In a market that has myriad competitors, having a website that serves as nothing more than a brochure no longer does the job.
According to Adobe, 80% of users stop engaging with websites that do not appear well on their devices. On top of it, the margins are slim. People decide whether a website is good enough or not in a matter of milliseconds.
Having a great website design is the need of the hour and it serves a pivotal digital marketing strategy. However, it is never easy to create a great website design. To top it all, hiring a professional web designer comes could cost a fortune.
That said, a website that features an intelligent design comes with its fair share of benefits. Let’s find out how a great website design could do wonders for your brand.
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Develops a Decisive First Impression
Should we judge a book by its cover?
Well, intuitively, it makes sense not to get carried away with the first impression, for we don’t get to see the entire picture on first look. However, in the case of a website, things are different.
A user takes just about 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about a website. That means it takes a fraction of a second to determine whether the user will stick around or ditch your website for your competitor’s.
So, it is pretty fair to say that the first look at your website could be the most determinant factor to get a strong user retention rate.
The more innovative and welcoming your website appears, the more likely will it fascinate the user. Elements like animations, bright colors, and organized layout add zest to the first impression of your website.
On the contrary, if your website evokes outdated and unwelcoming vibes, the user might not end up getting hooked.
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Builds Trust in the Brand
Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario — you want to buy a car so you go to a local dealership to proceed with. Upon arrival, you find that nobody approaches you to inquire into your concern, the place looks poorly maintained and the cars stationed there are covered in dust.
You clearly won’t be able to build trust in the brand, right?
The same is the case with websites. A website having a good design helps you set your foot in and build trust in the brand.
For starters, having a solid logo goes a long way in expanding your audience and gaining customer loyalty. There is a reason organizations have spent millions of dollars down the history lane for designing and rebranding their logos.
However, you don’t necessarily have to spend millions of dollars. At present, many professional logos designing companies, such as logo design valley, could design a powerful logo for you against very nominal charges.
No matter how good your brand is and how well you take care of your consumers, if your website is not up to the mark, you will struggle to build credibility.
If your website appears shady, hiding important details from you, or it lacks user-friendliness and a clean design, then this becomes the single biggest reason for losing leads and customer loyalty.
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Strengthens SEO Campaigns
A website with a user-friendly design not only helps you with gaining wider audiences, but it increases the visibility of your website and improves its ranking.
As of 2021, google will be considering the Core Web Vitals of a website to rank it. Now, apart from the other SEO fundamentals, you ought to be considering these core web vitals while thinking about your website design.
The following are the core web vitals in a nutshell:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – How long a website’s page takes to load.
- First Input Delay (FID) – How long it takes for a website’s page to become interactive.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – How much layout shift of visual content is present on the website.
Granted, these jargons appear quite daunting on first look; however, a strategic web design that covers the essentials of user experience gets the job done!
All in all, if your website boasts effective on-page SEO and incorporates the core web vitals, you will be having solid chances to rank well.
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Provides a Good User Experience
Did you know that 88% of the users are not likely to return to a website if they encounter a bad user experience, to begin with?
One of the major advantages of having a top-notch website design is that it provides a good user experience, which in turn is the deciding factor for the time a user would spend on your website.
Let’s have a look at a few elements that you should check on while aiming for a good UX design:
- Organized Structure
- Easy-to-follow Navigation
- Clear Labelling
- Visual Representation
- Fast Response Times
In contrast, if your website is compelling users to pinch and zoom, and provides no clear direction and support, then you need to bring your website design back to the drawing board.
Not only people will stay at your website if you provide a strong UX design, but you should also expect to get a few word-of-mouth referrals and new customers for your brand as well.
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Gets You Ahead in the Competition
If you are dealing in a product or service that your competitors provide but you can’t offer the same quality and perks, having a great website design will help you get ahead in the competition.
See, a website is a crucial element of your brand’s presentation. It’s the facet of your brand that conveys a lot about it without necessarily having consumers acquire what the brand is offering.
Without having an exquisite website, you will still struggle to compete against your rivals even if you are offering better quality.
Sometimes, doing the basics right suffice because, surprisingly, many websites fail to deliver consistency in terms of fonts, colors, size, and layouts. So, you can’t simply afford to miss the basics, to say the least.
However, if you want to take it up a notch, aim for creativity and innovation. Besides, try offering something that could set you apart. There always is something extra that you could do to cheer up your customer.
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Stirs up Social Media Sharing and Backlinking
Another great benefit of a great website design is that it increases the social share of your web’s content. When optimized content is integrated with social media buttons, it becomes easy to redirect the audience to your website even on small screens.
This boils down to the increase in credibility and gaining a wider range of audiences — hence, causing more conversions and more traffic.
On top of it, social engagement will help your website rank because the search engine will notice the search demand and cater to it.
Lastly, if your site is responsive, other websites will be inclined to link to you. Backlinks play an important role in SEO ranking because they provide testimony to the search engine by showing other websites that consider you a reputable one.
The Must-Have Elements of a Great Website Design
As the competition is getting cutthroat with every passing day, the developers are bringing out-of-the-box strategies to the table in order to have the edge over their competitors. So, we can’t give you a magic formula to crafting an exquisite website design; however, having a robust foundation is a must!
Let’s explore a few elements that you must incorporate to build a concrete bedrock for your website.
Navigation – the website must include easy navigation, enabling the user to navigate back and forth intuitively.
CTA Buttons – call to Action buttons must be placed at strategic locations so as to allow users to take action and convert when they’re most likely to.
Colors – include colors that go in line with your brand’s message. A good idea is to check on color psychology charts and pick a color that best evokes a feeling in the audience that you’d like.
Sales Copy – this involves creating a copy that delivers valuable information about your brand comprehensively.
Font Style Guide – just one or two font choices should do the job, but make sure to create consistency so that readability and scalability are not compromised.
Visuals – animations and high-quality images could boost the mood of the audience and could excitingly convey important information.
Ending Remarks
It is inevitable that having a great website design is the cornerstone of a successful brand. If you think your website needs attention, it should be your utmost priority to troubleshoot and fix your website.
Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comment section and if you think there is any benefit of a great website design that we missed out on, don’t forget to share with us.
