Website design is about more than the aesthetic of the webpages. Not only do web designers have to create a worthy online visual representation of your business, they also have to build a platform that markets your services, establishes your business as a trustworthy source and compels users to buy. The website has to empower its visitors with eloquently written content and engage with them in such a way that your services resonate, giving them the confidence in your business to actually buy from you.
People visit websites to obtain knowledge, test the reliability of the business and make purchases. Badly designed websites do not meet industry standards in one or all of these three areas which has a huge negative impact on user experience. If user experience isn’t maximised, your website will fail. We’re about to explore the damaging effect of bad web design on the user; here are some of the most common failings.
1. Poor Mobile Experience Threatens Business
We spoke about the rise of mobile devices and how most traffic driven to a website comes from mobiles in a previous article, highlighting the necessity of having a mobile version of all websites. This necessity is given further emphasis by Google’s decision to index mobile websites before their desktop versions, demonstrating Google’s prioritisation of mobile-friendly websites over desktop ones. A mobile version of a website isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity and by not ensuring that user experience is optimised and not displaying certain content, you could run the risk of losing out on a lot of business.
2. No Optimisation Means Stunning Web Design Goes to Waste
Most web designers should be able to create aesthetically pleasing, innovative webpages that look fantastic. But where a lot of web designers fail is with things that go beyond design. All websites must be thoroughly optimised with expert SEO or your beautiful website won’t be seen anybody. Without the skilled application of SEO, the website won’t be visible on Google and will be lost among the millions of search results that Google pulls in. All businesses have competition and have to compete with their competitors on every level, especially website design; but if users can’t find your website, the appeal of your web design won’t matter. Working with a local SEO practitioner will give you another advantage as local practitioners will have a detailed understanding of targeting to local audiences.
3. Boring, Badly-Written Content Will Increase Bounce Rate
A user takes only 4 to 6 seconds to decide whether they are going to continue browsing your site or not. If your website doesn’t give them what they’re looking for, they will just leave and find it on a competitors website. Content is key to keeping users engaged and giving them what they want. Content must be appealing, engaging to read and present your business as a reputable source of information. If the content isn’t attention grabbing, the content is letting you down and your business will suffer for it. When completed, all content written for websites must be submitted to Google so that it can be crawled and checked for relevancy and value. Without doing this, the content won’t assist your SEO like it should do.
Ultimately, web design is a complicated process that involves the application of a wide, specialist skill-set. Get in touch with our expert web designers to make sure your website is ticking all the right boxes and maximising user experience.