Website design is an extremely important aspect of your online sales strategy.
Website design is where the two-way interaction takes place between a business and its potential clients.
A place where users should feel at ease when browsing through.
In this article, we cover why this is so and how to achieve a top-notch site without paying top-notch designers.
Website design first?
When thinking about building a website, most pay attention to the design – how it is going to look.
But the actual design bit comes towards the end of the build.
Think about it, if you decide to build a house, you don’t start by choosing the type of wallpaper you want, do you?
It’s the same with a website – you must ask – “what’s its purpose?”
- Will it sell goods or services?
- Is it educational or informative?
- Your market – what do they want to see?
Even small details like fonts and image size can be enough to turn people off if you haven’t thought it through.
So it pays to do the research first.
Loading speed
Another great reason for paying attention to the design elements is the loading speed of your site.
If a page has many large pictures to display, each one of those images has to be fully loaded before the page can be shown in a browser.
The more images, the longer it takes to load, so more of your visitors will leave before it is finished.
This is very important now most people use their mobiles to access the internet.
The majority will still be doing it over a 3G connection which is much slower than broadband.
Remember, you are competing for their attention. It is easy for visitors to click back and look at your competitor’s websites which may be faster.
So, if you get this wrong you are one click away from losing a paying customer.
Website design aftercare?
The funny thing about house builders – once they’ve finished and you move in, they don’t tend to be around to fix things when they go wrong.
They don’t show you where all the electrical wiring is or layout of the pipes.
If something does go wrong, you can bet it won’t be fixed for free.
A clear manual on everything you can fix yourself would be handy.
Looking after your Website design
When building websites (and not houses), it’s the Content Management System (CMS) choice that determines how much you can fix yourself and how easy management of the website is.
There are many CMS platforms out there.
Which one is best is the expert’s problem, not yours.
You need a CMS which allows you to change the toilet rolls without having to call out a plumber every time.
But also one which stops you from getting your hands into the boiler and causing an explosion.
Hosting
So, you need a great website design which considers all the above.
But that’s not all.
You also need a solid and dependable hosting service for your website to be placed.
Hosting is like land.
You need it to build your house on and it better be rock solid so the house stays up.
There are many hosting options available out there with very familiar names.
Of course, the fun bit you can do yourself is making the domain name choice.
So, you can see it’s tricky to get everything right.
You can do a lot of it yourself, but it is cheaper to use a website design agency who can get the job done quicker (saving you money) and use their experience to avoid costly mistakes.
Customer trust
Customer trust can be built into the design of your website.
Your web page is your digital face so it is very important to make that face a trustworthy one.
Not only will this provide a long-term relationship with the customer, but it also encourages new visitors to share your website.
It is very easy to fall into the trap of “overdoing” your first impression.
Always remember to keep it professional and allow your design to sell your trust rather than forcing it into your customer’s face.
Obviously your customer service needs to reflect the same quality as your website.
Give your customers a professional and happy experience throughout their online experience with you, even after the sale and you can look forward to positive reviews.
Online reviews will help boost your site SEO as well as future sales.
For other great ways to make your website design reach its full potential, please take a look at our other helpful pages such as –
User experience
The first thing you have to secure with your design is navigation and usability.
Simple menu bars, with easy, short titles and minimal drop-down menus give a clear indication to a user what information is available on your site and how to get there.
Large amounts of content are fine but not if it is cluttered.
You need to have plenty of clean space surrounding your content or it can turn anyone away within seconds.
Your users have to feel at ease with where everything is.
Streamline your content so it makes sense.
Make your site bold in areas where you want users to take an action such as clicking a button or filling out a form.
Brand identity
Consistency also helps keep the visitor reading further into your site.
Loading your site with mixed fonts, colours and images will only drive them away.
It is confusing for the brain to deal with subtle changes.
The best way to get the style right is a design board.
Decide who your audience is and what they like to see, then work your colour scheme, font and content from that point.
Take some time to look at your competitors’ websites.
The successful ones will always have a theme which remains the same, with the same format, style and typeface.
Your competition is also your handy research area.
Take a look at what everyone else is doing, the level of professional layout and what they have to offer.
This gives you a bar to aim for, allowing you to set yourself apart from them and reach higher levels.
WE’RE HERE TO HELP
Our team of experienced marketing specialists works closely with you to make sure everything is structured correctly from the start. If you already have campaigns running, we’ll assess what’s working, uncover opportunities for improvement, and bring your activity in line with proven best practice to improve performance.
The first 30 days are a vital discovery phase. This is where we learn how your audience responds, what’s gaining traction, and where refinements will have the greatest impact. Throughout this process, we provide clear direction and ongoing guidance, ensuring decisions are informed, measured, and built to support long-term, sustainable growth.
I have only just started to work with Matt & Heidi, from Spiders & Milk but the results so far are very impressive. Like a lot of businesses, mention the words optimization and google ad words and the fear is that you’re dealing with the unknown. Not the case with them as that’s what they specialize in.
I have no hesitation in recommending them.
Very impressed with the service we have received from Spiders and Milk. Matt has looked into and thereafter advised us on parts of our advertising that will work best for our sector, updated our website content to reflect this, and given us advice going forward to attract clients. An all-round excellent service and if you use this company we’re sure, like us, you will be using them again! Thank you Spiders and Milk 🙂
Thank god for Matt and his team – first-class 100% highly recommend
