4 Good Reasons Why Attractive Web Design Matters For Your Visitors

But don’t just take my word for it - here are some excellent reasons why website visitors love a well-designed website.

Great design impacts SEO

When you search for a term and you see the results on the first page of Google search, the majority of websites you’ll open have beautiful/functional design. This is not a coincidence - it’s only logical. But how does attractive design impact SEO? The truth is, the link is indirect.

Great website design means that the user will engage with the website more, spend more time on your pages, click through to more of your pages, and in general, spend more time on your website. And as it turns out, all of these are ranking signals for Google.

In other words, two pages with the exact same copy and content can have different performance based on the design of the website. The better the design, the better the user experience, and ultimately, the better the website performs in search engine results. So, if you want to rank for your desired keywords, start working on your website design immediately.

If you want your design to lead to an SEO-friendly website, there are quite a few things you can do. Start by making a mobile version of your website, creating a great sitemap, and making your content super easy to read and navigate.

Stunning design = great first impression

Nowadays, it’s much more likely that a customer will go on your website than call you or send an email. The latter two require more work and today’s customer prefers doing their own research first. When they’re on a call, they will base their impression of your company on the interaction with your customer support rep. For emails, it will be the reply that they get. For webinars, it’s the live personal interaction. In the case of your website, the design will be the first impression that they will have.

And this is actually a proven fact - 94% of what makes a first impression is design. Not only will this shape what someone thinks about your business, but it will also impact their decision whether to purchase or not.

This is even more important when we discuss mobile design, as more visitors nowadays come from mobile - and the percentage of mobile visits is growing with each year. It’s no surprise then, that 57% of mobile website visitors would not recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.

There you have it - without even trying out your product or services, most customers will decide whether or not to purchase from you based on how your website is designed.

You only have 15 seconds, so make them count

It’s no secret that our attention spans are getting shorter by the year. With so much content to consume, we leave a website quickly if we don’t like what we see. After all, there is so much other content to consume online.

You actually have very little time to wow your visitors and make them stick around. The average website visitor will only spend 15 seconds on your page before leaving, and that’s how much time you have to make an impression. If you can’t do it with your marketing copy, you can and should do it with a great logo and stunning visuals.

Design impacts conversions

Let’s say that you manage to get your web visitors to stay on your website for longer than 15 seconds. Great - now what? The aim is to get them to take a certain action, such as purchase a product like an online course you’ve built, subscribe to your email list, book a demo, or something else. You can do this in several ways (including great copy), but excellent design and user experience come first.

This starts from the value proposition and clear navigation. Your visitor should be able to immediately tell what you offer, what your main unique selling proposition is, and what action to take on your website. In other words, the way they navigate through the page should flow smoothly and naturally.

On the other hand, there are elements that you don’t want to “flow” - you want them to interrupt the scrolling and make the visitor stop, read them, and take action. Your calls to action are a great example of how design should make a visitor convert. For example, your CTA needs to be put inside a container and it needs to be in a contrasting color to stand out. Doing some simple tweaks like this with your CTA can result in major conversion boosts which ultimately means you’ll make more money too.

The design elements you need to choose for your own website will vary depending on many factors, such as your target audience, desired goals, the product you sell, and many others. My personal recommendation would be to track your visitors’ behavior, both in Google Analytics and by using screen recording/heatmap software such as Hotjar. That way, you will know exactly which design elements are standing in the way of your visitors who want to convert and make a purchase. Once you spark their initial interest, you can close the deal easier later on.

Conclusion

In 2020 and beyond, great design shouldn’t be an afterthought or something that’s just nice to have. A well-designed website has a plethora of benefits - from making visitors stick around longer, to making a great first impression, all the way to performing better in terms of SEO. If you haven’t already invested time and money in getting a modern, fast, mobile-optimized website - do so as soon as possible.