Top 5 Business Web Design Services
Websites are an essential part of any modern business. Here’s five web design services to take
Why You Need Business Web Design Services
Every modern business needs a website; here's what you need to know about getting a good one.
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Why You Need Business Web Design Services
Every modern business needs a website; here's what you need to know about getting a good one.
Every modern business needs a website. It’s the virtual equivalent of a shop front and lets the world know exactly what you’re all about. A professionally designed website combines looks with performance and can make all the difference in your business’s success.
Don’t know where to start when it comes to professional web design? Well, don’t worry, because you’re in the right place to find out with our ultimate guide to business web design!
What Is Professional Web Design?
Professional web design is a service offered by trained web designers who build you a bespoke website from scratch. They address your needs and what you want to get from your site and then plan, design, implement, and maintain it on your behalf.
Professional web design blends aesthetics with functionality. This gives your business a professional look while making it easy for your customers to find what they want.
What are the Alternatives to Web Design Services?
Site builders like Wix and Squarespace are alternatives to hiring a professional designer to build your site for you. Although these may be appealing because they are often significantly cheaper, they have a few drawbacks.
The first is that they are built from pre-rendered templates. Although there’s nothing wrong with these platforms, having a custom-made site instead of a generic one is the perfect way to stand out from the crowd. Professionally built sites are tailored to your specific brand and audience, providing a unique and effective online presence.
Think of it like buying a flatpack bookshelf compared to commissioning a professionally handcrafted one with meticulous precision. There’s nothing wrong with the flatpack bookshelf, but it isn’t a patch on the functionality, beauty, and craftsmanship of its bespoke counterpart.
They also take up time that can be used elsewhere in your business. Yes, it’s quicker than learning how to build a bespoke website yourself. But even then, do you really have the time to sit around on a website builder trying to figure out what HTML is?
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Why Web Design Matters for Businesses
Make a Great First Impression
You know what they say: You only get one chance to make a great first impression. And with 94% of a customer’s first impression coming from your website, never has that been more true than when it comes to your business.
Your website will often be the first point of contact between your business and potential customers. If you’ve got a well-designed, responsive website, you may have your next sale in the bag. But if they don’t like what they see, they’ll hit that ‘back’ button in record time and go straight to a direct competitor.
Establish Credibility and Trust
Your website is how you present yourself to the world; your digital storefront. A modern, professional design immediately shows the legitimacy and reliability of your business. If you have a clunky site that looks like it hasn’t been updated since The Spice Girls were in the charts, then this isn’t a great look.
Think about it. If you wanted to buy something online and the site looked as legitimate as a Rolex in a Turkish market, would you give them your information and card details? Of course you wouldn’t, so why expect it from anyone else?
Remember, 72% of users judge your credibility based on your website’s design. First impressions count; make sure yours builds trust and leaves a lasting impact.
Enhance Your User Experience (UX)
User Experience, or UX, is, well…the experience a user has when visiting your site. Professionally designed sites have straightforward navigation, logical page hierarchy, and fast loading speeds. This helps your visitors quickly find exactly what they want, boosting the chance of a sale.
Appear Higher on Google
Search engines like Google and Bing want to reward only the best sites, and that’s where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. While SEO has many moving parts, a well-functioning website is one of its most crucial foundations.
This includes clean coding, proper use of headers, well-structured and easy-to-understand content, fast loading times, and responsive design, all of which are benefits of a professionally designed site.
Nail this, and you’ll appear higher up the rankings in the search engines. The top three highest-ranked sites share 68.7% of all clicks on Google, so the higher you are, the better. If you don’t please the search engine gods, don’t expect to be on the first few pages, let alone the top three spots.
Increase Conversions
Professionally designed sites are designed to guide visitors to take certain actions, such as filling out a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, or making a purchase. Clear use of call-to-actions (CTAs), strategically placed buttons, and visual prompts can help encourage engagement and, in turn, conversions.
Reinforce Brand Identity
As we said previously, your website is how you present yourself to the wider world. This includes your brand identity.
If you’re a law firm, perhaps don’t have a neon colour scheme and pounding dance music blaring when visitors land on your site. Nobody is going to trust you to represent them in court, no matter how much they’re a fan of techno. Something minimalist, clean, and with a professional tone should do the trick.
