The Importance Of A Well Designed Website

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but if we are being honest with each other, we all judge a company based on its website. We have all done it, if you go onto a companies website that is dated, poorly designed or hard to navigate you will immediately give up and try the next website.

Did you know it takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave? People will judge your business based on the way your website is designed and how easy it is to use.

For most people, they see a poorly designed website as a sign that your company is not relevant or significant enough. Its basic PR, the way you present yourself is how you will be perceived.

What are the signs of a poorly designed website?

Dated Design:
If your website hasn't been touched in the last few years, you most likely have a dated website. You want your website to show your visitors you care about your company and are keeping up with relevant trends. Show your visitors you are just as modern and motivated as your competitors.

Poor navigation:
If your website isn't straightforward and is unorganized or unclear your visitors will get frustrated and move on. Make everything simple, what are visitors here for? The service you are providing should be simple to find! Your pages should be clear "About Us" "Blogs" "Our Services" "Contact Us"

Poor Images:
Some stock images work and some don't, using real images where you can, will help you to stay true to your branding. Poorly designed websites will have images that are not the right size and look out of places, take the time and choose the right images, people are more receptive to beautiful and well-suited visuals.

Branding/Colouring:
You could have a well-designed website but if your colouring is off or you have gone off brand that can completely sink your website! Stick to your branding and make sure you do not choose colours that clash or are too bright. Some poorly design website uses good colour schemes but has placed them incorrectly, for example, white background with a light grey text, this could be very hard to read.

Slow Loading Site:
If your site takes to long to load, either your website is dated or the server your website is on is not strong enough. Either way, this issue is critical, according to Official Bryan Grey, 53% of visitors will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Not only will visitor not put up with your slow website, neither will Google. It is important to your websites SEO ranking that your website loads within Googles page speed industry benchmark which is around 2-3 seconds.

Not-Responsive Design:
You should always use a responsive design framework. A responsive design means your website adapts to a mobile layout correctly and does not present a poor interface of plaintexts. If you do not have a mobile framework all your visitors who are trying to access your site via phone will automatically leave. Having a not-responsive design will also affect your SEO ranking as Googles algorithm does not accept sites that do not have a mobile-friendly site.

In an online world having a consistent and concise brand is so important, your online presence will usually be your customers' first impression of you and will be the deciding factor in whether they wish to purchase or contact you.

"You shouldn't build a website just for the sake of having one. A website is there to define who you are as a company and provide easy access to potential customers. A website is built around the needs of your customers, what are they looking for when they come to your site? It shouldn't be hard for them to find the information they are looking for.

You'd be surprised how many websites we have rebuilt that had very poor navigation, which was one of the main causes of bounce rates."

Ryan is one of the Web Bureaus' designers, he is proficient in using the latest design tools like Adobe XD, Illustrator and Photoshop. With the combination of in-house web designers and a Development team, Web Bureau has become one of the leading web designing agencies in Belfast.