A strong website plays a huge role in determining the success of a business. It’s possible that in 2019, visiting your website may be the only interaction consumers have with your brand. Websites provide consumers with company information, available services and promotions. A company website also serves as a means of converting visitors into customers.
That factor alone holds a lot of power. Whether you’re a business owner, a member of the marketing or sales team or the user experience lead, you must tie together the most important elements of design and content. The perfect mix will facilitate spreading brand awareness, nurturing leads and providing users the information they’re looking for.
Your website is the be-all-end-all of your business. With the proper strategy and the right combination of design and content you will experience fruitful results. However, be careful not to get carried away with elaborate designs and overwhelming amounts of content that take away from the overall functionality. Everything on your website should have a purpose and should work to achieve a greater goal, such as finding new clients or selling a product.
There are currently over 1 billion websites on the Internet. For this very reason, it is of utmost importance to make sure your website stands out and provides a clear solution to a users’ questions or concerns. If a consumer visits your website and is unable to find the information they seek, they will find an alternative.
What’s more important to the success of your website – design or content?
Website Design
“From SEO and traffic to branding and conversion rates, your site’s web design affects your entire internet presence.” -Drew Hendricks
The visual appeal of your website will be the first thing visitors experience when exploring your brand and services on the internet. This first impression will make or break your customer relationships, so make sure the lasting impression is a good one. Web design includes website layout, content production, graphic design and more.
The appearance of your website can have a drastic impact on how long users will stay and whether they return. Web design often focuses on creating a positive user experience, which encompasses visual appeal, functionality and simplicity. A web design that is well-executed portrays your business as a progressive and trustworthy entity.
Content Marketing
“Potential clients find our content, find value in it, and by the time they contact us they’re already convinced they want to work with us.” -Josh Steimle
Content marketing is focused on using valuable and relevant content to drive profitable customer or client action. The sheer volume of websites available to consumers creates a steep level of competition for your business. Website traffic is not guaranteed and you may get lost in the crowd unless you stand out.
Research shows that when users are surfing the web, they generally only stay on a web page for 20 seconds. While you may receive a small amount of random traffic from various platforms, it will not be enough exposure. If you don’t have strong content marketing and design practices in place, your website may not appear on search engines.
The content of your website is what’s going to help convert random visitors into regular customers. Your content should be consistent and support your organization’s mission. Content marketing ensures that your website answers any and all questions a customer may have throughout their consumer journey.
Website content should also aim to educate visitors about the benefits of your product or service. Regularly updating content and providing users with viable solutions will position you as a thought leader in your industry.
Your website cannot succeed without both proper web design and content marketing efforts. Poor design will lead potential customers away from your website. If users leave your site immediately, you lose the opportunity to expose visitors to your content and educate them about your offerings. A successful website should be designed with the content marketing strategy in mind.
There are four main ways that web design can impact content marketing.
Accessibility
The design of your website should allow users to seamlessly access content. It is important to include navigation that is simple and easy to use. You may also consider incorporating a search feature so visitors can quickly find the information they seek.
Appearance
If your website design is overwhelming, visitors will not consider your content to be trustworthy, accurate or of high quality. You need a clean, simple design that looks professional and encourages visitors to trust what you’re saying and navigate further into your website. Strategically placing calls to action on your most prevalent pages will guide users through the rest of your site.
Readability
The formatting of your website needs to allow for easy readability. The value of the content gets lost when the font size is too small (or big), includes many different colors or is inconsistent with your branding.
Comprehension
Your website visitors will have varying degrees of expertise and familiarity with a certain topic. Including images and other visuals helps readers to better understand the information. Additionally, when you have long-form pieces of content, it is a best practice to include images that break up text to make your content easily digestible.
The best websites are those that make web design and content marketing work together in an effortless, user-friendly and professional way. You need to strike a balance between the two. The design of your website is going to initially catch the eye of potential customers, while the content is what will make them stay.
Content that is compelling, meaningful and SEO friendly gives you exposure on search engines which in turn brings more people to your website. A harmonious relationship between design and content on your website will increase traffic and create the opportunity for future conversions.
Thanks for reading!
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