So, you’ve developed an incredible new product or service that will solve people’s problems but now what? Your next step is to inform your target audience about your product, and a website is the best choice for this purpose.
Having a well-tuned commercial website is a great way to display your product in front of customers. Your company’s website is the center of your marketing strategy; it is the point of contact for your brand and products and the foundation of your brand’s presence. No matter what you’re selling, having a website is essential.
You definitely need a website that is easy to navigate and looks professional at all times. A bad website’s user experience can sabotage your strategy and damage the relationship with your customer before it even begins.
However, having a website alone isn’t enough nowadays. Much like a brick-and-mortar store’s exterior, your customers consider your online design as a reflection of the quality of products or services you’re selling. A florist who neglects the plants outside their shop isn’t likely to attract customers. The same is true for business owners; digital presence is vital for your brand’s image, and like we’ve said before, it all starts with a great website design!
To get the most out of your website design, we have gathered helpful information for you to start. Let’s dive in!
Benefits of Having A Good Website Design
Having good standards for your website will increase the likelihood of users becoming repeated visitors, but also:
- It Gives the First Impression.
Designing a website correctly is crucial since it affects how people view your brand. You only have a few seconds to capture your audience’s attention and interest. When potential customers check out your website, it serves as the first formal introduction to your company. In that short time, they will form an opinion about your company.
- It Helps Your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Approach.
How you publish information on your website is affected by various aspects of web design, affecting how search engine spiders crawl and index your website. Among other things, this is one that you cannot afford to botch. Your visibility struggles will begin from the outset if your on-page SEO basics need to be improved.
- It Establishes a Benchmark for Customer Care.
Visitors to your website will form an impression of how you deal with customers. They can tell how you feel about them based on the design and content of your website.
- It Helps Build Trust With Your Audience.
Poorly designed websites lose visitors’ trust. Your site will lose credibility if it looks unprofessional or provides outdated information. Potential customers may get the impression that you’re unreliable because your site isn’t up-to-date.
- It Encourages You to Keep Pace With Your Competitors.
In case you are still wondering whether you need a good web design or not: Your competitors have already leveled up their web design game. You need a similar polished website if you want to keep up with the competition and, more importantly, win clients.
10 Essential Tips for Creating a Stunning Website
A well-designed website can help you increase traffic and boost brand recognition. When it comes to raising awareness about your business, your products, and your brand online, there’s no better way to do so than with a website. So follow these ten winning tips to grow your eCommerce business with a high-end web design:
1. Prioritize Customization for Users
This is something that a user might not notice, but great websites use filters and funnels to separate their users according to their user-flow journey on a page. An example of this is when you are on a shop’s website, and add something to the cart, but then leave. In this scenario, you are falling into an “abandon cart” category which may trigger a special discount or something to lure you into finally making that purchase.
It’s crucial to develop a website that can attract as many visitors as possible. However, what truly separates excellent website design is its capacity to provide customized purchasing experiences.
According to McKinsey, “74% of visitors are likely to come back to your site if it has good mobile UX.”
Incorporating personalization for shoppers into your web design plan can be intimidating when there are so many other design suggestions available and variables to consider across the visual hierarchy. However, you can start by implementing behavior-based product suggestions into the design infrastructure or dynamic. Other great ways are a hyper-relevant call to action for each new site, customized images, and user-friendly tools that appeal to niche audiences. Incorporating these elements can help boost customization in your web design.
2. Take Away Potential Obstacles and Difficulties
When designing a website, it’s crucial to eliminate anything that could be distracting to the audience or information that isn’t relevant. Animated GIFs with too many frames, lengthy articles, and “stocky” website photos are all examples of this.
According to Google, “The bounce rate increases by 123% if the page loading time becomes more than 1 second.”
So you need to make the most of it by making it obvious why they should stay longer. The first step in doing so is to follow brand rules. It’s necessary to specify the typeface, colors, images, icons, and logos you’ll be using and use your brand kit consistently to reflect this all along your website. If you don’t have the budget to hire a graphic designer, you can check out some of the best logo makers that offer robust features like artificial intelligence and useful templates to develop your brand kit yourself.
Without this, web page design can be a real headache for brands. Users who visit your website may become visually confused or distracted by the use of arbitrary colors, font styles, and sizes. Also, avoid including so many on-page animations or interactions at all costs.
3. Maintain a Logical Website Structure
Website navigation is crucial while developing a website. It’s the main map that shows users where they can go. It’s also the best way to let visitors explore other parts of your site, including your store, blog, about us, and more.
However, a site’s navigation can be useless if it lacks clarity or organization. Overcrowding the navigation bar, using confusing hypertext, and a general lack of structure make it difficult for users to discover the information they’re looking for. And if they cannot find the information they seek, users will leave your site in a matter of seconds.
Therefore, when working to enhance your website’s navigation, keep in mind that you must optimize the content, structure, and design to ensure a seamless transition from desktop to mobile.
4. Have a Mobile-Friendly Design
More than one-third of American adults do all of their online shopping from their mobile devices, and adults in the United States spend an average of more than five hours each day on their phones. So your company’s mobile site must be user-friendly to have a piece of this multimillionaire cake.
5. Utilize the Top SEO Techniques
No matter how good your web design is, it won’t help if no one can find your site. While paid advertising might bring visitors to your site, organic search traffic proves to be more efficient and cost-effective over time.
People use search engines like Google or YouTube to find what they are looking for. So to maximize exposure, your business should rank high on the first page of Google search results, where users are most likely to click.
Google and other search engines utilize algorithms to determine where particular keywords or search queries should appear on the web.
To improve your site’s search engine rankings, you should provide updated and high-quality content focused on your chosen keywords. In short, SEO optimization is the shortest road to organic growth on your site.
6. Write Customer-Focused Content For Your Website
Consider the user experience when you create the content to show o your website. What details will be helpful to your potential buyer? When writing copy for your website, make sure to target pain points and design them in a way it’s easier to read. An example of this would be directly addressing a solution in your title.
Writing from the customer’s point of view will increase the time a user will spend on your site, which will increase the likelihood of them converting into customers.
7. Make Sure Your Contact Information Is Prominently Displayed
Contact information on your website should be easy to find! This is pretty straightforward. Many companies only put out their contact information if they sell online or have a store. Putting out the contact information ensures trustability.
You should also display social media links (if you have these) in the website’s header or footer to ensure cross-channel traffic.
8. Verify All Your Information Is Correct
No matter how little the mistake is, contact information, product descriptions, or grammar and spelling errors can be off-putting to potential customers. Not only should you proofread each page before it goes online, but you should also update information regularly, especially after any latest updates.
9. Improve Your Website Loading Time
A slow website can quickly become your biggest enemy, making it difficult to keep visitors engaged or move them closer to the point of purchase. Today’s site visitors expect lightning-fast page loads, but if your homepage or checkout page takes too long to load, they will more likely leave the process in the middle.
A web designer can easily speed up your site’s loading time and give you an edge over your competition by resizing images, managing plugins, and consistently keeping an eye on performance.
Wrapping Up
While designing a website can be challenging, you now have access to all kinds of resources you might need to create an online shop that not only looks great but also generates a high volume of sales. Implementing even a few of these suggestions on your website can significantly impact your site’s performance, user experience, and conversion rates.
Originally published Nov 09, 2022, updated May 17, 2023
