For the smaller/medium sized business remaining competitive and investing wisely to grow your business can be a challenge. 71% of businesses and 60% of consumers start with a web search before buying*. Effective web design can give you a great shopfront for your business to customers around the world.
What should you look for in a great website? Well it’s not just design but it’s all about the experience.
User experience
As much as the aesthetics are important always keep in mind not to sacrifice usability just for the sake of appearance. Organisation comes hand in hand with usability. Just like your house, everything in a website needs to have its logical place. Helping site visitors easily find what they’re looking for. The navigation needs to be logical and consistent. It should be apparent what the main content and what the secondary content is based on size and location. Everything on your site needs to have a purpose. We have seconds to make an impression and if the organising doesn’t make sense- they will leave. User-friendly page connotes trust and makes potential customers more likely to reach out.
Aesthetics
Websites need to look polished and functional. The design should lead the eye from what’s most important to secondary items and this can be done with typography. Whilst images and colours can be used for calls to actions. A professional and modern look can immediately build trust between your company and the reader. A good design will guide visitors to take action. Every website needs something that catches the visitors’ eye. The internet is a visual medium so it’s always essential to use images/video but without overdoing it.
Content/SEO…
Your website needs a clear purpose. Its job is to communicate and sell your business quickly. SO make your content ease to read and digest. This will instantly create customer conversations. Placing the most important information on at the top of the page will help get the message across more effectively. What many people do not know is that placing important information in these areas also improves search engine optimisation (SEO) Which increases your search engine placement and gives your website and company more overall visibility.
Web design is an amazing blend of logic and creative thought. It’s easy to forget how much we need and appreciate good sites until we see a bad one. Anyone can create a website these days- there are over 600 million! But will it look professional and deliver a clear message?
Your site directly reflects your company, but do not let that scare you. Instead, realise the potential it provides you with- you have ultimate control over how visitors perceive your company. Without even engaging with them. Of course, there’s more to a website than looks and content such as, coding, cross-platform compatibility, but those are things web teams like us take care of.
A good design will help potential customers find what they need and takes you one step closer to getting in touch or making a sale. This may sound like it could be very time confusing and even complicated however, the important thing is to get the right design… and the right advice.
