Popular Web Design Services

One of the essential elements of your online brand is your website. It’s going to be the hub for all of your online marketing activities and the place you’re sending all your traffic back to.

Whether you’re building a website for your offline business, or creating a totally new site for your online business, this post is for you.

There are tons of different approaches for building a website and getting it online. You can decide to use a website builder, experiment with a CMS, or hire a professional web design service. The choice is yours.

Below we’ll examine the ins and outs of hiring professional web design services to build out your business website. You’ll learn why having a professional website is so important, the benefits of hiring a professional, and finally how to find the best popular web design service for your needs.

Let’s jump in!

The Importance of a Well Designed Website

There are a ton of reasons you’ll want to create a professional website. It will impact your user experience, SEO, your authority, and even your bottom line.

Here are some of the biggest reasons a well-designed website is something worth investing in.

1. You Want to Create a Positive First Impression For Your Website Visitors

You only have one chance to make a first impression.

The second  website visitors open your website they’re making judgments about the quality of your site. You only have a few seconds to grab your visitor’s attention before they decide to stick around or hit the back button.

If you have a low-quality website, you’re immediately creating a poor first impression. Instead of building a connection with your target audience  you’re repelling them away—and decreasing the likelihood that they’ll give your site a second chance.  

2. Good Web Design Builds Trust With Your Target Audience

One of the main goals of your website is to build trust with your visitors. If your site looks old, spammy, unorganized, then your visitors won’t trust the content on your site, or feel comfortable purchasing any products or services you’re selling.

Your design needs to inspire confidence in your visitors so they can trust the information on your site, along with feeling comfortable enough to buy things from your website, or at least opt-in to your email list. 

3. You Need a Quality Site to Compete

If you don’t invest in a quality website design from the start, chances are your competitors are. 

If you want to compete in the increasingly crowded online space, then your website needs not only to meet your visitors’ expectations, but it needs to stand out and have a memorable online presence. If you have an outdated and clunky design, your competitors will surpass you and quickly leave you in their dust.

If your competitor’s website is intuitive, easier to use, and offer a great user experience, they’ll be getting all of the leads and traffic that could be yours. 

Now, there are sites like Craigslist, which have managed to achieve success and popularity even without an intuitive web design. But, there are other elements at play here, like being a very old site, and already have a massive amount of authority, trust, and traffic.

But why risk it? A professional website will go a long way towards making the success of your site much more likely. 

4. Design Impacts Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy

There are a lot of different factors that work together to influence your search engine rankings. One of those factors is how your website is designed. This structure will either impair or make it much easier for the search engine spiders to crawl your site.

It will also influence how easy it is to achieve on-site SEO standards too. The design of your site can make search engine optimization a cake walk or an uphill battle from the start. 

4 Benefits of Using a Popular Web Design Service

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into creating a high quality and well-designed website. Doing all of this on your own is possible, but sometimes you’ll want to defer to the help of a professional web design team that can help you improve your online presence.

Here are some of the most significant benefits you’ll enjoy by hiring professional website design services.

1. You’ll Get a High-Quality Professional Site

You want a site that looks great, functions properly, and features responsive design, so it will display properly on every screen size. Having mobile responsive web design will ensure that all future customers have an enjoyable experience when visiting your site. Oh, and it should be optimized for SEO and intuitive for your visitors to use. 

That’s a lot to accomplish all on your own.

Sure, there are website builders and popular content management systems you can use, but these all take time to learn. For some people, these tools will be a perfect fit. But, they may not feature all the functionality you need out-of-the-box, and there’s a risk you’ll end up with a design you don’t love. 

Those who demand the best and see paying a web design team as an investment in a business asset are ready to take advantage of all the benefits of working with a professional can bring.

The site you’ll receive from a professional design team is guaranteed to satisfy all the conditions mentioned above—and with no added work on your end. 

2. Your Site Will Be Ready to Rank

When you work with a web design professional, your site will be ready to rank right of the gate. 

You’ll have a website design that has clean code, is structured the right way, and only requires the addition of your content. 

By building your site yourself, you’re not designing with SEO best-practices in mind. You’re just creating a website that looks good enough to launch.

But, a professional design team will be able to build you a site that’s been created with SEO in mind from the very start, even during the conceptual and planning stages. 

3. You’ll Gain a Competitive Advantage

A lot of business owners who end up trying to build their sites do so to save money. But, if you’re willing to invest in a professional, you immediately give yourself a leg up. 

