Many business owners mistakenly believe that the most important part of online marketing is just getting the website up and running. While that is undeniably important, that website will not do a bit of good if it has a poor design. Forgetting to pay attention to your site’s design can actually hurt your business. Let’s get into why professional web design is so important.

#1 – Poor Navigation is Frustrating

Getting a website up and running is incredibly exciting. It gives your business a brand new outlet for reaching more potential customers than ever before. However, if your visitors cannot use that website, it sends a terrible message. Before your site goes live, make sure it is navigable. Make sure that all of the links work, and that each page contains the information it should. The navigation should be smooth and fluid and quickly announce what you do and who you are. A poorly designed navigation could send people running.

Aside from that, make sure that visitors can find the information they want directly from the home page. If they have to spend more than a few seconds searching for a tab or link, then chances are good that they will simply move on to the next similar site.

#2 – An Inconsistent Brand is Not a Good Brand

Website design is also important when it comes to brand consistency. For example, if you have a logo that you use consistently across all of your materials – your letterheads, packaging materials, and advertisements – then you need to carry that same brand and logo through to your website. If your packaging colors are black and red, but your website is a pastel green, people will subconsciously wonder if they are in the right place. When you bring your company’s brand over to the site, and you carry the design throughout the page, you build consistency in your brand.

For example, if your company sells pens made from recyclable materials and your logo is a bright blue inkblot, you want to make sure that you follow through with the color, the logo, and even the theme on your site. This way, when someone picks up one of your brochures or sees an ad and they come to your site, they know as soon as they see the page that they are in the right place.

#3 – Content Communicates Your Company’s Mission

Another thing that affects your website’s design is the quality and layout of the text content. While it is important to provide all of the information that is pertinent to your business, you need to do so in a way that is appealing to the eye. Cramming text together and making it difficult to read is frustrating to the viewer, so it is important to be concise, warm, and welcoming – especially on the home page.

If you want your website to include lots of information, the best way to do this is through a series of links in drop-down menus or tabs. This aids in navigation, but it keeps the design clean. After all, your visitors want instant gratification. If they come to your landscaping site to figure out whether they should plant Kentucky bluegrass, they do not want to skim through endless text to find that information. Visitors want information fast which means it can’t be hidden by many clicks.

#4 – Bad Design Leads to Lack of Trust

Finally, you have to build trust with your customers. You have to pay close attention to them, and you have to understand what they want. You might think that your website design has very little to do with building trust, but this is not the case. Your website is the perfect place to build rapport with visitors, existing customers, and potential customers alike. You need to make your site look appealing and trustworthy with photos, links to outside sources where applicable, and plenty of information that suits them.

In this manner, keep in mind that you should always provide information based on your company’s industry that can help consumers make better decisions. For example, if your company makes coffee makers, then it might seem counterintuitive to discuss the flaws of a traditional percolator or a single-cup brewing station. However, by doing so, you show your customers that you value their wants and needs, and that you are willing to provide the information they need to make the right choices. What works for one consumer may not work for another, after all, and when you can provide unbiased information, you build trust among everyone.

Getting a website up is important in today’s day and age. It plays a vital role in marketing, and it helps put your business out into the world. However, before you rush to get that domain name active just for the sake of doing so, make sure you pay attention to your website’s overall design. Good content, a strong layout, aesthetic appeal, and unbiased information that is valuable to the reader can certainly go a long way.