One of the most effective marketing tools for any online business is web design. Specifically: good web design.
Your website is the place where your customers will get their very first impression of your business, before they view your products, before they even read what you’re all about. Think about it in this way: in the same way that an unattractive shop window is going to send people away from your store, having an outdated, glitchy website isn’t going to keep your keep web visitors on your site for long.
According to Blue Corona, 48% of people cited that a website’s design is the number one factor in determining the credibility of a business – so if you want to gain trust and respect from your customers, web design is key. Adobe also reported that 59% of web users with 15 minutes of time on their hands will read or browse through something beautifully designed rather than something plain and uninteresting.
How can Web Design be Used?
The way you go about designing or redesigning your website is up to you. There are plenty of platforms out there to help you to build your own website, although you should be aware that if you’re not using the platform’s paid features, you will likely end up with something basic and underwhelming at most.
A better alternative for many business owners is to pay a web design expert to design a website for them. This is the far more beneficial option from a marketing perspective as web designers can help create modern and unique websites tailored specifically towards your business and the products or services you offer.
How Much Does Web Design Cost?
If you’re giving web design a go yourself, the cost depends on which web-building platform you use, and how many of its paid features you opt for. On Squarespace, for example, one of the current leading web design tools, building and maintaining a website can cost anything between $12 to $40 per month.
If you’re looking to hire a web design expert to create your website for you, you’re looking at anything from $300 to $1500 and upwards, depending on the templates you wish to use, and how many separate pages you require for your full site.
Examples of Companies Using Web Design Right
You only have to look at the best-performing businesses in any niche area to find examples of beautiful web design. Multinational technology company, Apple, continues its clear, minimalistic theme from its stores onto its site, which makes for effective branding. Online supermarket Ocado ditched the cluttered web arrangement of many of its competitors in favour of a far cleaner design with a simple layout and distinct navigation tools.
Best Web Design Tools
While you will generally find you get a far better outcome from hiring a professional web designer to create your website for you, this might not be possible if your budget doesn’t allow for it. There’s no reason why you can’t still create an attractive website on your own, providing you know where to go to get the best results. Take a look at the following web design tools for inspiration:
· For web-building platforms, Wix, WordPress, Squarespace or GoDaddy are generally the go-to locations that offer a number of design options, too. These sites give you the ability to customise whatever you want and ultimately create a unique website, but it’s a good idea to have at least a moderate understanding of design before you go into it.
· For creating graphics and mock-ups of webpages, Adobe Fireworks is your best bet. Designed with web designers in mind, the editing tool allows users to create interactive website prototypes, including means to include buttons and navigation bars.
· For a wide range of web developer tools, Firefox Developer Edition boasts a number of useful features including analysing and debugging, building and designing with CSS Grid, HTML inspector and style editor.
My Top Tips for Killing it with Web Design
First and foremost, web design takes effort. If you’re planning on designing a website for yourself, be prepared to invest hours of your time into the project. Aside from commitment, here’s how to kill it with web design:
1. Ensure easy navigation. No-one wants to get lost trying to find something on your site.
2. Keep things mobile friendly. In 2018, 52.2 percent of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones, so don’t make the mistake of neglecting yours.
3. De-clutter your homepage. Focus only on your mission statement to give users a general idea of what you stand for.
4. Images are everything. Pay for professional photography or stock photos if you need to.
5. Set a plan in place. It’ll make things far less overwhelming once you get into the thick of it.
6. Find out what web design companies have done for clients in your niche. Other web design companies will have case studies such as this Chiropractic web design case study where you can find detailed information on what exactly they did for the client and how that benefited the clients business.
Top Web Design Blogs to Follow
1. Awwwards
If you’re stuck in any sort of design rut, take a look at the Awwwards blog content, featuring interviews with industry professionals and insider advice on how to take your web design and to the next level.
2. Webdesigner Depot
As well as doing a monthly round-up of the most important digital design news, Webdesigner Depot posts frequent advice, tools and resources to help you hone your skills, and, importantly, avoid those common web design mistakes.
3. Creative Overflow
You’ll obtain all the technical tips you could ask for on Creative Overflow, and you can expect to find a mix of everything design-related on its blog, with posts aimed at the wider design community.
When it comes to web design inspiration, the internet is your best friend. Take a look at my top favourite web design blogs for a full list of resources to delve into.
Conclusion
The design of your website is key to your business’ digital marketing success. With online competition only continuing to hot up, if you’re not investing in attractive website design, it’ll be all too easy to fall behind. Having a well-managed website will help establish a user-friendly environment and build customer loyalty, ultimately bringing in the widest audience possible to your site.
