Are you looking to skyrocket the performance of your website? You’re not alone. As footfall has dropped off in UK cities due to imposed restrictions during the pandemic, retailers have turned their attention towards e commerce instead. Online sales are forecast to grow 19% by the end of 2020, from a more modest 11% prediction at the start of the year. If you’re looking to garner a larger share of web sales, then now is the time to invest in a dynamic and attractive website that converts those browsers into buyers. Your journey to online success begins with selecting a superior web design agency to work with. Check out these top tips to hiring the best of the best.
Coming Up With A Budget
Before you begin approaching web design agencies, it’s important to work out how much of your budget you’re willing to allocate for this type of marketing project. Everyone from sole traders and small businesses to large global corporations has websites and there’s a web design team behind each one of them, charging a wide range of rates. Begin by researching web designers that match your budget – it’s a good idea to come up with a figure that’s slightly less than your actual top number in case your web design agency suggests added extras that could work well for your site. However, it’s also important to work with a design team that respects and accommodates your budget without any hidden extras creeping in. Always ensure that your web design team of choice is entirely transparent about their pricing and can make adjustments to maximise your ROI.
Experience Counts
Referrals are a positive way to learn about the web design agency that you’re considering hiring. By going through past projects, you’ll have the chance to read the feedback of satisfied customers, but equally you’ll be able to gain a feel for the type of website they’ve created. Ideally, you’ll see a portfolio with a breadth of different designs to highlight their experience. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a particularly niche feel, then this is also a chance to assess how well it works on other websites. You might also ask your web design team about their customer retention rate. Have their previous customers returned for future projects, or have they gone elsewhere?
Get To Know The Team
When you make initial enquiries with web design companies, you might get a positive first impression from the sales team you meet with. Whilst this can be a great sign, it’s essential that you find out precisely who you’ll be working with on your actual project. Request the opportunity to get to meet the creative design team too so you can be confident that you’ll be in safe hands as your project progresses.
Individual Approach
Some web design companies are able to churn out a high volume of sites by using templates during the build stage. Whilst templates have come a long way and offer a multitude of options for web designers to work from, it’s important that your team gets to know the individuality of your own business. By learning what drives your company, from your passion and mission to your target audience and position within the market, this will help form many important design choices. Your design team should always take the time to ask plenty of questions and learn about the aspirations of your business, so you know that they’ll create a website which is the perfect platform to showcase your brand.
Attractive and Functional Layout
Getting down to the technicalities of your web design, the layout of your pages will be essential in retaining the interest of your site visitors. Once someone clicks on your website, you have just a few seconds to hold their attention and funnel their interest in the right direction so that they end up completing one of your site goals. These might be to place an order, register their information, send an enquiry or watch a video demo. Whatever your aim is, your website should be easy to navigate and have accessible call-to-action buttons located on your landing pages. Your visitors must naturally gravitate to the most important elements on your site – this can be achieved by sticking with a layout which feels familiar to your visitors.
Responsive Web Design
In 2020, mobile browsing is still outperforming desktop browsing, with 50.13% of the global share going towards mobiles. However, due to the pandemic there has been a surge in PC purchases, so we may see a shift back towards desktops as less people are commuting. What this means for your website, is that it will need to have a responsive design that displays well across all devices and all browsers.
With the average web user taking just 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your website, you’ll want to be sure that you’ve chosen an experienced and creative web design team to work with. Logo+ are experts in providing customers with attractive and responsive web designs which will provide the perfect browsing experience for your audience.