With the growing access to the internet, today most consumers prefer performing online research of the products and services before making the final purchase.
As per the eCommerce Foundation, around 88 percent of the buyers browse for product information, before buying it online. This buying behavior shows the importance of a good website design.
In the limited time available, consumers will prefer spending time on beautifully designed websites instead of simple plain ones.
Why web design matter?
Your business website is a reflection of your brand image. It represents everything that your brand stands for. A website is usually the first place where consumers are able to get to know more about the brand and the products or services being offered. People look at the website and build their first impression of your business and brand.
Why web design matters – Facts and Figures
- Consumers do not prefer reading a large amount of content; they prefer websites where they can gather the required information without having to read through a lot of written content.
- 66 percent of viewers would prefer going through a website that is attractive and is beautifully designed rather than a plain one.
- 75% of the viewers determine the credibility of a business by just viewing their website design.
- 38% of consumers stop browsing a website if they find the content and layout of the website unattractive.
Your website design plays a very important role in creating a positive online marketing presence. To be able to develop and build an impactful website for your business, you need to understand the importance of good web design.
Also read: 9 Essential Principles For Good Web Design
Website elements like the colors, images, and fonts, together form the brand identity. Therefore, it is essential to carefully look for web design trends and select these elements while designing the website and keep them constant.
Importance of a good web design
As discussed above your website is one of the key aspects of your brand’s online presence, hence it is important to design the website keeping in mind the audience and their user experience.
Let us understand the benefits of good web design and the importance of a good website for business.
- Strong First Impression
When a prospective buyer visits your website, the website helps them build the first impression of your business. By looking at the website they will make a judgment or perception about your business within seconds.
These first few seconds are crucial and it is important that your website is able to create a positive impact on the viewer. If the website is unattractive or old-fashioned, it will create a negative impression in the minds of the viewers.
If they find the website unappealing, they will quit browsing and you will miss out on prospective leads for your business. The key benefit of a good web design is that it helps in keeping the viewers interested, preventing them from leaving your website and turning to the customer.
- Search Engine Optimization
The web design elements and the practices followed while developing a website, determine the quality of the content of your website.
The content in turn determines how your website is ranked and indexed in the search engine rankings. Your SEO strategy is highly dependent on your web design elements and content, you cannot afford to mess up with them.
While designing the website if the on-page SEO fundamentals are not up to the mark then you may find it difficult to rank well on the search engines. Not ranking well on the search engines, affects your visibility whereby affecting your web traffic and conversions. Several web design elements can directly affect SEO; hence it is important that your code and web design are SEO-friendly.
- Building Trust
Viewers find it difficult to trust poorly designed websites. If your content is outdated and the design is not appealing, viewers may not trust your website or your brand. Poorly designed websites are considered to be shady and untrustworthy. If a company or individual wishes to do business with your company and if your website is not well designed or looks shady, then they might reconsider doing business with you.
The main benefit of a good web design is that it makes your company look professional. If you have an updated, professional website viewers will trust your company and would be comfortable doing business with you. If you are able to build trust with your audience they will remain longer on the website, thereby creating higher chances of conversions and sales.
- Improves loading speed, reduces the bounce rate
A well-designed website has a fast loading speed; they are easily accessible and viewable on all kinds of devices, like tablets, smartphones, desktops, etc. Studies show that around 53% of mobile users leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Hence to keep the viewers engaged it is important to ensure that the website has a fast loading speed. Effective web designing helps in improving the loading speed of the website. It also helps in reducing the bounce rates.
