In today’s digital world, having a strong digital presence is becoming an increasingly crucial tactic for winning customers. As marketers only have about eight seconds to capture a customer’s attention before losing them, it’s essential for brands to have high-quality websites with seamless user experience (UX) design. 

To keep visitors on your site long enough to learn about your brand and its offerings, navigation needs to be as simple as possible. Having a clean and simple layout is essential for achieving this feat. As a website creates an image and feeling that impacts the buying process, accessible UX plays an invaluable role in winning customers.

For example, when PRophet launched its brand-new website in July, we found success through an approach of simplicity, relevancy and transparency. The site cut back on clutter and chaos by keeping the number of pages to a minimum, making it much easier to navigate. In doing so, it concisely tells the story of PRophet, hooking prospects without boring them with wordy copy or scaring them away with jargon. We also redesigned our news section to add value to our site and credibility to our brand. And through our transparent pricing page, we’ve found it easier to foster trust with customers, which is heightened through having no pop-ups or ads on the site. With all these elements incorporated, PRophet saw its organic traffic increase eightfold, and a sizeable spike in leads soon followed.

Considering the positive impact of a properly designed website, it’s clear that a poorly designed website is likely to have the opposite effect. With millions of companies competing to capture consumers’ shrinking attention spans, site flaws such as slowly-loading pages, confusing interfaces and annoying pop-ups are all sure to steer customers away.

After all, a brand’s website is the virtual equivalent of its storefront. If a website is overwhelming and hard to navigate, it sets the perception that the product or service will be just as frustrating. When that’s the case, why would someone want to become a customer?  

Design approach can (and should) be considered by brands that are just starting out. For young entrepreneurs building their first website, it’s crucial to remember that an effective website tells a powerful story. Additionally, it’s important to understand that a website is one of the greatest investments they can make for their business. That said, they should allocate all their available resources to a design firm or agency that values their vision. Even if the costs feel steep at first, a well-designed website will always pay off in the long run.

With social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok seemingly taking the world by storm, being active on social can feel like the end-all, be-all for startups today. And while leveraging social media can certainly be impactful, it’s not the only element to consider for success. 

With a carefully crafted website, a brand can stay 100% true to itself without having to work within any of the limitations of another platform. A customized website can showcase a brand in its most authentic form, and in today’s world full of mistrust, authenticity achieved through thoughtful design will continue to set brands apart from the crowd.

PRophet is the first-ever AI-driven platform, built by and for PR professionals, to use a proprietary combination of natural language processing and machine learning to predict media interest and story sentiment before you ever send a pitch.