Your website may be your most effective tool to engage prospects and convert them to customers. An effective website, however, has to be tailored to the needs of your customer and your industry. Your web design has a huge impact on the number of prospects you convert to clients.
How do customers use your website?
To implement a plan for web design, you need to know how customers are using your website. For example, you may sell a product that a customer can review and purchase directly on your site.
If your product is complicated or more expensive, people may use your site to gather information and plan a visit to a physical location. Car dealer websites are generally set up to address questions and entice people to visit a showroom.
For those who provide a high-end service, the purpose of the site is also to provide information. Doctors, lawyers and accountants generally work with people in person or by phone. Their websites provide information.
Website design factors.
The Platt College web design department explains that website design can include audio, video, text, graphics and animation. Your website should also provide search engine optimization (SEO). SEO helps you increase your website’s ranking on Google searches.
We’ve previously listed many components for a well-designed website. As you review this list, think about a recent website you visited that was attractive, engaging and easy to use:
- Colors and fonts: The website’s colors and font were appealing. The colors used were not distracting. The colors and fonts encourage you to spend time on the site.
- Ease of navigation: The positioning of the menu and scroll bars made the site easy to navigate. You may find that the best sites are very simple in design.
- Speed: A good website allows you to move from one page to another quickly.
- Mobile-friendly: A growing percentage of website use is through mobile devices. Your site should be easy to view and navigate on a phone. The text should be large enough to read, and the buttons to navigate the site should be large enough to access on a phone.
The importance of content.
Your website should be designed in order to provide interesting and relevant content. That’s because good content can drive traffic to your site.
Google is the largest search engine on the web. In recent years, Google has changed how they rank websites for a specific keyword searches. The Google Panda search filter, for example, is meant to stop sites with poor quality content from working their way into Google’s top search results. To drive traffic, consider uploading useful content.
Converting content readers into customers.
If you decide to use content, work with a web designer to create a web design that can showcase good content. WordPress, for example, is an open source content management system that powers more than 20% of the sites on the web. Because the site is open source, your web designer can easily make changes without having to get licensing permission.
If a client reads content on your site, give them the chance to opt-in to additional content- in exchange for their email address. From there, you can email other content and build more interest in your business. Your content should answer a question or solve a problem. When a client needs to buy, he or she may think of your business first.
Web design can make or break your company’s efforts to find new customers. Consider investing in web design to increase sales for your business.
