Occasionally clients will tell me that they don’t get any business from their website because their prospects don’t use Google to find them. This is especially true in more industrial enterprises. It may be the case that your target audience doesn’t use a search engine to find your services, but they’ll use your site to measure your company’s trustworthiness among other things.
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Your website is more than a way station on the internet’s great information highways. It functions as your brand’s CV, portfolio, and salesforce. If a prospect searches for your website and none shows up, your brand appears outdated. If a prospect finds your website but it’s interface is unattractive, your brand appears unprofessional.
There’s simply no way around a business website in 2017. It’s a necessity, and like all of your business necessities, you get what you pay for.
The cost of a robust web design is a one-time investment, but that one investment has the potential to bring in a greater ROI than any other business investment that you make. Here are a few of the returns you get when you invest in a professionally-designed website.
Attractive web design improves your brand’s trustworthiness.
Visitors to your site are coming for the informative, engaging content you provide. However, studies show that they won’t stay on long enough to get to the content if your design isn’t effective. On the other hand, well-designed websites improve a brand’s trustworthiness.
In the same way that we tend to trust attractive strangers more readily than unattractive strangers, we trust attractive website more than unattractive ones. Maybe we shouldn’t trust a site by it’s landing page, but it’s in our nature. When you invest in an attractive site, you’re making an investment in your brand’s reputation. That’s an investment that’ll pay dividends.
Engaging design increases brand awareness and engagement.
Once visitors establish that they can trust your brand, they’re ready to engage with you. By providing a website with a clean, appealing design, a unique approach to content, and opportunities for interaction, you increase the likelihood that visitors will stay on your site and engage with your brand.
Merge effective web design with a powerful product and you’ve got a highly shareable package. Visitors to your site will be eager to spread the word about your brand, which will extend your reach and increase your awareness of your brand.
A highly-usable, beautifully-designed website improves conversion rates.
While content drives traffic to your site through search engine optimization and high-value information, design is the critical factor in your site’s conversion rates. Intuitive, highly-usable design is what keeps visitors moving through your business site smoothly. It’s also what prompts visitors to take action, moving from casual shoppers to committed customers. Flaws in your website design can hinder this transition, however, so it’s important that the person designing your website has an understanding of user interface and user psychology.
Your brand’s website is the salesperson who never sleeps.
As long as your site is up and running, there’s a chance someone is looking at it. If you’ve created a site that feels trustworthy and provides valuable information, it functions as a salesperson. Except you never actually have to pay the website after the initial build. If your website provides users with a modern, easy-to-navigate design and useful information, you’ll see a return in click-through rates, conversions, and recurring visitors.