While websites that aren’t maintained regularly will often require major repairs after one or two years, a website that is consistently updated and maintained can last as long as seven years without a major rebuild.
A few Google searches is all it takes to realize that most businesses don’t make their website enough of a priority. Instead of sustaining a valuable resource with relevant, frequently updated content, most business sites stagnate quickly.
This is often a problem that begins with the custom web designers chosen to build the site in the first place — or worse still, the complete lack of professional designers, period. Good custom web designers will ensure your site is not only beautiful and functional, but also that you and your team can manage and update basic features regularly, without needing to hire an expert just to publish a blog post.
If you’ve been wondering just what makes custom web design services so important, read on to learn why they’re integral to your business’s success.
1. Your Brand is Front and Center
A strong web design has a lot more to it than a good color scheme and decent content. On a really good website, the business’s brand takes center stage — everything about the design makes a statement, supporting your brand’s mission, purpose, and values.
A good website forces your brand to stand out naturally. Ready made sites and templates just can’t pull that off. You need a team of custom web designers who know what they’re doing.
2. Your Content is Highly Readable
Websites should be easy to look at, easy to browse, and even easier to read. Even a minor mistake, such as text that’s just a little too small or a color that doesn’t look right, can be enough to turn people away from visiting your site in the future.
You should also make sure your website looks presentable before investing time or money into publishing content on it.
3. Your Design and Content is Innovative and Helpful
Besides looking nice, your website needs to be useful to your target audience if you want to make the most of your online presence. For some businesses, all that means is publishing new, relevant, and useful content to the blog every week. For many, however, that might not be enough to make your site stand out.
Consider what types of tools, resources, and information your target audience needs on their way to becoming a buyer. Is there a way you could offer these for free on your website, maybe in exchange for joining your email list?
It’s also worth noting that if people don’t have a reason to revisit your site, they won’t. If your content, tools, and resources are useful, but you never add new ones, people will eventually stop visiting. Can you find a way to keep creating new content and features, as well as updating old ones, so your audience will keep coming back?
4. You Stand Out from Others in Your Niche
The greatest benefit of hiring custom web designers might be the way your online presences stands out as a result.
Most small businesses put simple sites together using point and click platforms and pre-made templates, but this only results in every website looking like another. By choosing such a route yourself, you risk having your website look embarrassingly similar to someone else’s.
5. You’re Connected to Your Target Audience Where They Are
People who start their own businesses tend to emphasize social media either too little or too much. Your goal should be to use the 1-3 social networking platforms that your target audience is already using, and to use them in a way that makes sense to them. This way you can be sure you’re communicating with them clearly.
Your website should be designed to keep visitors coming back again and again, and one way to do this is by strategically integrating your social media presence into your website. The best way to do this will depend on your business and your audience — there’s no one size fits all method. That’s just one more reason why hiring a team of designers and digital marketers on your behalf is the most intelligent option for almost all business owners.