If you’re, let’s say, completely hypothetically, a website that helps UK businesses find the best deal for professional web services, then you can take a different approach. A more casual tone while still getting across key information pieces is appropriate.
Understanding how you want your site, and by extension, your business, to be viewed is something you can discuss with professional web designers to help them achieve your aim.
Support Digital Marketing Efforts
If you’re already running digital marketing campaigns, whether email, social media or PPC, all roads lead back to your site. A well-designed website works alongside these efforts by providing well-optimised landing pages that convert. You can also use tracking tools that monitor key metrics so you can tweak your strategy and improve your overall marketing performance.
Stay Competitive
A recent study showed that 80% of SMEs have a website for their business. If your competitors are online, then you need to be as well! An outdated and poorly designed site can see you fall behind the competition, while modern sites show you’re evolving with the times and at the forefront of your industry.
81% of consumers will check out a business’s website before purchasing. Don’t make them second-guess themselves!
Mobile Responsiveness and Accessibility
Did you know 62.69% of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices? If your website looks great on a laptop but is an absolute mess on a mobile device, you’re alienating a large part of your audience. Mobile usability is also a key part of SEO, so hiring a pro who can build you a usable site on all types of devices is essential.
Gather Reviews
Think about the last time you bought something online. We’re willing to bet you browsed some reviews before making that purchase, right? Well, you’re not alone, as 95.5% of consumers check reviews before purchasing.
A professional website and an up-to-date Google Business Profile are a great way to collect and showcase your reviews. 5 stars and positive comments can be displayed to remove friction in the buying process and any doubt in your customers’ minds.
What Should Be Included in a Professional Website Build?
Custom Design & Branding
Your site should be a reflection of who you are as a business. If you sell tailored suits, have an elegant and suave site befitting a luxury menswear retailer. If you’re selling handmade socks for cats, go a bit zany and off the wall.
Custom visuals, fonts, colours, and logos help establish you as a recognisable brand and define your business. How your site looks and feels isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about building that connection and trust with your customers.
Mobile Optimisation
With 62.69% of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, optimising your site for these visitors is essential. This helps deliver a seamless experience to customers on their phones or tablets.
But it’s not just for user experience. Mobile optimisation plays a direct role in how search engines view your site. The more credible you are in their eyes, the higher you will appear in their rankings, making it easier for new customers to find you.
Clear Navigation
You might be the best in your field. Offering a life-changing product or service at a reasonable price. But if your site is a mess, how will people ever find out?
Well-organised menus, logical page layouts, properly structured content, and clear CTAs are the key to success here. These elements help your visitors quickly find what they’re looking for, keeping them engaged and encouraging them to take action.
Fast Loading Times
People’s attention spans are shorter than ever, and if your website doesn’t load fast, they’ll go and find another one that does. Having a slow and laggy site is (ironically) the fastest way to lose a sale.
Professional web designers will be able to optimise image sizes, minimise code, and use efficient hosting that can boost performance and user satisfaction. It’s another way that search engines judge where to rank your site, making site speed doubly important.
Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
Your website should guide your visitors to take action. Booking a service, contacting a team member, making a purchase, or doing whatever it is you want, make it easy for them. Having clear, prominent, and persuasive CTAs should be strategically placed throughout your site to encourage engagement and get that conversion.
A specific, clear CTA can increase your site’s conversion rates by a staggering 161%. Make sure that you’re not leaving potential customers guessing what to do and walking away.
SEO-Friendly Structure
Search Engine Optimisation is a huge topic we don’t have time to discuss in depth right now, but it’s essential to making your site work. Think of it like the engine in your car. You can get a new paint job, finest leather seats, and the best-quality sound system, but if there’s no engine, it’s not going to run.
SEO is a practice that helps your website perform well in search engines, making it easier to be discovered. To rank highly, your site needs proper technical foundations, including:
- Optimised metadata
- Clean code
- Well-structured URLs
- Correct use of headings
- Alt text for images
- Quick loading times
- Mobile and desktop versions
- Linking infrastructure
If this means nothing to you, don’t worry about it. Just always make sure you ask how they’re going to optimise your site for search engines and cross-reference with online lists.
