A website is the face of a brand, it is among the things that push a business above or pull it below its competitors. The design matters since it reflects how potential and existing customers perceive your brand. It mirrors how potential customers and clients see and feel about your brand. When a website makes a bad impression, you risk losing potential conversions. When you make a good design, you gain customers. A website that makes a great impression potentially increases the odds of gaining and keeping customers for life.
A research study dubbed Trust and Mistrust of Online Health Sites showed that design elements of a website are more influential than content when it comes to mistrust. That being said, web design is important, however, content is vital. Content and design go hand in hand. You could have great content, however, if the design isn’t up to par, visitors won’t read that content you have invested in. A web design should be examined through the lens of a business, otherwise, it falls flat.
Web Design Helps with Branding
According to Jared M. Spool, a researcher, branding can be termed an investment or an asset that develops and matures over time with an aim of getting individuals to say that they trust this product or that service. Spool further explains that brands are perceptions while brand elements like tag lines, logos, packaging, and trademarks are shortcuts leading to those perceptions. Consumers are attracted to brands they trust and great brand strength makes them want to buy a product or service. From the perspective of web design, the design elements you employ directly affect the overall branding strategy as well as the market position for your business. The web design itself isn’t your brand, however, it is among the brand elements you can use to build trust with customers.
A Great Web Design Fosters SEO Success
When doing web design that aligns with SEO requirements, you need to consider long-term results. There are emerging trends in site designs, however, your online presence and brand will endure much longer. When you focus on fleeting site design trends, it may bring problems in search engine optimization, but again, you don’t want to ignore those current styles. A recent trend in site design is parallax, a design featuring a single page that appears to go on and on. Visitors like this design element because it allows them to scroll through content continuously and for the site owners, it allows them to keep their visitors engaged. A drawback of this design style is that it spreads out the entire keywords of a website over one URL. The style may excite users, but in the future, it may negatively impact your SEO effort.
Responsive site design can enhance your SEO. Search engines are favoring websites that are responsive. The future of online search is trending in the direction of mobiles with engines are rewarding websites that have invested in responsive design. Responsive web design not only proves to have lower bounce rates but also reduces the risking of operating two websites that could make you suffer from duplicate content.
Web Design Affects a Site’s Conversion Rate
The design element of a site can affect the conversation rates. Different things come into play when it comes to design versus conversation rates. For instance, navigation helps with conversations. Websites that make it difficult for visitors to navigate through pages make the users lose interest, but intuitive website structures encourage visitors to continue browsing. The wording used in calls-to-action has a big impact on conversations. An infographic provided by ZippyCart shows that using a word like “free” when requesting visitors to download something or sign up can increase conversions by up to 42 percent. The color you use in your design also plays a role in influencing visitors to convert to clients. Using large, red and bold fonts for headlines works great while using navy in call-to-action buttons helps develop the feeling of trust among visitors.
The Wrap Up
A website is a branding portal, it creates an image of your business. A site design offers you a way to tell your brand’s story. Having strong visuals and clean, organized designs lends authority to a site. A visitor equates the experience they have on your site with the one-on-one experience they can have with you. A good web design gives emphasis on the usefulness of a service or product while discarding anything likely to detract from it. The site should make it clear to visitors the value they get from a product or service you offer.
A site should be free of unnecessary visual clutters that can irritate potential customers or detract them from the core purpose of the site.
Author: The Digital Marketing Guru
The Digital Marketing Guru is a full-service digital marketing agency. We’ve been providing a wide range of services to clients of all industries since 2010. Our digital marketing services include consulting and management options for a variety of online marketing tactics including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) ads, copywriting conversion rate optimization (CRO), and more. We also offer expert web design and development services for both eCommerce and B2B companies. Don’t just partner with any digital marketing agency; work with a company you can trust.