Websites are the virtual front doors to businesses, organizations, and information, so ensuring accessibility is a moral and strategic necessity. Web accessibility, often overlooked, is the practice of developing websites that can be used and navigated by all individuals, including those with disabilities.
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With just about every type of business starting up a website today, it’s more critical than ever to make sure your business’s site really stands out to consumers. One of the quickest ways to make a strong first – and lasting – impression that’s sure to attract further clicks is high-quality web design.
Although you might not have given much thought to the design specifics of your company website, many companies today are working with professionals like Higher Images to make sure their websites look their best and attract the target demographic. Whether your site could use a facelift or you’re just starting to build up your first website and want to make sure you knock it out of the park on the first go, here are some of the surprising reasons so many businesses today are trending towards using professional web design – and how it could potentially benefit your website, too.
It’s an unfortunate truth that poor web design can actually drive internet users away from a website. On the flip side, when a site is beautifully designed and the layout is clean, intuitive, and highly user-friendly, it makes it easier for customers to stay, browse, click through the pages, and more. Of course, it goes without saying that the more time spent on a site, the more likely customers are to make a purchase or contact you for your services.
You might not think the design of your website impacts your customer’s perceptions of your professionalism, but as it turns out, first impressions can leave a significant mark. In fact, without a professional-looking website, or with a website that appears too sloppily put together, your customers may, unfortunately, be more inclined to perceive your company as less credible or even less trustworthy. Of course, to avoid this negative perception, many companies are going to the pros for a design that is sure to portray the company as top-notch.
Even if you offer amazing services or products, without a proper website and the inherent marketing value it carries, many potential consumers will never know about them. A truly well-designed website, especially one that works well on different platforms and can be mobile-friendly, effectively makes a company more accessible. Not only does this make the company appear more open, but it can also make customers more likely to find your site from the countless others out there.
With a well-designed website, users can easily find everything they’re looking for without having to try too hard. This is referred to as navigability, and it’s not only a measure of how simple the site is to use but can correlate with the experience your customers will have on the site. If your site frustrates them, they may be left with a bitter taste in their mouth. Companies are making the shift to more easily navigable websites that will instead foster a positive consumer experience.
Nothing makes a site pop and a message stand out quite like top-notch web design. Many companies today are starting to catch on to this realization and are working with professionals to get their sites as polished and ready for presentation as possible. If you’re putting together your company’s first website, or if you think your current site could use a serious revamp, you may want to take note of all the reasons other businesses are paying more attention to professional web design. It could be the tool you need to take your company website to the next level.
You’ve got a brilliant new business, a killer idea the public will love and the best quality service in the industry. So, why aren’t you getting any customers?
Believe it or not, it might be down to a lack of trust. You may think “but I haven’t done anything wrong” and that might well be true. However, earning trust is less about what you do, and more about what you aren’t doing.
This is never more true than on the centerpiece of any modern business, your website. If your website, and more specifically its homepage, doesn’t inspire trust, your business is a non-starter. Let’s explore some ways you can use and adapt your homepage to give your business a trustworthy aura.
Web design is often a case of making sure you’re prioritizing the most crucial elements of your business.
To most online businesses, that means directing visitors towards products, banners highlighting special deals, and video content showing off their services. It also means giving precedence to what people think of your business and its output.
As part of the social proof phenomenon, customer reviews have become one of the primary factors in how consumers make purchase decisions. This is not just the case in e-commerce either. Across numerous industries, consumers are making a point of checking what previous users have thought about the experiences of using products, services, and customer support. In fact, 57% of consumers have admitted they will only shop with retailers with a star rating of 4 or higher.
To take advantage of this new normal you need to make sure your website puts significant prominence on customer feedback, particularly the visuals of a starred review. Online mortgage broker breezeful.com do this particularly well, featuring not just clear star reviews, but images and testimonial copy from satisfied customers and partners. Adding these personal elements gives the star ratings more humanity, giving customers a greater sense of trust in the business.
Project management tool basecamp.com excels here too, subtly placing reviews and quotes above the headline, almost forcing the visitor to read them and be impressed.
Reviews aren’t just an opportunity to brag about how good you are, they’re a chance to give your business place in the real world and use genuine experiences to your advantage in a way brick and mortar stores do every day.
In today’s modern market a business can’t simply have great products and excellent service, it needs to concentrate on how it brands itself.