Website Security
Security is an essential part of your website. Customers will trust you with their personal and financial information, and you have a duty of care to protect it. If you fail to do so and breach GDPR laws, you can be fined up to £17.5 million or 4% of your annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
Make sure your site has SSL encryption, secure hosting, firewalls, and routine updates. These will help keep your customers’ data safe, avoiding hefty fines and potentially irreversible damage to your reputation.
Social Proof
Showcase your successes to your customers. These can help remove friction in the conversion process and increase your reliability in consumers’ eyes. Examples of things to include:
- Testimonials
- Case studies
- Certifications and awards
- Ratings (Trustpilot and Google are great for this)
- Logos of prominent clients or partners
- Security badges
Analytics Integration
Analytics tools like Google Analytics help analyse your site’s performance. What do customers like? Where are they dropping off? What pages are the most popular?
Digging into this data type with integrated analytics is a great way to find out what is and isn’t working and how to improve performance.
Lead Capture & Forms
Whether users are signing up for a newsletter or making a sale, conversion forms should be easy to use and strategically placed. If you use a CRM system, integrating it directly with your site can help centralise all of this important information and streamline your sales process.
Accessible Design
Your website should be accessible to anyone, including those using screen readers and keyboard navigation. WCAG 2.1 is a worldwide standard that sites should follow to make their content easier to access. These include captions on videos, alt-text on images, and keyboard shortcuts to make navigation easier.
Social Media Integration
Integrating your social media platforms directly into your site allows you to expand your overall online reach. Include social sharing buttons, profile links, and embedded feeds. This will link all of your profiles together, making the transition between them seamless.
Industries That Benefit from Web Design Services
Food and Beverage
Restaurants, bars, and food delivery services need visually appealing menus, easy-to-use reservation systems, and a simple design that allows users to easily book/order.
Industry-specific CTAs like “Order Now” or “Book a Table” can make all the difference in securing business. To top it all off, websites can even connect directly to your EPOS system, making the ordering and booking process as seamless as ever!
E-commerce and Retail
If you sell goods online, a fast, secure, and visually pleasing website is essential. A well-structured page hierarchy helps your customers find what they want, and the ability to include things like reviews builds trust with your visitors. SSL encryption adds a layer of security so you can safely collect and store sensitive customer data.
Hospitality and Travel
When a booking site looks like a mess, people assume your place does too. No one’s lining up to stay at a spot that feels sketchy online. But a site that’s smooth, stylish, and easy to book? That’s how you stay full year-round.
Professional Services
Law firms, accountants, and financial advisors require a professional, authoritative presence. A well-designed site with secure contact forms, informative blogs, and compliance-ready layouts helps to build trust with your clients.
Healthcare and Medical Services
Private doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, and clinics can all use websites to schedule appointments, educate patients, and build trust. Added security features like SSL encryption, secure servers, and advanced firewalls keep your customers’ data safe.
Failing to do so will see you breach GDPR laws, putting you at risk of hefty fines.
Trades and Home Services
If you work in the trades, your local area is your bread and butter. A professionally designed website with local SEO in mind is a great way to showcase your work and reach your customer base more easily with improved search engine rankings.
You can include service area pages and testimonials from locals to help build credibility within the local community, which can lead to repeat business.
Education and Training Providers
One of the great things about the internet is that you can learn anything you want from the comfort of your home. Schools, colleges and online tutors can benefit from a site designed with clear navigation, informative content, and secure enrollment forms. You can also post resources to your site for your students to easily access.
Creative Agencies and Freelancers
A professionally designed portfolio is the perfect place to showcase your work if you are working in creative fields like graphic design, marketing, and copywriting. Include case studies and testimonials to put yourself ahead of your rivals in the ever-increasingly competitive freelancer market.
Logistics and Transportation
If you’re in transportation and logistics, you can benefit from a site that clearly communicates reliability, service range, and availability. Request forms and customer tracking portals can enhance the user experience and build trust with your client base.
Property Industry
If your website gives off Stath Lets Flats vibes, then you’re not going to get any business, no matter how good the properties you have available are. Estate agents, property managers, and private landlords with a sleek, polished website with high-quality images will trounce you.