Your website will stand out in a sea of crowded websites, and offer your visitors an online experience that makes them want to spend time on your site.

Plus, most websites today that are built by professionals will also be crafted with online marketing principles in mind. So, your site will be ready to integrate with existing and new marketing campaigns. 

4. You’ll Put Your Company in the Best Light Possible

If you’re already a business owner, then you have a lot on your plate. You already have to focus on running your website, so don’t add building a website to that never-ending list of tasks.

Same goes for those just starting online businesses. There’s a lot that goes into getting an online business off the ground beyond just building your website. Plus, since your website is the primary source of interaction a potential customer will have with your business, it’s crucial to get right.

By working with a web design service, you can ensure that your vision for your site and your business values are properly translated into your design.

This will leave you with not only a professional website design, but also one that perfectly represents your business and highlights what makes you unique. 

How to Find the Best Popular Web Design Services

Although using a web design service to help build a user-friendly website does cost money, there is the potential to generate a lot of revenue for your business. But, to realize this return on investment, you need to find a quality web design professional.

Here’s a quick process you can follow when searching for the perfect web design team:

1. Evaluate Your Needs

Everyone’s website needs will be different. Some users might be building a massive eCommerce store, while others just need a simple 5-page site for their local business.

It’s important to properly define what kind of website you want built, along with the goals you have for your site, before you begin exploring professional options.

Here are the three areas of need you’ll want to think about and research before moving forward with a web design agency:

Website Technology Needs

There are a ton of different underlying technologies that can be used to power your website. You have the option of having a site coded from scratch, or even using a CMS like WordPress.

The advantage of having a custom-built theme on a CMS is that is gives you the opportunity to add content to your site, and make small modifications down the road. If you just need a simple three page site that’s completely static, then this might not be a necessity.

But, if you want more power and flexibility, and plan on growing your site, then a custom theme is a great approach to take. 

Website Design Needs

What do you want your site to look like?

Spend some time going through competitor websites, or any site in general to pick out design elements you love, and others that you could live without.

This will help you communicate more easily with your web designer, and give them some direction to take when building your site. 

Generally, the more specific and detailed you can be with your design requests the better the finished product will be. It’s much more difficult for a designer to translate vague requests than ideas that are backed by concrete examples. 

Business Needs

Next, it’s time to think about how your website is going to end up serving your business.

Is your website’s main function to generate leads? Or, will you be selling products and services? Is it more of a digital brochure, or will you be creating tons of articles and blog posts?

The function of your website will influence both how your website is laid out, and the technology that it’s built upon. 

Also, take note of any existing software you’re using to run your business and see if this needs to be integrated into your website as well. 

2. Set Project Scope

Finally it’s time to think about the scope of your project. This will include everything specified above, along with your budget and how much you hope to spend.

Your budget will influence the types of website designers you’ll get in contact with, along with the platforms you’ll use to find designers.

Generally, the worst answer to the question, “How much will you spend?” is “as cheap as possible.” If you want a quality website that elevates you above the pack, then you should expect to pay a fair rate.

That being said, no matter your budget, you’ll be able to find a professional web design service that’ll fit.

3. Explore Your Options

Now, it’s time to start looking for a professional web design service.

Depending on your budget and scope of your project you’ll have a handful of different options at your disposal.

You can either hire a web designer via a freelance platform, decide to work with a local design agency, or even hire a web designer through your hosting provider.

If you’re looking for quality for a more affordable price, then a recommended option is to go through your hosting provider. The professional web design team here at HostGator, for instance, will provide you with a custom WordPress theme, at a fraction of the cost you’ll pay elsewhere. Take a look at some of the themes we’ve designed for other clients:

Since you’re already using your web host for other website services like hosting, and maybe domain management, your total web design costs will be lower.

Plus, as a beginner, it can be helpful to have everything under one roof. You’ll be dealing with the same support team if any issues do arise with your site. This is a huge benefit that can’t be understated.

Should You Hire a Popular Web Design Service?

Ultimately, the choice is yours and depends upon the goals for your website and your budget. Generally, if you have the budget, then investing in the design of your site is always going to be beneficial. 

You always have the option to build your site yourself, but you have to consider if it’s worth the time and energy spent. Evaluate your needs and what kind of end result you want from your website.

Hopefully, you have a better understanding of the approach you’re going to take with your website, and whether hiring a professional web design service will help you reach your business goals or not. 

For further questions regarding the design process of a website or our web hosting packages, contact the experts at HostGator today.