While social media has emerged as the primary area for brand building, a business’ website, particularly the first impression a homepage gives, is essential to the process. This isn’t just an exercise in self-promotion for profit though — it’s an essential part of earning customer trust and building the legitimacy of your business.
Brand building content means interviews with team members, blogs about social events, and highlighting the charity work you do outside of the office.
While you can’t feature all of this on your homepage, you should look to include snippets of it. That way, even if a visitor doesn’t read the content they’re still getting some of the intended brand building. Social feeds and large visual banners linking to blogs are a great way to naturally work this content into your homepage.
Don’t overstuff your homepage with too much content though, you don’t want to dilute the message. However, a vital trust-building exercise is making sure new visitors are aware of the people behind the virtual business front.
Sometimes, the simplest way is the best way.
When it comes to security, many consumers just want to know you’re getting the basics right. For most businesses, the basics mean a secure and well-built website. It’s amazing what doing these crucial elements right can do for your perception among first-time visitors. Something as simple as HTTPS security can completely transform the perception of your website homepage for new visitors.
You want to try and reduce any lingering suspicion as much as possible. Pixelated, stretched images can make a user question the professionalism of your business. A lack of ‘licensed seller’ seals if you’re trying to move specialist products can make consumers question their legitimacy.
Look at how Ingrammicro’s official UK store lists the major brands they work with along the base of its homepage. It’s professional and the use of logos instantly lets you know you’re in safe hands.
Most importantly of all though, you need to be optimized for mobile. There’s no faster way to push people away from your website on their portable device than not fully-optimizing it for those platforms. A user that lands on a homepage that loads in desktop view for mobile may not think that business is a scam, but they won’t trust them enough to part with money or sensitive details.
If you can balance basic security and technical elements with an inventive homepage design you’re well on your way to a successful website.
One of the worst things you can do with your website is to make it something that disconnects your business from the real world.
Yes, we do operate much more digitally these days, but people still want to be able to imagine a business in a physical setting. You can achieve this by not just including that vital info, but making yourself immediately open and available to contact.
Social media links on your homepage are important for the same reason, letting visitors know you’re reachable on their preferred platform and can be publicly questioned.
For more service-oriented businesses this is a no brainer. Your first objective should be to get people to get in touch with you, so give your phone number and email address pride of place on your website in the same way Apple put their latest iPhone front and center.
Trust is something you have to earn. Consumers have been burned too many times by creative phishing techniques and have an internal checklist they rattle off every time they visit a new website. Make sure you’re hitting the mark.
Your website says a lot about your business and people will make a snap judgment about you as soon as you land on your homepage. That’s a big problem for you if your website looks very amateurish. It is important that your website is easy to navigate and has all of the necessary features, but it also needs to look professional.
If your site looks like the website of a big professional company, that inspires confidence in your customers and they will be more likely to buy your products. But if your site looks like it was made on a shoestring budget and cobbled together in a few days, that gives a bad impression and people will assume that you have the same casual attitude towards things like customer service and product design.
If your website is looking a bit tired and you think that it could do with an update, these are some of the best ways to make it look more professional.
Saving money is always important in business, but there are some areas where you should invest money, and your website is definitely one of them. If you go with the cheapest web designer you can find, the quality of the site will reflect the amount that you pay. You need to shop around and find the best WordPress web developers if you want a professional website that gives the right impression to your customers. Make sure that you check the reviews and look at some of their previous work. It is important that you find a web developer that can create the right tone for your business.
If you look at the websites of big companies, they are all very simple. An overcrowded website that is packed with features does not come off as professional at all, so you need to streamline your site as much as possible. It also makes it very difficult for users to navigate. When you come up with a website design, consider what information and features are essential and cut everything else out.
A slow website screams unprofessional, and it is so frustrating for users. You will never log on to the website of a big company and wait five minutes for the homepage to load, so you need to speed test your site and if it is slow, make some changes to improve loading times. Using a good web designer will help, and so will streamlining the design because you do not have a lot of features to load. If your site is still slow, you may have an issue with your hosting services.
If your website looks the part, users will stick around and start exploring some of the content on there. It is essential that you write compelling content that gives the impression of a professional business. Always take the time to proofread your content as well because spelling and grammar errors give the impression that you don’t really care about the site and your business is very unprofessional.
These are all simple ways that you can make your website look a lot more professional and inspire confidence in your business.
FemFounder is a one-stop shop for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners who need PR, Instagram, Pinterest, and email list building help.
