The importance of good site design

When running a business, your website might not be at the top of your priority list in terms of making it look perfect, well-designed and colour coordinated – but it should. Think of it this way – your site is your shop window. It’s the first thing your customers see, so what impression do you want to give them? And what do you want them to notice first?

Maybe site design is something you outsource, which is absolutely fine. But you should know why you’re investing money into it and how it’ll help your business. It’s always better to be clued up.

So here are just some of the reasons why you should prioritise good site design, how it can help your business and gain you more customers.

A smooth customer journey

From the moment they arrive on your site, customers should be able to find what they’re looking for easily, navigate through pages without excessive loading times and see clear links and page titles. They should know exactly where they are, who you are and what you do. Think about what your customers step-by-step is going to be when they reach your home page. Where are they likely to go next?

As you think about their journey, look at the number of clicks a site visitor is likely to do before they get to their destination. Every click is a chance for them to leave your site, so the number of clicks needs to be kept to a minimum.

With this comes making sure your site is easy to navigate and responsive on multiple devices. We’ve all got the perfect little shopping centre right in our pockets, so it’s likely that your site will be visited on mobile or tablet over laptops or computers. Images should change and resize based on this, so everything is still visible.

Good for SEO

There’s no point in taking the time to design a lovely looking website if no one is going to see it. So when you’re building your site, make sure you keep SEO in mind. Optimising SEO means you’ll rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). 

And it’s not just about the content you use, although that plays a big part. Include keywords within your content, make sure it’s all relevant to what you do and be sure to add high-quality images. But don’t overdo it with the keywords. Google will prioritise good quality content over quantity. All of these things combined will help boost your ranking. 

The order of your content is also important. The things you want your customers to prioritise seeing first should be higher up the page. This is why it’s important to wireframe your pages before you create them.

Make information easy to find

Things like your contact info, shop address and a contact form should be easy to find on your page and listed in an obvious place in the navigation bar. And once customers get to a contact form, it should be clear how to fill it out and what information is required. Send out acknowledgement that their message has been received and that you’ll reply – there’s nothing more annoying than contacting a business, only to never hear from them again. 

Product displays

Think of your site as your shop window. What do you want front and centre, that should be the first thing your customers see?

Your product or services should be clear and organised, possibly into sections if it’s applicable, so that a visitor can get to where they need to be and see exactly what it is you do/sell. Take the time to get your products photographed professionally, with plain backgrounds, or in a style that suits the tone of your business. You want to make them stand out, while also sticking to your brand palette.

Keep customers coming back

If your site looks nice, your customers are far more likely to come back. It’s as simple as that. A disorganised, boring or unappealing website isn’t going to instil trust in visitors, or make them want to buy and buy again. A study by Microsoft said that the average attention span of people online is 8 seconds. And with lives becoming more and more hectic, this makes it more important than ever to have an eye-catching site that turns clicks into paying customers.

Stand out in your industry

You’ve got a lot of competition out there, so make sure you get your site looking the best it can. If someone else who does something similar to you has a better site, customers will go to them. Eliminate that risk and put the time into your site, or invest in someone else who can. It’s not just about being unique, it’s about making your site easy to navigate, looking good and functioning correctly.

You can use a website builder to choose a template and customise it with all the features – widgets, shop menus, product pages, contact info.

Keep things updated

You can’t build your site and never touch it again. Customers won’t trust a site that looks like it hasn’t been touched since the 2000s. Your site needs to make your business look active, so every few months perform regular updates to your site design. Keep the information up to date as well, as customers don’t want to send an email or ring the number on your site only to never get a reply because the information is outdated.

Your products, including stock levels, also need to be accurate, so that orders aren’t cancelled or delayed.

Accessibility 

Something often forgotten is accessibility. It’s so easy to forget that not everyone will view your site in the same way. The structure of the page, font size and colours and even typeface all need to be easy to read for people who have difficulty. 

Also take into consideration people who might use a screen reader. What will it be reading out? And in what order? Your headings should be marked up properly, for example H1, H2 and H3, so that they’re read out in the right order. 

For this, it’s also a good idea to include alt text for any of the images you use. This is text that isn’t shown on your actual site, but can be read out to someone with a screen reader to describe what the picture is. 

There also needs to be a distinct contrast between the background colour and the text colour. This can help people with colorblindness, dyslexia and other sight difficulties. 

Let’s help you build the perfect site!

If this all sounds a bit overwhelming, don’t panic! Our Website Builder has all the templates, tools and widgets to help you create a site that suits your business – no dev or design experience needed! It’s fully customisable and has tips and tricks throughout to help you make the most of the features. 

If you’ve got any questions or need any help, our team is available 24/7. Give us a call on 0333 0142 700 or message us via live chat.