Why Great Web Design Is Critical To Online Success

When making the foray into the world of online business, a website is usually the first thing on the list that has been designed and developed.

But why is web design so important? What are the cornerstones of a great website?

You’ve done it! You have taken the leap to create an online business, and now you are on a mission to create a website. Usually, you’ll find out pretty quickly that there are a lot of web designers, agencies and other companies competing for your business, and actually choosing the right web designer for you can be difficult.

The Importance Of Web Design

As technology evolves, so do consumer expectations when it comes to websites and their performance. Because of this, it’s imperative that your website stays on top of that evolving technology, as well as offers a dose of exceptional usage. A website is fundamentally the window display of your online store, and no one wants (or wants to see) a poor-quality window display.

Website design, when done correctly, can pay huge dividends for any online business and here are the pillars that create thriving websites. Each of these points you should be discussed with your agency or designer to confirm they have covered all these bases:

Design And Usability

When creating a website, the lines between great design and great usability can sometimes become blurred and can lead to a catastrophic end result from users who simply don’t engage with your website.

Design and usability should go hand in hand to complement each other: a site may have an outstanding aesthetic look, but if users can’t easily find what they’re looking for, you’ll lose that visitor in 2-3 seconds, and that’s it. A lost sale.

Discuss usability with your web designer or agency before the site is built. Take a look at the colours and other design elements that can help make your website look good.

Navigation And User Paths

This section refers to how to plan the navigation.

Without a doubt, navigation is one of the most important things to think about when building a website. At this juncture, you need to map the customer journey through your site and decide what is going to be the most effective way for your users.

Talk to your web designer about navigation and what will go where. You’ll find that once you’ve thought about and planned your navigation, it enhances the overall appearance of any website, which is great for business.

Talk About Brand

Building a brand is what most companies dream of. Becoming a household name where a large part of your search traffic comes from brand-related searches, at this point, you can say to some extent, “I have done it”.

However, in your new foray into the world of online business, you’ll need to start somewhere to build that brand, and a website is the best place to do it.

Discuss branding and brand consistency with your web designer and discuss how to keep the brand consistent across the site to ensure customers start to engage with the business; Branding is important when it comes to successful web design.

Calls To Action

Any online business requires a call to action. Whether it’s shopping online, picking up the phone and asking, or simply sending an email with a query, there’s usually always a need for a call to action (or CTA).

A good web designer will help you establish good calls to action throughout the site to ensure that customers are browsing or buying. A good web designer should be experienced in the types of CTAs, work effectively and use this knowledge in your build.

Search Engine Optimization

Having a web designer with experience when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) is absolutely crucial.

During the process of building a website, you should have the peace of mind that your website is being built with search engines in mind, which means that when you finally launch it, you have the best chance of success on Google.

Discuss with your web designer what they know about SEO and what steps they will take to ensure that your site is search engine ready – it’s a critical element of your website’s future success.