Great Web Design: A Digital Marketing Must
Whatever happens with the pandemic, the digital world is here to stay, and every brand needs to have a presence in it to succeed. According to The Global Statistics for 2022, among the 7.75 billion people globally, 5.1 billion use the internet, and 3.7 billion actively use social media. There are 1.9 billion active websites vying for their attention.
As the digital realm continues to evolve rapidly, so must brands innovate digitally to stay ahead of competitors. The digital environment is mostly visual; hence, excellent design is a must. The design also includes all other aspects of the user’s experience, such as quick loading, responsive interactivity, and easy navigation.
The first impression of a visitor about a site is 94 percent about its web design. Ninety percent of visitors will leave within three seconds because of a bad user experience. Within 10 seconds, visitors decide on the credibility and trustworthiness of a brand, and 50 percent base their decision on its web design. If the website is unattractive, 38 percent of visitors will not even engage with it. Even if their shopping cart already contains items, 70 percent of visitors will abandon it because of a poor user interface design. After leaving a site with poor design and an unsatisfactory experience, 88 percent of visitors will not return, and 89 percent of online buyers will shop at a competitor’s site.
Investing in Web Design
Investing in the brand website’s user interface design has a 100 percent return on investment, and 73 percent of companies do this to be competitive. GoodFirms surveyed more than 200 web design agencies in the United States, India, and Ukraine and found that the average cost of professional web design with basic features is $3,200. The largest number of agencies or 35.1 percent only charged from $1,000 to $1,500, though, while 24.3 percent charged from $2000 to $2500, 16.21 percent charged $3000, 10.8 percent charged $4,000, and 13.51 percent charged from $5000 to $6000. Meanwhile, a few stated that their price depends on the client’s needs.
There are web design firms all over the world. There are also independent or freelance web designers. With the current global interconnectivity, it is easy for a brand to find the talent it needs who can work within its budget. For instance, it can get a freelance web designer and transfer money to a bank account for payment.
Basic Elements of a Great Design
A brand’s web design must be optimized not only for desktop computers and laptops but also for smartphones and tablets. For every three minutes people spend online, two minutes are on a mobile device. People not only expect a brand to have a mobile-optimized website, but 90 percent expect the mobile version to be better, and 85 percent expect it to be faster.
Almost half or 48 percent of visitors get annoyed with a brand if its website is not mobile-friendly, and 40 percent will leave and go to another search result. On the other hand, if the site is mobile-friendly, 74 percent of visitors will likely return. If the site also provides a good user experience, 90 percent of visitors have a high probability of shopping and returning to shop again.
A significant part of the user’s experience is the website’s loading speed on whatever device they are on. Most or 83 percent of visitors expect a loading speed of three seconds at most, while 47 percent want a loading speed of not more than two seconds. More than half or 53 percent will leave if the website has not yet fully loaded in three seconds. If it takes a website four seconds to load, its bounce rate or the rate of visitors leaving increases by 100 percent. When visitors leave too soon, there are no sales.
Visitors also expect to see relevant information on the brand’s homepage, with 64 percent expecting the company’s contact information and 52 percent also expecting other information about the business. User reviews on the website are considered by 85 percent of visitors as personal recommendations and, therefore, trustworthy. However, once a visitor’s interest and trust are gained, a sale still cannot be accomplished if the website does not have a call-to-action button. Unfortunately, 70 percent of websites of small businesses do not have this.
Being On-Trend
Excellent web design must first get all the basics right. After that, the competition is on for having all the latest design trends. Web designers outdo each other in incorporating all the latest innovations in a website, such as videos, live streaming, virtual reality, animation, moving typography, personalized content, and voice search, among many others. The key is putting all of these, or a well-chosen few, together into a cohesive whole without overdoing it.
