As Paul Rand once said, “Design is the silent ambassador of your brand.” This is quite an understatement when it comes to the present-day branding norms. It’s a lot of things that come along with the design. In case you’re wondering, we’re talking about your website design.
As humans, we’re hardwired to keep an eye on beauty. And it seems pretty reasonable. If you’re shopping online, you’ll pick a beautiful, fast-loading website over a poorly designed one. Whether or not you have an eCommerce website design, it needs to be properly designed so your visitors find it easy to navigate. Most importantly, a good web design complements SEO efforts.
Let’s take a look at other reasons why a good website design is a priority and not an optional luxury.
Why Web Design Matters
Your website is the raison d’être of your online presence. It would help if you put in time and effort to create a website that will engage and excite your clients. We’ll go through how your web design can impact your business.
1. First Impressions Count
It’s true — your website’s web design accounts for 94% of first impressions.
Your initial impression is crucial to keeping visitors on your site and enticing them to return. If you want to have a good impression with your web design. Create a visually appealing site that draws your audience in and encourages them to interact with you.
To strike a good first impression, create a visually appealing website design that hooks your target users right away.
With that being said, you’d also want a website that reflects your brand values and gives your users a great first-time interaction on your site, whether you do it yourself or partner with the Best Website Design Company in New Zealand.
2. Improve’s Your Brand Credibility
When someone sees your company online, you want them to realise that it is legitimate. With so many online frauds taking place, a poorly designed website will only add fuel to the fire by putting you out as untrustworthy or too trivial to click at.
So, if you don’t put time, money and effort into creating a visually appealing website. You’ll automatically lose credibility and trust with your audience (as well as sales).
If you want to make the most of your website design, you should invest in a high-quality, well-designed website. Without an attractively designed site, you risk losing your audience’s trust and discouraging them from connecting with your site.
Invest in high-quality website design. You can take a look at your competitors or similar websites with exceptional design to get a sense of how your site should appear, and then start brainstorming ideas for how to create a high-quality site.
Using the proper colour scheme, typography, and layout will assist you in developing a believable website. On top of that, you should also ensure that your website is safe. Check that your website has HTTPS and an SSL certificate to guarantee that your audience enjoys a safe browsing and buying experience.
3. Optimises User Experience
Let’s get one thing straight – a decent web design = great user experience. Not only must you be concerned with making a good initial impression, but you must also be concerned with retaining that goodwill while consumers browse your site.
A nicely designed website won’t do you any favours if your users are unable to navigate it and access information. After a bad user experience, 89% of customers switch to a competitor. This further means that your users will leave your site if they cannot quickly discover information.
You must prioritise user experience on your website or risk losing leads to your competitors. Investing in your site’s user experience yields a $100 return on investment for every $1 spent.
Focus on things that will give a better experience to your user. And of course, this has to come from the time you start building it. Also, consider things like creating an organised menu and using infographics to slice and dice the content to ultimately making sure your site loads quickly.
4. Make it Mobile Friendly
It’s obvious — we’re more active on our smartphones than we ever are on other devices. This is why people spend 70% of their time online on mobile devices alone. As the access to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is increasing, you’d want a site that opens without a fuss on these devices.
Google considers mobile-friendliness to be a ranking element in search results. Therefore, if you want to rank well. You must make your website design mobile-friendly. Responsive design is an important component of a mobile-friendly website as it can ensure that your website will adapt to the specific device being used by the user.
Furthermore, adding catchy call-to-action (CTA) buttons and hamburger menus might assist you in creating a better mobile experience. You may use Google’s mobile-friendly checker tool to see if your site is mobile-friendly.
5. Helps Improve Branding Efforts
When you’re competing with dozens of firms on the internet, you need to make your website stand out. Blending in with the crowd isn’t always the ideal response, especially in the case of your website.
If you do away with less compatible website themes, you’ll lose leads to competitors who have more distinctive websites. If you want your business to stand out from the crowd invest in a personalised website design.
This is why you’d want to set up a brand style guide so your website doesn’t end up looking the same like your competitor. You can also work with a Website Design Company in New Zealand to create a personalised website for your company.
6. Slow-loading websites cost $2.6 billion in revenue per year.
Yes, you read that correctly! Every year, websites lose almost two billion dollars in revenue because their pages do not load quickly enough. People dislike waiting for information to load on websites, which discourages them from purchasing.
As a result, if you don’t have a quick website, your company will fall behind. Customers and income will be gained by competitors who have fast-loading websites. A one-second boost in webpage speed increases conversions by 7%.
Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to determine how quickly your site loads and where you might enhance it. You may also engage in page speed services to have an outside business optimise your website design for you, freeing up your time to deal with the sudden influx of clients.
How to Ensure a User-Friendly SEO-Optimised Website Design
Creating a website that is both user-friendly and optimised for search engines (SEO) is crucial for a successful online presence. An effective website design not only appeals to users but also helps in higher search rankings, increased traffic and ultimately improved business outcomes.
Here are essential points and explanations to guide you in achieving a user-friendly, SEO-optimised website design.
1. Understand Your Audience
Having a poppy-coloured website with flashy CTA’s is a good idea for a makeup brand — but not so much for a law firm. You’ll have to take your audience’s preferences, behaviours, and expectations into consideration.
After all, they’ll be visiting your website. You can research your audience’s demographics, interests, and browsing habits. This information can help you plan out design elements, content, and navigation for a user-optimised website design.
2. Mobile-First Approach
Optimise your website for all devices, including smartphones, as they have a better penetration. You may also want to ensure that your design is responsive and functions seamlessly across various screen sizes, like tablets, computers and laptops.
This approach will not only enhance your user experience but align with Google’s preference for mobile-friendly sites in search rankings. You can take the help of UX Design services in New Zealand for the same.
3. Optimise Website Speed
Don’t skip out on page loading speed! It’s a critical factor for both the user experience and your SEO. Always make sure to compress images or videos and minimise code, as large files can add up to loading speed.
A fast-loading website keeps visitors engaged, reduces bounce rates, and contributes positively to SEO rankings.
4. Ensure Website Security
Prioritise website security by implementing HTTPS and obtaining an SSL certificate. A secure website not only safeguards user data but also builds trust and confidence among visitors. Google considers HTTPS as a ranking factor, making it vital for SEO as well.
5. Reconsider Pop-Ups and other Intrusive Elements
The last thing you want is for your users to perceive your website as a pushy salesman. Intrusive pop-ups and overwhelming ads can frustrate users and negatively impact their experience.
Don’t put it all in their face! Only use relevant pop-ups as they’re often seen as annoying and hinder access to content. For this, you can ensure that any promotional material is displayed in the most non-disruptive manner as possible.
6. Regularly Update and Maintain
As industry standards and audience demographic keeps changing, you need to ensure your website keeps up its pace. Make sure that it remains user-friendly and SEO-optimised. Also, regular updates involve checking for broken links, improving website speed, and refreshing content.
Consider an experienced freelancer or a Top Website Design Company in New Zealand to do the job for you.
Conclusion
So, this was it for website design. A well-planned website design can make or break your business — and if you decide to go forward with a robust design, you can only expect the best.
Since you’re convinced to get a high-performing design for your website, you can hire an in-house web design team. But again, having a freelance web designer or the Best UI/UX Design Company in Auckland may get the work done at a fraction of the cost!
