Website Design Plays An Important Role in the Success of Your Business

Marietta Website Design shows how engaging and responsive website design delivers on customer conversion

In an increasingly online world, great website design is becoming ever more critical to business success. Did you know over 80% of customers will notice a company’s website design prior to making a purchase? As many as eight out of ten consumers will derive their first impression of a company’s product or service, without ever interacting with the business directly. They are making many of their purchase decisions based entirely on online impressions: primarily, the excellence of the company’s website.

Now, unless you happen to have a monopoly on a given product or service, you are likely competing with other businesses for the same customer. If your website lacks search engine optimization, easy accessibility, professional appearance, intuitive layout and navigation, then you could be hemorrhaging customers to the competition. And unless you are running a charity, that is definitely not good for your business’ bottom line.

What Qualifies as “Good Website Design”?

When it comes to determining whether a website is “good”, or not, there is a certain amount of subjectivity. Everyone finds different aesthetics pleasing. But one factor to help narrow it down is taking into account your industry. For example, a good website for an architect probably is not the perfect fit for a plumber, or even an online clothier. There is no one size fits all approach.

However, there are a few universal principles which hold up across design styles, and industry.

Design your Website, then Build

Creating pages without a structured roadmap is tantamount to design suicide. It’s kind of like starting to bake a cake before checking if you have a cake pan or key ingredients. When it comes to website design, you want to ensure what you envision can actually be done and is compatible with the format you are designing. You also need it to be dynamic and responsive, which includes the ability to re-size itself when viewed on a phone or tablet (i.e. mobile friendly). Why? Consumption of digital media is at an all-time high of 51%, vs. 42% desktop. And given almost 20% of U.S. consumers only access the internet via their smartphone, your site must be able to adjust itself for ideal viewing on the small screen.

Typography, typography, typography

Do you know what the most dominant element of website design is? Text. The words, the font choice, the size, color…these all impact customer impressions. For example, if you want a professional and confidence-inspiring web page for your law firm, it is probably best to avoid the use of Comic Sans.

Ease of NavEnsure the Website is usable on a mobile deviceigation

Navigation and guiding the eye are two components of this, but you should also consider what a customer is likely to be looking for on your page, and how your page will work on any device. Make absolutely certain your website design is “responsive” which means it can detect what sort of device your visitor is using, then respond by serving the site in its best format for that device. If you’ve ever had to pinch and zoom to read a company’s website on your phone, you know first-hand why using responsive design is a best practice.

It Attracts the Right Customer, your Ideal Client

This has to do with a site’s search engine optimization. This means your designer is up to speed on what search engines are looking for when a person types a search string in the box. Keywords, links, traffic patterns, all of these play into how your customer arrives at your page. Chances are good a majority of your traffic will come from search results (Google, Bing) and aggregator directories (Yelp, Angie’s List); a good website designer will optimize your page for both, ensuring your future customers are able to find you.

It Attracts the Right Customer, your Ideal Client

This has to do with a site’s search engine optimization. This means your designer is up to speed on what search engines are looking for when a person types a search string in the box. Keywords, links, traffic patterns, all of these play into how your customer arrives at your page. Chances are good a majority of your traffic will come from search results (Google, Bing) and aggregator directories (Yelp, Angie’s List); a good website designer will optimize your page for both, ensuring your future customers are able to find you.

How Will Having an Awesome Website and Landing Pages Help My Business?

This has to do with a site’s search engine optimization. This means your designer is up to speed on what search engines are looking for when a person types a search string in the box. Keywords, links, traffic patterns, all of these play into how your customer arrives at your page. Chances are good a majority of your traffic will come from search results (Google, Bing) and aggregator directories (Yelp, Angie’s List); a good website designer will optimize your page for both, ensuring your future customers are able to find you.

A crummy, poorly executed website gives users the impression your entire business functions this way. Ditto for bad landing pages.
Conversely, good web design should deliver all of the following benefits:

• Boosts in customer engagement, including in time spent on page
• Improved conversion, contacts and/or sales (depending on your website’s goal)
• Increased web traffic from search engine optimization (SEO) and landing page strategy
• Repeat visits, and more

Bottom line? You website should be a direct reflection of your business. If you don’t like what you’re seeing in the online mirror, get help.

You’ve Decided to Go Pro for Your Website. What Questions Should You Ask?

Once you have decided to hire web help, you should go about it the same way you would any major investment in your company: very carefully. Obtain a few bids, and ask each of the companies you’re interested in the following questions:

• How are your services priced? This should include who from their team will be doing various parts of the work, what are their respective experience levels, how many hours will they be allocating to you, and if there are clear and agreeable steps for billing related to increases in project scope.
• What does your record look like? You want to know who they have worked with, if they are reliable, what kind of results they’ve delivered for similar clients, and whether they have ongoing relationships with a majority of their client base. All of these speak to a company’s reliability, and their capability of delivering on your needs, within your timeframe.
• How do you measure results? This is especially important when a company is over-emphasizing the importance of traffic and impressions. While improving those metrics are good, you want to ensure those correlate to customer conversions and purchases. A website design should be a positive return on your investment, and it takes more than a bump in number of impressions to accurately measure it.
• What are your core services? Make sure they cover all aspects of your project in-house, or through trusted partnerships. Also check whether they deliver customized web projects, or if they tend to be plug-and-play. In addition to whatever they tell you, ask for a list of ten websites they have completed within the last year, then check them out and judge for yourself.

What Does the Website Design Process Look Like End-to-End?

Once you have selected a company, they will walk you through each step of the process. You should expect:

• An interview or questionnaire about your company
• Research, goals, and project planning
• Preliminary scope, including cost and timing estimates
• Wire frames, or outlines of the site structure and page navigation
• Content review for each page
• Production review, where you put it all together
• Your final approval
• Website goes live

Why You Should Make the Smart Choice and Select MarketBlazer Website Design services

Not to brag overmuch, but we wrote the book on website design. Or rather, we wrote the super informative web page you just finished reading. Needless to say, we are experts when it comes to all things online. You can expect transparent pricing, clear deliverables, a firm timeline for delivery, and a top-tier team of design experts who live and breathe for improving your business’ bottom line. We’ll blow your ROI expectations out of the water, delivering real, tangible results.