As the age-old saying goes, “There is only one chance to make a great first impression.” When looking to communicate with modern audiences, the best way to do so is through your website. The uses of web design aren’t limited to simply providing a great look for your business—there are several key benefits to great website design keep in mind when making decisions about your site.
Your website should be at the core of your marketing efforts. In a lot of ways, building a marketing strategy is like building and designing a house—it doesn’t matter what color the curtains are if your foundation is crumbling. We’ve gathered a few of the main uses of web design to give you a clear understanding of why web design matters and converts.
Great Website Design Builds Customer Trust
Your website does more than simply deliver information about your brand and your products. It needs to create an impression of the level of service and ongoing experience your customers should expect to receive. In fact, a recent survey revealed that 38% of users stop engaging if a website’s layout is unattractive. Because the market is so saturated with available content from well-designed resources, your website needs to look good or users won’t be interested in your brand.
Because the digital landscape is so competitive, it’s essential to maintain a modern, consistent online presence. One of the core uses of web design is to guide the customer experience and have an informative, helpful, path to purchase. Good web design will allow your users to find answers to their questions easily, make it clear where to ask for information, and set the tone for ongoing service and purchase experiences. Simply put, having a user-friendly design indicates that you are a user-friendly company and that you care about the user.
Great Website Design Helps with SEO
On the more technical side of things, a well-built and well-designed website helps improve your organic reach on search engines. While search engines don’t look at your website the same way a human user does, they do look for the same types of content through CSS tags and meta content that informs how search engines crawl your site. One of the key uses of web design is creating a consistent style guide for publishing content; including headlines, subheadlines, body copy, images with alt text and tags.
A well-designed website with user experience in mind will have a clear site map, simple navigation, and content that offers genuine value to prospects and customers. Conveniently, these are all critical elements of improving your SEO performance. When designing your website, be sure to have a clear plan and layout for publishing content with SEO-friendly code.
A Well-Designed Website Creates Brand Consistency
Your brand needs to remain consistent on every platform if you want engagement and long-term relationships with your customers. Studies show that companies who implement consistent cross-platform brand presentation see an average 23% revenue increase. Your website is the cornerstone of your customer experience and gives you an opportunity to define your tone and visual language.
Consistency is key to driving conversions and purchases. If a customer clicks through on an email or social post with one message or visual feel and arrives at a website that doesn’t match up, they’re likely to drop off and seek a more consistent experience from one of your competitors. Once you’ve put the effort into designing your website, ensure that your other content outlets and buyer touchpoints match up tonally and visually.
Great Website Design Helps Drive Conversions
One of the uses of web design is the opportunity to set up a standard language and visual feel for call-to-action statements. Your web design style guide should include a clear standard for links and buttons that give your users a clear understanding of what action you want them to take. When developing your website, be sure to give CTAs ample surrounding white space and ensure that they stand out when compared to the rest of your content.
Forms also help to drive conversions and should help your users easily access more information or valuable content. If you’re using marketing automation tools effectively, your forms will blend seamlessly into your web design and all form fills will directly feed into your CRM and email automation efforts.
The Importance of a Great Website for Business Success
As we enter a new decade, a great digital experience continues to be the expectation of Millennial and Gen Z audiences. As these tech-savvy consumers begin to reach the peak of their buying power, make sure your website offers what they need in order to trust your brand—a consistent, engaging, seamless, and visually appealing user experience on every platform. You’re likely sending users to your website from emails and social media as part of your overall marketing strategy, so make sure they continue to have an excellent experience when they arrive. Don’t let your marketing efforts go to waste because your website design doesn’t live up to your customers’ expectations for a beautiful, functional site.
Originally published on the SharpSpring blog
– My Left Foot is a Gold Certified SharpSpring partner.
