Web Design
Businesses are increasingly going digital. No matter what your operating model is, online presence, especially in the form of a website, is imperative. In Australia, internet penetration currently stands at 96.2% of the population, a volume that has grown by 1% since 2021.
At the same time, 81% of Australians are on social media, a place where they gather information about products or services, while 30.3% purchase products through it. When it comes to websites, 82% of households have reported making purchases through e-commerce platforms, whereas 5.6 million families make monthly purchases online.
It comes as no surprise then that Australian businesses are expected to spend more than $12 billion on various avenues of digital marketing. More than anything, these statistics show the power an online presence holds for a business. It is pretty much indisputable that a website can make or break a business these days.
However, given that millions of active websites are on the internet at any given time, the market is extremely competitive. Aesthetic appeal, overall design, and layout make up 94% of a site’s first impression. More importantly, visitors that are unimpressed with these elements can exist a site within 20 seconds.
Here is a list of all the reasons why a website can impact your business success considerably:
Bad website design can turn visitors away
Online users generally depict similar behaviors all over Australia. While browsing through a website, visitors are actively judging a website on various parameters. Top among these is the design and layout of the site. In fact, 90% of Australians say they would not visit a poorly designed website again.
Businesses can, therefore, benefit significantly by hiring professional web designers to improve retention rates on their digital platforms, including websites. If you want help with your site’s web design Brisbane has plenty of service providers who can meet your expectations.
Without an appropriate focus on design, your site will continue failing on the scale of retaining visitors long enough to take them a step further in the sales funnel.
Failure to convert leads
One of the primary objectives of a website is to generate leads for a business. For clarity, a lead is any user that shows the slightest inclination toward purchasing a product or service from a company either instantly or somewhere down the line. For example, a person signing up for your business’s newsletter can be considered a lead.
When a person visits your website and interacts with any of the options, they become a potential lead. However, they are not convertible unless they agree to stay connected with the business. A visitor needs to initiate a chat with a company representative or show some kind of interest in the product. This is just the initial phase of generating a lead, and naturally, the design of your website can influence it significantly.
A business with a badly designed website can lose a potential lead within seconds. Moreover, since most people don’t visit the website again, you can consider that avenue closed. Let’s put the entire scenario into a financial picture for better understanding.
Assume that your website gets an average of 200 visitors each day. Careful estimates suggest that only about 50 or 60 of these visitors will become potential leads, and maybe only 10 will eventually end up purchasing from you. Unfortunately, if your web design is unimpressive, these numbers can fall drastically, and Google itself can kick your site way down on SERPs.
Can decrease organic traffic
Organic traffic is among the most credible source for leads with high-conversion ratios for a business. In SEO terms, organic traffic comes from unpaid results on Google instead of sponsored ones. Given the advancements that Google’s search algorithms have undergone in the last few years, web design is a key contributor to driving organic traffic.
Google can tell how visitors interact with a website. The search engine knows when a website is opened for a few seconds and closed without any action. It usually picks this up as a sign that something is wrong with the site. Therefore, negligence towards website design closes the window of opportunity with respect to organic traffic for your business.
Less organic traffic translates to a drop in SEO rankings, and once your site doesn’t show on the first page of relevant search results anymore, you know what they say; that the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google search results since no one looks there anymore.
Destroys your reputation
For a business, creating a new customer is much more expensive and time-consuming that retaining one. Not to mention that a user who doesn’t have a good first impression of your brand or business through the website will talk negatively about it when interacting with others. Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing these days, which is why it is something that businesses care about deeply.
On the other hand, visitors who are either impressed or fairly pleased with the website will pave the way for some amazing brand recall and marketing. As a business owner, you can easily weigh the pros and cons of what website design can do for you. More than a product or service, brands today cherish themselves for creating experiences that matter. This is something that is not possible without a beautifully designed website.
No amount of marketing spend may be able to recover your business
Poor website design doesn’t just damage your brand, but it also closes most revenue streams. Without proper attention to web design, you let customers assume your business is not focused, credible, or trustworthy. These are attributes that visitors can associate with web design since this is the way individuals have become programmed these days, thanks to the internet. From the simple mistake of having a badly designed website, negative words can start getting out about your business, and once this happens, no amount of marketing spend will be able to get your business back on its feet.
Conclusion
Web design forms the foundation for businesses these days to find success. Today, most customer journeys begin with an online search. This means your website is the introduction a person has with your company. When greeted by a dilapidated façade, naturally, they wouldn’t want anything to do with you or your business. Hence, always prioritizes good web design to attract and retain customers.
