There’s no denying it – you rarely get a second chance to make the right impression. People decide in less than six seconds if they want to do business with you. One simple glance at your website is more than enough to turn people into prospective buyers or scare them away for good.
You see, you could sell the best products in the world or offer outstanding services. If your website is designed poorly, you are damaging your business.
That said, here’s how the right web design can move your business forward.
First Impression Matters
Here’s the hard truth: people still judge a book by its cover. In an ideal world, people would only be interested in the quality of your products. But, this isn’t a perfect world and a lot of businesses fall flat because they fail to build a credible and professional website.
Think about it this way. Your website is your first contact with potential customers. If they don’t like what they see, they will hit the close button and leave without converting.
In a world where there are more than a billion websites fighting for people’s attention, you need to make sure that you create a first good impression. That means creating a site that is clutter-free, easy to navigate, helpful, and friendly. Only then you can turn your website into a lead generation powerhouse.
Websites like HeaderLove offer great design ideas for website headers.
The Right Web Design Can Help You Build Trust
Trust is your most valuable business commodity. According to a study by Taylor Nelson Sofres, customers stop about 70% of online purchases because of a lack of trust.
But, as you’ve learned, you have an extremely slow window of time to convince prospects that your business is trustworthy. How can you tweak your web design to earn the trust of users? For starters, avoid using these elements:
- Cluttered elements
- Pop-up advertisements
- Boring color scheme
- Slow load times
- Complex navigation menus
- Lack of contact information
The Right Design Is Important for Visitors
Most small businesses think that to build a great website is enough to use high-resolution images, bold colors, and catchy headlines. Sure, all these elements are important, but you mustn’t forget the most important rule of web design: good design should be about information. Translation: the right website design will tell visitors at first glance what the most important elements of the page are.
Good design focuses on prioritizing information for busy users. If people have limited amount of time to interact with your site, you want them to find what they need as fast as possible. That’s where visual hierarchy comes into play.
In you want to move your business forward, think about the overall hierarchy of your site when designing it:
- Keep important information, such as contact details, lists of services, or prices about the fold.
- Highlight relevant content.
- You probably want users to take certain steps once they landed on your site. Make it easy for them to do so. For instance, if you want them to subscribe to your newsletter, make the email opt-in box visible.
The Right Design Helps Tell Your Brand Story
Your website is the perfect way to promote your brand and practice a distinctly human voice. It is probably one of the few mediums where you have total control of what you say and how you say it.
The right design should help you tell your brand story and convey your message efficiently. Layouts, images, and text should come together in a way that reflects the personality, values, and the mission of your company.
It’s said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, when it comes to good web design, there are some basic principles that apply to any site. If you want to scale your business, make sure you create a website that doesn’t only look good, but it works well, and it helps users fulfil their goals.
