Web design is your first opportunity to make a good impression. It’s often the case that there are several other companies selling the same service or product as you, at around the same price as you, of a similar quality to yours … so how do you set yourself apart?

Simple – invest in your web design!

You only get one shot at a first impression

Some people are guilty of undervaluing the importance of well crafted, visually pleasing design. As with other types of creative work, the importance is often lost on some who consider it a luxury for their site, rather than a necessary investment that will make a real difference to their customer perception and conversions.

But it is absolutely essential. Visitors will make their first judgment of your site – and, by extension, your product or service – based on what they see. Negative first impressions happen when your site appears outdated or otherwise unappealing, and those impressions can last.

The web is a busy place nowadays, with a lot of options and competition. Your biggest competitors online will almost certainly have invested in top notch web design, which in turn sets the standard across the board. People expect to see great design when they click onto your website, and falling short of this expectation can put customers off, causing them to leave your page in favour of a competitor. Effective web design inspires faith in your brand and helps you to keep leads on your page.

Great design benefits your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy

The way you publish content on your website can be influenced by certain web design elements and practices you choose to use. Believe it or not, this can actually have an impact on how search engine spiders index and crawl your site.

Your on-page SEO fundamentals are so vital for your site’s visibility that you really cannot risk any errors here. There’s already so much competition out there that anything that might impact your website’s chances of being seen is a big deal.

Web design can be complicated, so if you’re not particularly familiar with how everything works it would be worth consulting a knowledgeable agency to ensure your code is SEO friendly.

You will appear more trustworthy

A poorly designed website does not inspire a great deal of trust, and where you lose trust, you lose customers.

When people see an outdated or poorly designed website it tends to raise concerns, making people think your site may be shady or your business struggling. This doesn’t inspire much confidence and may make people less comfortable parting with their money. On the other hand, when there has clearly been a lot of thought, effort and capital poured into a website, this can go a long way towards assuring customers that you are fully invested and, thus, fully trustworthy.

Keep up with your competitors

With good web design being so beneficial, it should come as no surprise that your competitors are likely to invest in it. Big brands especially are very familiar with the necessity of giving the right amount of focus to their web design.

So the risk of having an outdated, low quality website is not only that the customers may not find or choose to click away from your site, it is also that when they click on a competitor with better web design their impression of your brand could further suffer. This may mean losses in leads and sales.

A well designed website is like a stage, one where you can really showcase your company’s skills and show off your unique features. It’s your chance to illustrate to potential customers why they should forget about the competition and choose you.

At Hybrid Anchor we understand what makes a well designed website work and we’re always happy to share what we know and work hard to ensure our clients maximise opportunity. Get in touch with us at info@hybridanchor.com or +44 (0) 141 6486 999 to learn more about how Hybrid Anchor can help you optimise your site with excellent web design.