Importance of Website Design for Your Business

Nowadays, every business that operates in the online world needs a website. Without one, it’s like you don’t even exist. What’s more, every business needs a website as the final point of sale. After all, the entire point of digital marketing is to lead prospects to your website so that they can make the desired action, such as subscribe, make a purchase, download something and so on.

Aside from all that, consumers these days oftentimes browse websites before they make a decision to buy something or subscribe to some service. During that process, they look to get informed, compare prices and, most importantly, evaluate the overall experience. That’s where the website design comes into play.

The design of your website plays a vital role in customer experience. It determines whether visitors will remain on your website or simply bounce off. That being said, consumers have specific expectations, needs and demands when it comes to their experience on some website and yours must be able to meet those requirements. So, here are a few reasons why having a good website design is important for your business.

Speed matters

One of the most important requirements consumers have when it comes to website design is speed. If your website isn’t fast enough and if your pages take too long to load, your website visitors will simply leave and, oftentimes, they will never come back. As a matter of fact, even a single second delay in page load time can result in a 16% decrease in user satisfaction, 11% decrease in page views and 7% decrease in conversion rates.

As an example, for a website that earns a $100,000 a day, this delay can result in the loss of $2.5 million of revenue annually. That’s why it’s important to ensure your website is fast, especially since website design doesn’t only consist of visual representation but functionality as well. Moreover, 47% of consumers expect a page to load in 2 seconds or less, while 64% of mobile users will leave if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Therefore, if you want to avoid high bounce rates and consumer dissatisfaction, you must ensure that your website speed is fast enough.

Mobile friendliness

Another important design factor for your website is mobile friendliness. Nowadays, mobile traffic has exceeded that of a desktop and the number of mobile users grows each day. In addition, mobile users expect the same kind of experience and convenience from websites that they would get on a desktop.

Fortunately, web owners today no longer have to worry about maintaining two versions of the same website, one for desktop and the other for mobile users.

In fact, your website’s responsive design will ensure that all users can have the same experience regardless of the device or the screen size of the device they’re visiting your website from. A responsive design is not just cheaper but also easier to maintain. However, it must be included in the web design itself.

Security

Proper cyber security measures might not seem like something important for web design, but the reality is that they are one of the most crucial factors. Nowadays, consumers oftentimes have to leave sensitive information online, in order to make purchases or register on websites and such.

Furthermore, they want to be sure that their sensitive information, such as credit card information, names, addresses, log-in credentials and so on, are properly secured. If your website doesn’t have proper cyber security, then consumers won’t bother with whatever it is that you offer.

For example, some of the best online casinos in the world take cyber security very seriously. They want to ensure that their customers’ minds are at ease when it comes to their earnings and sensitive information they’ve provided by going as far as including biometric scans for authentication. Another example is ecommerce websites that also handle numerous transactions each day. They ensure that the check-out process is properly secured by at least implementing an SSL certificate on their pages.

Visual hierarchy

Visual content and website visuals in an overall design are very important for user satisfaction and experience. After all, websites are designed for the consumers and you must have your customers’ best interest in mind when designing a website. Everything matters when visuals are concerned, ranging from the colors you opt for to the overall layout of the website. What’s more, visual content, such as images or videos are important as well. The main reason why visual hierarchy is an important element of a website design is that it helps form strong first impressions. In fact, it takes users 50 milliseconds to form a first impression of your website and 94% of those impressions are based on the visual design.

Moreover, it takes 2.6 seconds on average for consumers to decide whether your website is good or bad and their decision is mostly influenced by visual elements. Not only that, but human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than textual information, which means that the visual hierarchy of your website will pretty much determine if your visitors will stay to explore it further or leave and never come back.

Navigation

When it comes to browsing through a website, navigation plays a vital role in customer experience. Consumers want to browse without any hindrances or delays. In other words, they want a seamless experience. Therefore, when designing your website, it’s crucial that you take the time to focus on the navigation and ease of access.

Navigation should focus on allowing consumers to find what they are looking for without any difficulties. For example, a search bar on your website is a must and it has to be optimized properly so that your consumers don’t end up on broken or missing pages.

In addition, make sure your consumers can easily access customer service and support features or an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website from any page. Another important factor to consider is that you should enable seamless offers for consumers while they navigate your website. That includes placing well-designed CTA (Call-To-Action) buttons on relevant pages alongside compelling offers. A website design determines whether or not your visitors will stay on your website and eventually convert in some way, or if they will leave your website unsatisfied. When designing a website, it’s of the utmost importance to understand your customers’ needs and expectations so that you can develop a website that will meet or even exceed those requirements.