In today’s digital landscape, a website is an essential tool that can set a business up for success. It’s the face of the business in the online world and serves as a channel where potential customers can learn more about a specific brand and its products or services.
Beyond these, a website works wonders in giving businesses a competitive edge. But this does not mean just any website. When it comes to converting leads into sales and sales into quantifiable results, businesses need a killer website that stands out among the competition and thrives in today’s creative digital market.
However, building a great website is not only about being flashy. A great website means a feature-rich online platform that is unrivaled both in aesthetics and functionality. Through this guide, you’ll learn how to craft a killer web design that relates effectively with your target audience and reflects the message you want to convey.
Why You Need to Build a Business Website
A website can make a huge difference to a business’s success, regardless of industry. Having a strong online presence can make or break a business’ ability to generate more revenue.
Here are the reasons why you need to build a business website:
1. Branding
Customers are more likely to support a brand they understand. With a website, you can define who you are, what your brand stands for, and what you represent. Clear branding through your website also helps you stand out from your competition.
2. Customer Service
Prospects often call businesses asking for information about hours and locations. Websites make it easy for customers to find the information they need without having to call. This ultimately leads to a better user experience.
3. Credibility
A website is a great way to build your company’s credibility and authority. There are likely to be many providers that offer similar services as yours, so one way to be distinguished among them is by establishing a credible brand identity online.
Communicating quality information to your customers can make an excellent first impression and let people know that you are a legitimate business.
4. Lead Generation
Once users find your business on search engine results pages, become interested in your product or service, and want to learn more about what you offer, it’s essential that they find the information they’re looking for in your content.
Improving your potential to get leads is one of the best reasons to create a website for your company, and putting out top-notch content consistently is among the best ways to achieve it.
Why a Killer Website Is Important
Web design has become a more critical and popular topic over the years. Google and other search engines used to accept websites filled with keywords even if they had a dull, uninteresting design. Today, however, web design is an entirely different story.
Nowadays, a killer web design is necessary for a business to be considered trustworthy and professional. Here are some benefits a killer website offers:
1. Makes a Great First Impression
You only have a few seconds before your visitors hit the back button, so before then, your website must make an excellent first impression. You need to ensure that your brand and your core values and beliefs must be reflected in the overall web design.
Making an impact also means helping your visitors realize that your business is the right option for their needs. When they arrive on your website, you need to convey your brand’s message effectively and provide valuable information about what you can offer.
2. Retains Your Visitors
A poorly designed website can immediately turn off customers. Your website is your first opportunity to engage with prospects, so your goal is to make them see you as a company worth their time.
Straightforward navigation, compelling copy, high-quality images, concise copy, easy-to-find contact pages, and educational blogs can influence your prospect’s perception of your business. If you want them to stay on your website and engage with your brand, you need to ensure that all these factors are present in your web design.
3. Keeps Your Data Safe and Secure
A killer website doesn’t only involve the outside presentation but also what goes in the backend. This consists of your business and your customers’ valuable data online. Keeping your visitors’ data and private information secure is essential in building customer trust and loyalty.
4. Creates a Thriving Business
Your website should be able to help you reach your business goals and be more than just a place for you to store your contact information. With a killer web design, you can ensure a continuous flow of traffic and generate leads.
How To Build a Killer Website
An appealing website doesn’t only feature stunning content or impeccable features. It should also be SEO-driven and structured to communicate your company’s mission and purpose.
Before anything else, you might be asking the question, “How long does it take to build a website?”. The process of creating a professionally designed and built website can take anywhere from five to six months, depending on your business goals and objectives.
Now that you know the timeline of your website development, here are tips on how to make a website good:
1. Establish the purpose of your website.
Whether you are looking to start an e-commerce website, offer local consulting services, or expand your online presence, you need to establish the purpose of your website.
Although many web design elements, such as readability, navigation, and responsiveness, can be applied, every website has specific requirements. For instance, e-commerce websites are different from corporate websites or creative portfolios.
2. Relate your branding with your domain name.
When planning your website, the domain name is a vital aspect to consider. A domain name can be translated into your URL or the online address that directs people to your website content. Just like a physical address, a URL is unique to a single user. Hence, your domain name should reflect your brand and be relevant to your product.
3. Secure reliable web hosting.
Web hosting is a place that stores your website content. Hosts often have a large, internet-connected server that stores your content and makes it available online.
Unreliable web hosting can impact your website’s speed, security, and functionality, so you should ensure that your web host guarantees at least 99.5% uptime and not less than 99%. You also need to consider data security, storage availability, traffic limits, and customer support when selecting a web host.
4. Create killer web content.
A content management system, also known as CMS, is the heart of your website. It eliminates or dramatically reduces the need to code in HTML/CSS. By providing common elements like headings, menus, and pages, a CMS tells browsers how you can make your content more appealing to users. WordPress is the most popular CMS used by almost 27 million websites today.
5. Enhance your website’s functionality.
Plugins can enhance the functionality of your website. They can be installed either from your website’s backend or downloaded from the developer’s site and then uploaded to your website. Plugins can also work behind the scenes to help you manage your website.
6. Boost your website’s speed.
The loading speed of your website can significantly impact the success or failure of your online business. Here are some steps you can take to speed up your website:
- Reduce the file size of your images.
- Select a reliable hosting provider.
- Optimize your website for mobile devices.
- Reduce HTTP requests or server response times.
- Minimize use of Javascript and CSS.
- Remove unused plugins.
- Leverage cache or save your data on another user’s device. This can significantly improve loading speed, especially for returning customers.
Build a Compelling Website That Converts Leads Into Customers
It takes a lot of time and effort to create a website that stands above the competition and fosters positive customer engagement. With the help of professionals, you can establish a strong online presence, draw more customers to your business, and, ultimately, ensure success.
At Advanced Digital Media Services, we make remarkable first impressions through compelling websites that drive clicks, leads, and conversions. We deliver solid digital strategies through high-quality Cleveland SEO, web development, and web design services. Contact us today!
