Back in 2011, we published a blog post about Why Web Design Is Important. Although the blog post is several years old, the information it covers is still accurate and, in some ways, even more relevant today for B2B firms.

Recent research shows that many online users consider a website’s design the top factor in determining a company’s credibility. Because your website is usually the first point of contact with your brand, it’s important that it conveys the right message and enhances your company’s trustworthiness.

In our blog post on Why Web Design Is Important, our Lead Designer Danielle discussed 5 elements of web design that can make or break a website, including:

  • Navigation
  • Brand Consistency
  • Reading Patterns & SEO
  • Content
  • Trust

Before a website can drive leads and conversions, it must establish credibility. Let’s take a look at how these 5 elements of B2B web design are important to establishing trust and credibility.

A website’s navigation can either guide potential clients through your website with ease or cause major frustration that forces a potential client to bounce off your website. It can be very easy to get excited about flashy designs or interesting typefaces, but in many cases, simple and straightforward navigation provides the best user experience.

Danielle advises that website navigation should be grandma-friendly – meaning even your grandma can understand it.

Brand Consistency

If your firm has an established logo and brand that is used in signs, marketing collateral, brochures, etc., then that branding needs to be present in your website design as well. A major factor in establishing credibility is consistency. New and existing clients should be able to easily recognize your brand in all communications, marketing materials, and in your website design.

Why Is Consistency So Important in Visual Branding?

Our website designer answers that when visual components of a brand aren’t saying the same thing, they can make potential and existing clients uncomfortable, confused and cause them to have a negative view of your company.

Search Engine Optimization & User Experience

The visitor’s experience with your website is a major component of SEO and should be calculated in the overall design. If important information like service offerings, capabilities, or benefits are buried at the bottom of a web design, a website visitor may get frustrated and leave your site quickly – which increases your bounce rate and tells search engines that your website does not serve up helpful information (bad for SEO).

According to Danielle, a best practice in website design is to put the most important information towards the top of the B2B web design in the upper left hand part of the page – since this is where people often start to read on a website.

Content

A website contains both written and visual content, which ideally should work together to clearly communicate your brand message and main value propositions. The main thing to remember when writing content is that it should be concise. Not only does concise content work better with the web design, it is quicker to read and easier to remember. Too much written text and images will clutter up a page and fatigue a website visitors. By reducing long text to more edible bits of text, you can allow for negative space in the design.

Negative space in a design, between images and text, allows a reader to rest their eyes for a second and limits fatigue, says Danielle.

Trust

We recently discussed the simplest way to build trust with your website, but the overall visual design of the website has a lot to do with engendering trust. Have you been to a website that looks like it was built back when the Brady Bunch was on the air? An outdated web design can make a firm look like their services are outdated. Additionally, sloppy, poor, disproportionate, or busy designs can all fill a website visitor with doubt and mistrust. Working with an experienced web designer who understands your firm’s objectives and is more interested in catering to the user experience is essential to building a B2B website design that engenders trust and builds relationships.

The last tip from Danielle is that website design is an opportunity to create a user-friendly environment where current and potential clients come to get helpful tips and learn more about your business.

A website is a functional piece of any successful sales and marketing campaign, but don’t forget that good web design is important to attracting new clients, building credibility, and converting leads.