work it takes to get a site indexed, the better since more time will be spent focusing on search optimization strategies.
4. Encourages Users to Convert
A well-designed site can also help boost conversion rates, which is a massive benefit for businesses. The more users a site can convert into customers, users can potentially lead to increased revenue and long-term growth. A user-friendly website that is well designed makes it easier for users to take desired actions, such as signing up for a service, purchasing a product, or learning more about a brand. If a site is cumbersome or takes too many steps, users will get frustrated and tend to bounce, which means fewer conversions and ultimately less revenue.
5. Competitive Edge
Having a high-quality website that is visible and effective can help you stand out against your competitors. If you are a small business, a well-designed site can help to separate your business from your competition by adding value to your industry. If you are a large business, a well-designed website can help you stay competitive with your peers by including all the features necessary for modern businesses.
Conclusion
This is a very quick run-through of just how powerful a well-designed website can be. As we can see, the world-wide-web is more powerful than ever, and a business that can harness these tools can reap the rewards. So how do you explain to your boss or client why they should invest in a new website? Start with these 5 points, then move into the powerful advantages that come out of an upgraded site.
Stand Out Advertising is a digital marketing agency that offers advertising solutions, including web design in Buffalo, New York. Get in touch with us now!