Some years ago, It seemed like a huge deal for a business to even have a website, as a matter of fact, any business that owns a website was seen as way ahead of others. Nowadays, websites are much more common and almost every business either owns a website or is considering getting one. But one thing which isn’t so common is the effect of a well designed website on business success.
The audience’s focus is continuously shifting from just the website itself to the entire quality of the browsing experience. Web users now have expectations which go beyond just viewing a site. If you create a website without cutting-edge visuals, easy-to-navigate and well optimized experience, then, you’re not really doing much to help improve your business success.
If you think that your website design is an isolated part of your business success efforts, then you need to think again. Research has shown that a poorly designed website can easily cause a distrust of a business among users. This means that website design and more specifically your design elements, play a major role in promoting business credibility.
Most business owners often give less attention or thought to their websites, especially if they have other marketing channels like social media, but your website is a crucial part of your marketing channels and it will be unwise to neglect its effects to your business success.
Of course, business success is much more than website design but consistent branding and business growth cuts across the entire face of the business and allows you to create an ultimate brand awareness which efficiently turns prospects into brand advocates. So, businesses go from business cards, to graphic designs used on social media channels, and down to website design which represents everything the business stands for. A unified look and feel of your business which your website promotes allows people to go beyond just wanting to purchase your product and services, and makes them identify with all the several other things your business and brand represent.
Let’s take a look at an example of Airbnb
Airbnb has been able to revolutionize the hospitality industry by offering an alternative way for users to find accommodation. The idea in itself is a pretty solid one. But the strategic reason why they have successfully turned a $100 million business venture into a $31 billion successful business over a period of 6 years is the main attraction.
Like lots of businesses, Airbnb successfully tapped into a strategy which they knew that their target audience will respond well to – humanity. Instead of staying at overpriced hotels with nameless staff, the company encouraged and motivated random people to open their homes to travelers and make them feel a lot more at home while also encouraging the travelers to treat the accommodation as their own homes.
From their healthy website design structure to their marketing on social media. Their business success can be said to be impeccable. And this can be attributed to their impeccable business practices which is correctly represented through their website design structure.
So what are the specific ways website design influences business success?
Website Design has UX design – Visitors will Enjoy Your Website and Stay longer
Owning a website is not enough if your web visitors are unable to easily find what they are looking for. With a great UX design, a website is designed to give users an excellent experience.
UX influences several things in a website, including:
- How fast your site’s pages load
- A simple solution for users including call to actions
- Appealing design,- fonts, elements, and layouts
Mobile Optimization – Users can access your business smoothly on their Phone
Running a business can be very demanding, and requires that business owners keep up with technology development. There are several ways to narrow your success and focus on the right business technologies.
One way to do this is to understand where your visitors are looking for you and how they interact with your business after they find you.
Research from Punchkick Interactive has shown that more than half of internet traffic comes from mobile usage.
Websites are first designed originally for desktop usage and experience but then the desktop experience doesn’t always give the same experience as mobile and if more than half of your potential users are using mobile, then mobile optimization is best suited to drive business success.
To guarantee business success, it is important for your website to be mobile-friendly, either adaptive or responsive. Since most Internet users and potential customers are active on-the-go, Mobile optimization will allow your business to be discoverable everywhere—not just on a laptop!
Website Design has SEO – Search Engines Can Find You
With SEO, websites link back to search engines like Google at some point and ultimately show up on the search results when users search for keywords related to the business.
What this means is that, if you’re running an eCommerce business in Ontario, Canada, selling toys, your business will most likely come when users search for “toy sellers in Ontario.” . And as with any successful venture, this may not happen immediately, but your business has more chances to show in search results than your competitors who do not have SEO.
Visuals: Looking good is good business
Visual designs can help to strengthen the emotional connection between your customers and your brand. This is to say that your website visuals have the power to directly increase your business success.
As the saying goes, ‘you only have one chance to make a good impression.’ While it may sound very cliché, it remains very true. How your website looks at first glance influences how your visitors perceive your business, so yes, first impressions really do count. Your website visitors will only take just a few seconds to judge you. And with the right website design, you can influence their judgment and make it be in favor of your business.
This is to say that the credibility of your website is judged on aesthetics 75% of the time, and 88% of visitors are unlikely to return following a bad experience. A user-friendly website is also reader-friendly. Visuals also go beyond just aesthetics and graphics and moves down to creating the right content for your users. Low-quality content will not only get you to rank low on search engines, even with the right keywords, they will also make your users not find your website useful enough to stick around longer.
Keeping your website content brief but engaging and displaying them in appealing visuals will encourage you website visitors to share not only your content but also be willing to share your business with others. A great visual will also give you better control over your bounce rate, which if minimized can ensure business success.
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Conclusion
Understanding the importance of Website design for any business success, means understanding things like SEO, UX design, content development and marketing, among others.
Seeing that you need a website that is properly designed which meets expectations and possesses all the required features, you may need the services of professional website designers with the right skills to ensure business success.
Chilling Design is a team of professional website designers with incredible skills who has mastered the right approach to creating websites that solves problems.
