How Website Design Impacts Effective Customer Engagement

We put so much emphasis on website visitor counts and traffic sources. Many marketers and business owners spend hours a day worrying about how to drive new traffic to their website. Not enough people are worried about how to engage consumers once they land on your site.

A recent study found that 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive. So you can focus on SEO, backlinks, and traffic all you want to, but if you aren’t engaging with consumers, you won’t win their business.

Poor Website Design Looks Unprofessional

When a consumer lands on your website, they should see a professional representation of your brand. If they don’t, it might raise red flags for them about the professionalism of your company or your content.

There are too many spammy websites out there that seek to harm people or scam them out of their money. Because of this, consumers are very careful with the websites they visit and the content they trust.

If at first glance your website does not look like an upstanding company, the consumer will keep searching.

Lack of Imagery Calls for Too Much Reading

Today’s consumers want you to make it simple for them. Boil down your paragraphs into a short sentence. Transform your bulky subheads into an illustration instead that tells a whole story with just one image.

Effective imagery and illustrations can help users understand your content at a glance and feel compelled to continue scrolling. A sure-fire sign of an outdated website or a poorly designed website is text-heavy elements.

Load Times Are Too Slow

Today’s consumers have no time for watching a bar scroll as they wait for their content to load. Even if your website is stunning, chances are the consumer will never make it that far to engage with you if they have to wait for content to load.

Consider especially your interactive content, such as videos, surveys, forms, etc. These should load quickly to make it simple for the user to engage with your company, share their contact information and take the next step toward working with you.

It’s Too Hard to Get in Touch with You

While you probably hope that a consumer will make a purchase through your website or take the next step in the buying journey on their own, they might need some help. Effective website design makes it simple to send a quick message or otherwise engage with your company.

It’s so important that you make this content easy to find.

A website designer will recommend putting this information in common places, such as your footer, a small icon that persists on the bottom right of the screen, or the main menu.

If you truly want customer engagement, you need to focus on more than just traffic. Your website design plays an important role in increasing your conversion rates and retaining current customers. New Light Digital offers affordable website design and e-commerce websites. Contact us to learn more about our services.

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