Eight Reasons Why You Should Be Using a Professional Web Designer

There was a time not all that long ago when having a website for your business would be optional at best. But those times are long gone, and what was once a choice is no longer optional. Your business needs a website.

Of course, a good website by itself isn’t enough either. You also need to have a website that makes an excellent impression. One analysis found that 94% of first impressions come from a website. You need a great website that accurately communicates the message of your brand.

Think of it like this: your businesses’ website is often the first glimpse that a potential customer gets into your business. It is the first impression that your business gets to make, and it has to be a good one.

Anything less and you could be costing your business potential customers. But there is so much more to having a website than simply having a website. It has to look good, be easy to navigate and convey your brand’s message. All of which is far easier said than done. You must avoid some of the biggest web design mistakes.

There are eight reasons why you should consider using a professional service for your web design needs.

1. Make a Better First Impression

As a business, that first impression can be everything. But, as the old saying goes, “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” So, with the right web design, you can have a website that not only attracts new users but keeps them around.

A professionally designed website means understanding the latest and most extraordinary website design world. It means understanding trends and looks that capture visitors’ attention and keep them from immediately clicking away.

More importantly, it is about more than creating a “flashy” website. A proper web design professional will understand that it is about so much more than looks (while understanding that the design has to attract attention visually).

For smaller businesses that don’t inherently drive high traffic numbers, that first impressions with your website are crucial. Having a professionally-designed website can make a massive difference in the bottom line of any business in any industry.

2. Keep up with the Competition

Like in any business, there are a lot of web designers out there who claim that they can help your business. But working with a proven, experienced designer is crucial. They can not only help to make that all-important first impression, but they can help you keep up with your competition.

No matter the industry, there is an excellent chance that the leaders within that industry are keeping up with the latest in designs and technological trends. So falling behind, especially when you plan on keeping up with those businesses, is not an option.

But working with a professional web designer means never falling behind the curve. Some trends are minor and disappear quickly, especially on a website built by an amateur. Eventually, the site begins to look outdated and can chase away visitors.

Websites that look frequently updated to match trends get more attention for a good reason. Users never have to question whether the site has been updated or adheres to current technological or design trends.

3. Boost Revenue

The ultimate goal of any business is to make money. That seems like a simple concept, but delivering results can be more complicated than that. This is why it is imperative to have a website that works for your business.

Among the litany of designers out there, you will find a few that can deliver results. Having an expensive website is one thing, but it has to provide actual progress to the business. That means helping to develop more leads than before. It also means generating those leads into sales or revenue.

Even if your website isn’t directly seeing revenue through product purchases, it can be a vehicle that drives revenue for your business. For instance, if you are a service-based business, it can lead to more inquiries, phone calls, and emails.

Having a properly designed website also means using an effective call to action to get users to inquire about your business. All of which becomes more difficult without a website that works in cohesion with the rest of the company.

4. Establishing a Brand

Perhaps the biggest challenge of any business, big or small, is establishing a brand name in today’s climate. The biggest brand names are recognisable not only because the companies are enormous but because they are consistent throughout their branding effort.

Any business can work to establish that brand by making it a consistent effort throughout their marketing materials, website included. Any colours, logos, slogans, or anything that ties into the brand should be front and centre on the website.

The website is a conduit of the business and the brand. When it looks disjointed or disconnected from the overall brand message, it can confuse the user. The last thing that any company wants to do is confuse the user.

But with a proper designer, you can ensure that your business is checking all the boxes when trying to establish your brand. In the end, it will make your company more visible to those who frequently use it and more likely to share with their friends and family.

5. Saves Money

Any effort put into the business can seem like nothing more than an expenditure. However, for small businesses in particular, where budgets are tighter and there is less room for error, those expenditures can feel like a significant investment without getting that return right away.

But having an effective website can actually save you money in the long run. Unfortunately, business owners often attempt to build and run their website. They think that they are saving money by doing this, but in reality, they are costing themselves money.

By having to constantly update a website – features, design aesthetics, functions, and so on – that is time spent that could have gone to other areas of the business. Instead, by using a proven commodity, the company website can be professional and well-constructed, meaningless tinkering and updates required.

6. Reduced Bounce Rates

What can get lost in having a website and attracting visitors is keeping them there. Sure, getting a lot of visitors is a significant problem to have, but what does it matter if they are leaving shortly after arriving?

This is known as the bounce rate, and it is one of the most crucial stats that any website should be keeping track of. Having a high bounce rate means your website is not doing enough to keep visitors around.

When visitors leave quickly, they aren’t looking at the businesses’ services or products. Both of those drive revenue for a business, not necessarily the website itself. Keep visitors around for longer by having a clean, beautiful website that entices visitors.

The longer you can keep users around, the better chance of turning them into paying customers. That is what any business is about.

7. Improved Search Rankings

In this day and age, if you are online anywhere, landing on the top search result page for Google should be a goal. Google is the search engine giant that has almost become a verb at this point: “I’ll just Google it.”

There has been a change to how websites are constructed because of the importance of Google and other search engines. The goal is to become more easily searchable by Google and these other search engines.

When your website has been properly optimized, it is more visible as a relevant website to Google. When that happens, your website is more likely to appear at the top of those Google search results. That means more traffic, which potentially means more leads. If you do everything right, that can equate more conversions into actual dollars.

A good web designer will do more than worry about the visual aesthetic of your website. They will also ensure that it has been properly optimized for search engines, making it a more viable asset to the business. Part of this involves making your website user-friendly, since UX optimization is important for SEO.

8. Providing a Better Foundation

There are more than a few underlying aspects to having effective web design. Yes, it is about making your website attractive and keeping visitors from leaving. But think about it like this: a properly designed website can be more like a foundation.

Much like a home, your website can do with some upgrades over time. However, with a proper foundation in place, those upgrades can go in seamlessly and make the entire look and feel of the place that much better. The same can be said of your website.

A quality design in place makes it all the easier to implement any upgrades or changes as they roll out. Depending on how your website is hosted, this can be plugins or even through browser extensions. But the key is to have a website that has been properly built to handle these upgrades with no issue.