why is web design essential for business

A good website with smart web design is essential for smaller businesses to compete with larger firms and gain a significant foothold into their market of operations. As the internet and search engines level the playing field when it comes to websites, it provides an exceptional opportunity for small firms to compete on a global scale, or on a local scale with much more impact. This is because; big company or small, great web design is available to both small and large business.

So what is great web design? Basically, a good website will achieve the goals of the business. Most commonly, the goal of a business website is to impart information about your products and services to as many people as possible in your target market. Your target market is important, because it is no use having high traffic volumes outside of your target market, as the end goal is to convert website visitors to customers, either by selling them your products or services directly from your website or motivating the website visitor to contact you for your products or services. So then, assuming your goal is to sell your products and services, let’s explore the tools available to us to determine the best way to create web pages that convert traffic into sales.

Firstly, use your own judgment and experience to create a website that is user friendly and departs information in an easy to understand and precise manner. Think about what impresses you when you’re surfing the web, how you navigate websites, if images can be used to convey ideas better than words, if flash can add or subtract to the user experience, and many other nuances. Then with these ideas in mind, go about tweaking your website to fulfill these objectives. When you are confident your website is as good as you can make it, it is time to do some more in depth research.

We can use Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer to experiment with good web design and clearly determine how to get the best out of your website and the pages within it. Google Optimizer lets you experiment with your site by displaying multiple versions of your homepage or other pages. This means that multiple versions of your website will be shown to different visitors. Combining Google Website Optimizer with Analytics allows you to track the visitor behaviour on the different version of your website and compare the results. Things to compare include; is there a difference in the bounce rate between the two versions of your site? Do visitors stay on your site for a longer average time period on one version? Do visitors click on more pages in one version? Do visitors fill out a contact form on one version than another? And finally, if you have an ecommerce website, is one version of your site converting more sales than another?

You can also experiment with one version of your website but display the elements on the page in different ways. For example, display different images, colour schemes or different content. If we believe that the absolute perfect website has never been designed the process of improving your site should be eternally evolving and ongoing to strive for perfection, which is of course, achieving the maximum number of leads or sales possible.