Website Design: 4 Reasons You Should Be Focusing on It

In many ways, your website is a representative of your brand and your physical store. In the same way that you want your store or office to be neat, tidy, and thoughtfully laid out, you want to give your website the same thought and care.

Website design can determine whether or not a customer will stay on your website or even come back. It also sends signals to viewers about what your brand voice is and whether or not they feel like they can trust you. On the technical end, website design can determine how your website functions.

That’s why today’s article is dedicated to the importance of layout and aesthetics as it relates to your digital space. We’ll talk about some of the reasons why you should be focusing on what your website looks like, as well as provide resources for your consideration.

What is Website Design?

Website design is the look and feel of a site. It is the aesthetic elements (like color, textures, fonts, graphics) that draw a viewer’s eye and make them curious to learn more.

It’s also the intuitive way that a site is laid out. In order to have a successful design, a website should be simple to navigate and thoughtfully created with the user in mind. It also encompasses many of the ways a website should function as a whole.

Website design is so important because it helps create the entire experience a person has while using the site. You want someone to have a great experience on your site so that they’ll come back, tell others about it and, hopefully, come to trust you and your brand.

A successful website creates loyal customers, and it begins with a successful design.

1. Website Design Creates Brand Perception

How your website looks and behaves will influence what people think about your brand. So, for example, if the site is neatly laid out and easy to navigate, users will get the hint that your business is organized and cares about their audience’s experience when using the site.

If you include eye-catching graphics and aesthetic colors that represent your brand, users will know that you care about your business’s appearance and must provide a professional product/service.

If your website is regularly updated with new information and content, as well as given functionality updates, customers will see that you listen to your audience’s feedback and are interested in creating a respectful online community.

Think about the person who’s never heard of your business before whose first interaction with your brand is the website. You want them to have all of the positive thoughts we just discussed and create the foundation for a long-term customer relationship.

2. Ranking in Google Depends on Design

Poor website design can affect the credibility of your website, making people less likely to click on it or quickly leave before spending too much time there. Website credibility is one of the major factors Google takes into consideration when ranking sites.

When crawling sites, the bots that Google uses to mimic user experience are checking to make sure that the fonts and colors that you use are easy to read and look at, while also seeing that the site is easy to navigate. That goes hand-in-hand with having an intuitive layout.

When a designer designs a site, they place the emphasis on usability for humans, not the Google bots. However, it’s important to take the crawlers into account when formatting URLs, images, and other pieces of information.

3. Website Design Affects Accessibility

This idea of designing for humans is encapsulated within the idea of accessibility. It’s important for your website to be accessible to all, and that starts on day one of building a website. Accessibility is not a switch that you can flip on after the site has already been built and launched. 

It’s essential that a web designer follows best practices throughout the whole process in terms of color, fonts, properly labelling content and images, and site layout. If you’re interested in learning more about the thought processes behind these decisions, the Website Accessibility Initiative is an excellent resource.

4. The Statistics Are Clear

Your audience cares about your site’s design. Time and again, studies have shown that customers want a good experience when online, and that starts with great website design.

47% of users expect a site to load in two seconds or less. If your site is being bogged down by large images and complicated designs, this can have an overall negative impact on your website’s performance.

85% of people think a business’s website should look just as good on their mobile devices as it does on a desktop. Mobile optimization is huge. With so much of the world accessing information on the go, you have to consider mobile design as a priority.

38% of individuals will no longer interact with your site if they find the visuals unappealing. That means that if proper care isn’t given to the aesthetics of the site, you’ll lose out on quality business.

The Bigger Picture

The look and feel of your website goes far beyond simple aesthetics. It has everything to do with the way it behaves and performs online. Without careful planning and research, as well as extensive knowledge about website design, you could unintentionally turn people away from your business online.

At Vervology, we won’t let this happen. With a knowledgeable and experienced team as the driving force behind our clients’ websites, we can create a website that properly portrays your business and handles all of your needs online. Get in touch with us for a free consultation.