Why Does Improving Your Web Design Matter?

People flocking over to online platforms have not just affected how they socialize. Technology has become an integral part of daily life, especially that people want efficiency. From buying clothes to ordering tech products to choosing services, people do all of these online. This is basically why businesses have begun investing in building an online presence that effectively creates a credible online presence. Among the many aspects that contribute to this credibility is actually web design. In this article, we will talk about the main reasons why web design matters. 

Appearing Trustworthy From the Get-go 

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The first reason why web design matters is that the landing page on your website is the first thing that people see. Essentially, it’s the beginning of building a relationship with your website’s visitors. When your website doesn’t look polished or organized, people will not want to spend time on it. What’s even more crucial is that people nowadays have enough experience on the internet to tell which sites are good and which sites are outdated and lack usability. 

On top of that, customers will want to interact with a website that looks like there are actually people behind it that they can trust. This is especially important when purchasing online because buyers have to input sensitive information like their credit card details. Appearing suspicious might even be one of the reasons why your website has a high bounce rate. 

On the other hand, appearing trustworthy from the get-go will prevent users from immediately leaving your page even without knowing what’s in it yet. Fundamentally, web design today is one of the most important ways you can make a good first impression on potential customers. 

Helping Customers Find Information Quickly 

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Web design plays a big role in delivering value to customers. This is because web design allows them to navigate easily through your website. Consequently, this means that people can find what they are looking for in a matter of seconds and that, if they want to view something else, they know where to go. 

Furthermore, such an idea of delivering value to customers actually has something to do with inbound marketing. As you may already know, inbound marketing centers on the idea of organically attracting customers. This goes in contrast with the traditional and aggressive chase-after-customers strategy and is becoming a more reliable technique for real customer base growth. 

By investing in good web design, you do not only provide your customers with information but you save their time and contribute to their productivity. Although this does not directly and instantly result in sales, the efficiency you provide your customers will result in a positive image of your brand. More importantly, because of your customers’ experience of being given value for free, you can expect that when they are ready to buy the product or service you are offering, they will come to you. 

Encouraging Visitors to Engage With Your Page 

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Believe it or not, web design also has an effect on your SEO strategies. This is because your website’s speed and its sitemap are two of the main factors that Google looks into when it crawls your website and ranks it. Thus, even before you implement SEO strategies, you already have to align your web design with these techniques you’re going to implement to drive more traffic to your website. 

When your page is already up, this relationship between SEO and web design is still very intact. Web design makes for organized and easy-to-absorb information. Thus, this is also easily one of the things that can make visitors stay on your page. When they stay on your page to read the information they’re looking for and, on a more optimistic outlook, explore other blogs you have, this will tell Google that your page is offering users good quality content. 

This is where you see how navigation and engaging layout can encourage visitors to continue interacting with your page to get even more value from it. 

Ensuring Positive User Experience 

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You’ll know just how important web design is when the Google Web Starter Kit includes a tool for developers to test how responsive a website is across multiple devices. Among the best modern practices, this is one that really places an emphasis on user experience. As you may already know (or experience yourself), people today constantly switch between devices. So, as a business that posts useful content online, you have to ensure that your website works smoothly regardless of where it is accessed. 

Evidently, the growing trend nowadays is accessing everything through phones. Thus, it is essential that sites load just as fast and user-friendly on the phone as they are on the desktop. This then has something to do with changing the layout of the website to fit a small screen. So, there you have it. Again, it all comes down to web design. 

This is actually a crucial topic because, even today, there are a lot of sites that don’t do well on mobile. Primarily, it’s because of the lack of space. Just imagine how you can have those efficient navigation tabs and drop-down menus on the spacious screen of a computer. But, when you are on your phone, there are some changes that need to be made to the layout, and most of the time, these changes are not very user-friendly. 

Creating a Logical Layout 

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When talking about web design, there are a lot of things that come into play to create a page that is right for your customers. Aside from allowing easy-to-read text and accessibility across devices, your content also needs to be organized in a manner that makes it look professional and well-prepared. Otherwise, your customers will feel like the website is just too cluttered or just “there” for the sake of it. Worst case scenario, customers will feel like they are not valued by your business. 

This can also be connected with balancing elements on your website. Creating a logical layout consequently means making logical decisions to support your helpful content. For example, you can place social media sharing buttons, infographics, and other relevant images. You can even embed videos if you want. However, the rule is to not go overboard with the elements you can add to a page. This will not just overwhelm the viewers but drive them away to another website that is simple and allows them to see the information they are looking for quickly. 

Establishing a Brand Image and Brand Personality

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The previous points discussed already brush on the topic of creating a brand image. Basically, this is where the customers’ perception of your brand as “professional,” “modern,” and “helpful” comes in. Aside from the layout, what then also helps in building this image are really simple things like consistent use of color and design that corresponds well with how you are putting out your business in other channels like social media networks. 

Doing this, you ensure that your brand is something memorable for your potential customers and that they can recognize it wherever they see it. Web design can also help with building a brand personality. Brand personality is more connected to how people feel about your business if it were another person. So, through web design, you would want your business to feel more inviting and assuring to people that your brand will be worth their money. This is even said to influence the way people think about how your customer service is going to be like.

Converting Leads to Paying Customers 

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Of course, all of the things we’ve discussed about web design should lead to the goal of getting more loyal customers and driving more sales to your business. For one, web design is one of the major factors in a modern consumer’s decision whether or not to trust a business. Once you miss that chance to earn their trust on your landing page, it’s hard to create another image of your business that’s separate from what you put out on your official website. So, instead of converting leads, you’re actually losing them before they become paying customers. 

More importantly, when you have a page that has great content, you’re just halfway done. You still have to convince your customers to do whatever your call-to-action is. Now, think of how a less visible and less visually appealing call-to-action button would lessen your chances of achieving this goal. With web design, you can better strategize with how you want leads to see this call-to-action button and explore what you have to offer. Definitely, the visual aspect of a website helps your business stand out in today’s digital market and provides you with a lot of ways to keep them interested in your brand. 

All in all, improving your web design means improving your business. Essentially, it’s a way of adapting to how consumers today go about their purchasing decision. More than that, it’s also a way to take advantage of how you can build a loyal customer base online. Definitely, in this modern market, investing in professional web design services is one of the best things you can do to ensure that your business stands out. To keep your costs low, you can always look for remote developers abroad in eastern Europe or Asia.

Author

Brooke Collins is the Marketing Manager at CloudSecureTech. She's an expert in inbound marketing and lead generation For IT Companies & MSPs. Brooke is also an avid rock climber and a health fanatic. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeInClouds.