Why Great Web Design is Important for Online Success

Introduction

Having a well designed website can be the single most important thing that pushes you ahead of or pulls you back behind your competition.

Today’s ever-changing business landscape, combined with the impact of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, has essentially made websites the new “storefronts” and the first points of contact for an increasing number of businesses and brands.

There's no doubt about it – web design is important in today's times.

Make a negative impression, and you lose a potential sale. Make a positive one, and you gain a new customer. However, by making a stellar first impression, you can potentially gain and keep a customer for life.

Did you know that, if given just 15 minutes to consume online content, around 65 percent of consumers said they would rather use a beautifully designed website, instead of a plain, simple, and boring website?

What is "good" website design anyway?

While asking this question to professional web designers will yield differing results, the most well-designed websites are usually based on design principles that result in beautiful, easy to use experiences that are enjoyable and useful for all consumers.

In today's article, we're going to go over a few reasons why web design is a critical pillar in your business' success in 2020.

1. Web Design Sets the First Impression:

When consumers first visit your company’s website, they already begin to form their opinion within just milliseconds of landing on the page. In these first few milliseconds, it’s critical that you make a great first impression on your audience.

If your website looks visually unappealing or outdated, is hard to use, or takes forever to load,, your audience will immediately form a negative impression of your business. Most of them will leave your page immediately, squandering your chance to convert them into leads or customers.

Web design is crucial in this regard, because it greatly impacts how your website’s audience perceives your brand. As shown previously, the initial impression you make on them can either convince them to stay on your page and learn more about your business, or leave your website and find a competitor who does it better. 

A well designed website minimizes the amount of people who leave your page, and maximizes the amount of people who stay on your page, thus increasing conversions, leads, and ultimately revenue.

2. Web Design Improves Brand Authority and Trust

Did you know that around 75% of online consumers will judge your business's credibility based on your website design? Designs that look creative, modern, and professional tend to encourage trust, and establish your company as an industry authority. Meanwhile, a poorly designed website might make someone doubt your legitimacy.

Another way that good web design improves trust is through brand consistency. Especially if you have a well-established brand, your customers probably recognize things like your logo, colors, or style. Your website design should reflect your brand and help reassure people who know you that they're in the right place.

3. Websites Help Reach More Customers

A well-designed website isn’t just about the outside, it’s about the inside too. How the website is designed behind-the-scenes can positively or negatively affect your search engine rankings, and so much more.

It doesn't matter if your website is incredibly ugly or the most beautiful website in the world — if it has sloppy coding or too many large images that make it slow to load, that can, and most likely will, drive visitors away and negatively impact how search engines see your site.

If your website is coded well, and optimized precisely for search engines, it can drive your website up the search engine rankings, increasing your visibility and allowing you to reach more customers.

Having a well designed website at the top of the search results demonstrates that your business is the authority in your industry or local area, and therefore the best fit to solve their problem. 

Over 75% of search  traffic on Google goes to websites that are on the first page of the search results, so having a sloppy website design can cost you thousands of potential conversions.

4. Websites Can Increase Your Conversion Rate

As we've discussed, there are many benefits to having a well designed website. It can leave a great first impression, improve brand authority and trust, help you reach more customers with good SEO, and increase your conversion rate.

By providing a website with an amazing user experience, you can drive more of your customers to take action, regardless of the industry your business is in. This action could be booking a meeting, requesting a quote, purchasing a product, and so much more.

Responsive Web Design is one way to increase your conversion rate. 

A responsive website is a website that automatically resizes and restructures its content to look great on all screen sizes, creating a better user experience. A major factor indicating the quality of user experience is the time they spend on your site. If they find it hard to navigate or use because they're forced to constantly pinch and zoom, they won't stay on your website, thus increasing your website's bounce rate.

Bounce rate is the percentage of your website’s visitors who navigate away from the site after seeing a single page only. As we've mentioned previously, having a responsive website increases the chance visitors will stay on your site longer, reducing your bounce rate (the lower the bounce rate, the better). Visitors will be more inclined to browse around on your website and look at all the things you have to offer.

More time on your site and lower bounce rate are good first steps to improving your visitor's user experience and building trust. That improved user experience and trust lead to better conversion rates, whether conversion means signing up for your newsletter, making a purchase or booking a call. 

Consider that, on average, smartphone conversion rates are up by 64% compared to desktop, and it's easy to see why a responsive website is absolutely crucial.

Load speed is another way to increase conversion rate and lower your bounce rate. 

By having a slow loading website, you run the risk of turning away a large number of your potential users. Did you know that over 53% of visitors will leave your website if it takes longer than three seconds to load?

With attention spans for today’s consumers at an all time low, it’s important that your website loads as quickly as possible, or you run the risk of losing your audience’s interest. When they lose interest, they’ll go back to the search results and find a competitor who can keep their interest.

Curious about how long your website takes to load? You can check your website’s load time by using Google PageSpeed Insights . Developed by Google, this tool gives you insights on how fast your site loads, and where you can make improvements . You’ll need to make these changes yourself, or you can hire a web designer to help optimize your page’s load time.

There are many other aspects to create a better experience for your users, like optimizing layouts, presenting call-to-actions at appropriate spots, and creating visually appealing designs and animations. However, by simply delivering a better user experience, you can greatly increase your conversion rate.

5. Your Competitors Have Well Designed Websites

Another huge reason why it’s important for you to have a well designed website:

Most of your competitors already have well designed websites.

 If you want to remain in competition with them, and not get left behind, it’s time to build 

Just like how you want your business to stand out from other businesses, you want your website to stand out from the competition’s website. It’s quite simple. If you have an old, outdated, and low-quality website, your competitors will outrank you.

Your business could have the lowest prices, best quality products and services, most qualified team, multiple decades in business, and be the clear winner on paper, but your competition will always outrank you if your website is visually unappealing, hard to use, and/or takes forever to load.

Conclusion

Having a well designed website plays a key role in your business’ online success. If you’re looking to drive the best results for your business, you must invest in a well designed website that drives people to learn more about your business.

At Steelman Digital, we’re a young, agile, and cutting edge company that can bring that same energy to your business through a modern, innovative website. We can help you take your business to the next level by helping generate more leads, more sales, and more revenue.

If you're ready to start building your dream website, feel free to book a 100% free, no-obligation website strategy call.

We look forward to helping your business grow!