How Does a Good Web Design Increase Sales in 2020?

In 2019, there were just 4.39 billion internet users, fast forward to July 2020 and there’s an incredible 4.57 billion people using the internet daily. The 18 million user increase could be directly related to COVID-19, as many businesses shifted to an online platform and customers had to search the web for toilet paper. So, what does this all really mean?

It means that with the daily amount of internet users constantly increasing, websites need to be ticking a criteria to ensure their web design is amazing. It only takes 50 milliseconds for a visitor to form an opinion of a website, so it’s critical that the navigation, content and responsiveness is above satisfactory.

Before you begin to build a website or enlist the help of a company, such as Eleet Enterprises, you need to have a clear goal. Whether you plan to set up a e-Commerce website or a booking website, it needs to be clear and objective. Most visitors like to understand what your website is about in the blink of an eye. If they have to search for what you do, they will most likely exit your website.

So, what do we think is the key to a good web design?

We have conducted a few surveys to find out what people value the most in a website. Responsiveness and Navigation were two features that people valued in a good web design. It is well known that if a websites layout is not optimised for a mobile device, the customer will exit the website before it even finishes loading. With most businesses moving their physical stores to an online presence, the competition has intensified as well. So, we have done the hard work for you and compiled 10 tips for a good web design that can be easily amended on any website.

1. Choosing the Right Website Builder

There are plenty of Content Management Systems (CMS) and Website Builders out there, such as WordPress, Wix, SquareSpace, Webnode and Weebly. So, how do you choose the best website for what you need? Each system has its own pro’s and con’s (we won’t get into that today), however we personally prefer WordPress for its CMS, it’s easy to use and it holds 35% of the website market in the world. Choosing the right website builder can make a huge impact on how your overall web design looks. Always do your research and discuss with your web developer about your web preferences.

2. Defining Your Layout.

Without a good web design layout, visitors are unlikely to stay on your website for longer than 50 milliseconds. Customers are quick to make a judgement and form an opinion of your business, just based solely off your website. So, don’t let that opinion be a bad opinion! A well designed layout will be symmetrical, clear and orderly. It will capture the visitors eye immediately and the main objective of the site will be crystal clear.

3. Domain Name = Professional.

In order for your visitors to remember your website, your domain name needs to be short and not contain symbols or characters that are hard to remember. Utilizing your brand name in the domain name makes your website appear to be more professional. Not only is your customised domain name perceived as professional, it’s also viewed as trustworthy.

4. Include the Essential Pages.

The ‘home’ page, ‘product or service’ page, ‘about us’ page and ‘contact us’ section, are all essential pages for any website. Customers need to be able to easily find information about who you are and what you do. It’s important to remember that websites with a clear goal or objective, have more success than websites that do not. We would also highly recommend extra pages, such as a blog page and customer testimonials. 69% of consumers would recommend a business after a good service, so leverage those testimonials!

Blogs are a great way to drive traffic to your website and educate your customers on topics you are passionate about. The more pages you include that are relevant to your business, the better the overall customer experience will be. Remember, a truly good web design will provide all the information a customer needs on the page they expect to find it on.

5. Usability is Number One.

Did you know that the usability of a website actually determines how successful it is? The design of a website is important, but not as important as usability. A user shouldn’t have to click more than once to find what they are looking for. If they do, chances are they will exit your website and find another website that’s easier to use. The colour scheme is also very important, you should limit yourself to three colours. Anything more than this and your visitor becomes overwhelmed by the different shades. Also, white is not a terrible colour to see! It gives your visitors a chance to breathe and absorb your content much more easily. 

Making use of Call to Actions to keep your visitors on the page is also imperative. They should be short and concise with a clear goal for the visitor. Utilizing the right font and size also makes a significant difference in the user’s experience. Test out different styles to see which is the easiest to read on mobile and web for the best results. Always remember that for a web design to be successful and profitable, a user-centric design must be incorporated.

6. SEO is Important.

Before you start adding headlines and content pieces to your websites, do a Google search on questions your customers would ask. Figure out what the keywords are and how you can implement them into your website. Google utilises the keywords that are found in websites, so if you don’t have any keywords relating to the searches, you will not appear on the results page. There are plenty of free SEO ranking services that will give you a score and inform you of what you need to fix as well. Although, it is best to start adding your SEO when you first begin designing your website.

We recommend using RankMath to assist your SEO growth, it’s a free plugin that gives you step by step instructions on how to improve your SEO. They also have very helpful blog posts about SEO practices, that go into depth of how your headline could be impacting web traffic. For more information on their services head over to http://rankmath.com

7. Accessible for Everyone.

It would be silly to assume that everyone accessing your website has the same abilities. That’s why web accessibility is important when it comes to catering to a wide range of abilities. You want every visitor to have an enjoyable experience and interact to the full potential on your website. By using clear headlines, alt text for your images and heading tags, you can make your website more accessible. 

A lot of businesses don’t put enough effort into making their websites accessible, resulting in a loss of clientele. Luckily, most SEO plugins will prompt you to add alt tags, heading tags and to use power words in your headlines. This will make a huge impact on how accessible your website is and in return produce a good web design.

8. Make it Engaging for Your Customers.

Utilizing chatbots actually increases customer engagement by 20 to 40%. It’s an easy source of information and saves the customer having to click through different pages. 83% of online shoppers require support when they online shop, so it is a beneficial plugin to use. Many visitors also look for social media accounts on your website. Always include links to your socials so you can engage with your customers.

9. Mobile Responsiveness.

More than 50% of website traffic is through a mobile device and that number is set to grow. It seems pretty obvious then that your website needs to be both mobile and desktop friendly. The customer experience is severely impacted when a website is not mobile friendly. When your customer can not easily navigate through your pages or easily access the shopping cart, you have a big problem on your hands. Like we stated above as well, mobile responsiveness is key to a good web design. So, make it a priority when designing your website and ensure tests are conducted on multiple devices.

10. Get Feedback.

You have probably heard it a million times now.. but testing is absolutely required! You need to be testing out your website from the beginning, all the way through until the final stages of development. Get as many opinions as you can on your content, navigation, colour scheme, font style and everything else! You want to know what to improve before you launch your website. You will probably still make adjustments as your website goes live, but at least it won’t be major changes!

To conclude, having a website is absolutely necessary in 2020! Your website can’t just be any old web design, it needs to be a very good web design that encompasses all 10 points from above. With everything that is happening in the world, you need to have a way to engage with your customers and still have a way to sell your products. Always stay up to date with the latest digital trends and make those website amendments as often as required.