Include forms to schedule viewings, integrated maps, virtual tours, and client testimonials to deliver an all-in-one experience to your clients.
How to Choose the Right Web Design Partner For You
Define Your Goals and Requirements
First off, what do you actually want your website to do?
If you’re custom t-shirts, then you want an e-commerce website. One of those pubs that sells organic 8% IPAs in a mason jar? Make sure it includes a booking system. If you’re a Portsmouth plumber, it has to be optimised for local SEO.
Understanding what you want to get out of your website is a crucial part of the consultation process. The more information you can give to the designers, the better they will be able to make your vision come to life.
Look at Their Experience
Are they a general web design service covering numerous industries, or are they more focused on your niche? If you opt for the latter, they will typically have experience knowing exactly what works for your industry and audience base.
Evaluate their website and see whether anything in their portfolio catches your eye. Look for things like design style, case studies, and success stories.
Check Client Testimonials and Reviews
Scoping out Google Reviews and sites like Trustpilot is a great way to see what actual customers are saying about your potential web designers. If you see one or two poor reviews, take them with a pinch of salt; people will always complain, no matter what. But if you notice a pattern in the comments (both positive and negative), then take note of these.
Look for communication, responsiveness to inquiries, and willingness to include you. Be sure to check out their site for client testimonials, success stories, and any awards they’ve won.
Understand Pricing and Contract Terms
- Make sure you know what you’re signing up for:
- How much is the site going to cost you?
- Does it include hosting and domain registration?
- How long is the contract length?
- Do you pay upfront or monthly?
- Are there any ongoing fees?
These are just a few things you must know before signing anything. And this should go without saying, but make sure you can afford it. It may be the best website in the world, but if it doesn’t fit your budget, you will have to look elsewhere.
Clarify Support and Maintenance
What level of support are you going to receive once everything is live?
- Do they offer any ongoing maintenance packages?
- How do they handle technical issues and updates?
- What happens if your site goes down? Are there agreed-upon resolution times?
- Do they offer any ongoing training?
You will want to ask if you have access to the Content Management System (CMS). Think of this as having the keys to your site. The CMS allows you to manually change the content on your site, including copy, blogs, and contact information.
If you don’t have access, you will be at the mercy of your designers to make even the most basic changes. This can really slow down your operations, especially when it comes to things like limited-time offers.
How Can I Hire a Web Designer for My Business?
Running a business is hard, but getting the best professional web designer doesn’t have to be—especially if you let us do all the heavy lifting. That’s why here at Commercial Experts, we’ve made it our mission to help UK businesses like yours find the best possible deals on web design services.
All you have to do is answer the question below to start our questionnaire, then, based on your responses, you will receive a range of business web design quotes tailored to your specific needs.
All quotes are 100% free and non-committal, so what are you still doing here? Tap the button below now!
FAQs
Why does web design matter for businesses?
A professionally designed website creates a great first impression, builds trust, and helps customers find exactly what they need. It also improves user experience, increases search engine visibility, and ultimately boosts conversions, making it an essential part of any modern business.
What are the alternatives to hiring a web designer?
DIY website builders like Wix and Squarespace offer quick setups and low costs. However, they use generic templates, lack flexibility, and often require time you could spend elsewhere in your business. Custom-designed sites meet your specific needs and offer better long-term performance.
What should a professionally built website include?
A high-quality business website should include mobile optimisation, fast load times, clear navigation, strong security, SEO-friendly structure, analytics tools, lead capture forms, and accessible design. These features improve performance, increase visibility, and provide a seamless user experience across devices.
How do I choose the right web design partner?
Define your goals, review portfolios, check testimonials, and understand pricing and contracts. Ask about ongoing support and whether you’ll have access to edit your site. A transparent, experienced partner with proven results is key to a successful web design project.
How can I get professional web design services for my business?
To get started, just tap ‘Start Free Quote’ and answer a few simple questions about your business. You’ll receive multiple tailored quotes from some of the UK’s leading designers, which are completely free. This is no-strings-attached, so if you don’t like what you see, walk away without spending a penny!
