Designing a website for a startup is a huge responsibility. As a new business owner, you are looking to make an impressive entrance into your industry and your website is an integral part of that. Unlike experienced companies, startups are newcomers, usually with limited industry knowledge. At this level, they rely on their team of experts to hit the ground running. More often than not, this involves working with a professional startup web design agency.
With the internet becoming the biggest tool for product research, many companies prefer to launch with established websites, leveraging the online market for visibility. Startup websites help budding entrepreneurs build their brands and effectively market their products and services. The goal is to ensure that even before consumers begin transacting with a business, its website creates an unforgettable first impression. However, achieving this is no small feat.
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Where Things Stand
Does a startup need a website? According to the results of a survey conducted by Survey Market, 98% of the small business owners who partook said that they had business websites. This number stood at 50% in 2018 and 71% in 2021. So, yes, a startup can definitely do with a website.
As new establishments that have yet to make significant profits, expenditures largely depend on the business capital, leaving no room for secondary factors. Unfortunately, several business owners consider web design and development as a secondary expense.
While 98% of businesses with websites offer hope, they experience certain difficulties too. Naturally, consumers seek the best value for their money and because several vendors offer the same products and services, they can be picky. For business owners, this intensifies competition. Additionally, the average consumer tends to trust bigger brands over newer establishments because experience often conveys efficiency. When designing websites for startups, one needs to consider these obstacles.
Considering the challenges common to startups, the determined entrepreneur typically aims to outdo the competition and establish trust with potential customers. An outstanding website is an effective method of achieving this. Here are eight crucial things to consider when designing a website for a startup.
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1. Choose the Right Domain Name
You have, in all likelihood, invested a lot of resources into establishing your business, and your domain name should reflect the same. Much like your business name, your domain name is part of your identity. It is how the online community identifies and locates your startup on the internet.
A memorable and intuitive domain name is one of the building blocks for developing your brand into a powerhouse. A strong online presence begins with an equally strong brand identity. Think of it as how you want to be addressed as a business owner, this emphasizes the importance. A clunky website name can tarnish your credibility and discourage online visitors. When choosing a domain name, consider how relevant it is to your brand and how catchy it will be to web users.
The Need for a Web Host
Your online presence cannot exist without a web host. If the domain name is the address, think of the web host as the building that houses your website.
Like renting or buying a brick-and-mortar business space, you also need to get an online space for your website to operate from. Several companies offer web hosting services and choosing the right one for your startup may seem daunting. However, by weighing the needs of your business against their offers, you can better narrow your options.
2. Make It User Friendly
Given that websites need to attract customers, web designers should create designs that web users find interesting. Your design should ideally rely on themes that reflect the type of business you run and its targeted consumers. For example, if a startup is an educational enterprise aimed at children, it should consider incorporating academic and child-friendly elements into its design.
It’s All About UI and UX
User-compatible design is usually concerned with user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). UI focuses on the visual elements and layout of a website, which include buttons, menus, icons, fonts, and colors. UX, on the other hand, focuses on the overall experience that comprises usability, accessibility, functionality, and enjoyment.
Delivering a seamless user experience is one of the goals of any good startup web development company because it wants users to enjoy the websites it creates, aesthetically and functionally. This means in addition to designing an attractive website, navigation should also be easy. Your website’s design should guide users to important information and functionalities.
In the end, you may envision satisfied users leaving your website and its design significantly contributing to their satisfaction.
3. Provide Quality Content
Consumers are becoming wary of recycled content and one of the surest ways to keep them engaged is by providing quality content. Create content that augments the user experience and offers relevant information. Additionally, customers are likely to have questions about your products and services or the brand in general. The best startup websites tend to answer these questions, usually through an FAQ section.
Providing quality content involves implementing search engine optimization (SEO) practices, which is an integral part of website creation. By employing the right SEO strategies, you increase the likelihood of people being able to find your website when they conduct relevant online searches.
The 2023 Customer Review Survey by BrightLocal indicates that 98% of consumers turn online to look for information about local businesses, up from 90% in 2019. What about the results they receive?
The results provided by search engines in response to searches are not random. They depend on how optimized website copies are for search engines. For better optimization, it makes sense to include relevant keywords and key phrases in the content. Potential customers can easily access the website when its content is relevant to their searches.
Since SEO aims to increase online visibility, startups need to be compliant. High search engine results page (SERP) rankings increase organic web traffic, which is the largest source of online visitors. Designing a website that puts the startup at the forefront of online traffic is crucial and achieving this involves creating strategic content.
4. Keep it Simple
It is common for entrepreneurs to have lofty ideas and a fixation on moving past the more popular competition. Consequently, there is a tendency to think bigger is always better. If not moderated, these big plans and the need to outdo competitors often produce complex websites.
What a startup website development company needs to do is convey its ideas and message with enough simplicity. Technical bravado may require complicated designs in some areas but avoid making every page too complex.
A simple web design doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be minimalist, it means you need to remove all unnecessary elements from the design, code, and content. In addition, focus more on simpler color schemes and uncluttered design layouts.
Bear in mind that the need for users to easily find what they need is more important than showcasing technical skills. This is because frustrated users are likely to leave websites and never return. Instead of burying relevant information under complexities, offer them in navigable designs. Some benefits of simple startup websites include:
- They offer better accessibility.
- Web pages load faster.
- Content is easier to scan through.
- Your work is quicker and easier.
- These websites run smoothly on desktops as well as mobile devices.
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5. Create a Responsive Design
Another common factor in the best startup website designs is that they are responsive. This ensures that they adapt to a variety of electronic devices such as desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. A single responsive website is easier to manage than separate versions for different gadgets. It also prevents frustrating user experiences like repeatedly having to adjust font size and orientation.
Responsive web design puts users first by recognizing that they use an assortment of technologies. To garner a clientele, startup websites need to be accessible to as many users as possible. An unresponsive website hinders this by favoring some users over others.
Statistics shared by What’sthebigdata highlight that over 60% of the world’s online traffic originates from mobile devices. However, mobile users often find themselves at a loss when accessing websites designed for desktops. It takes a proactive web designer to consider usability on mobile devices as well.
One more advantage of a responsive website is that it improves online visibility. With more web users using mobile devices to get online, it comes as no surprise that Google recommends responsive web design for search optimization. As a result, if you wish to achieve good search engine rankings, it is imperative that you consider creating a responsive website.
6. Design to Advertise
While it’s important for websites to cater to users, a web designer for startups cannot overlook the interests of the business owner. Apart from attracting visitors and providing a great user experience, web design is also an effective marketing tool. After all, a website’s user interface is a potent way of converting visitors into customers.
A startup web design agency can advertise products and services that an entrepreneur has to offer. Page by page, your graphics can create a narrative that visually communicates what your business has to offer. With the clever use of images and graphics, you get to inform visitors of the options available to them.
As new businesses, startups need aggressive digital marketing, and cutting-edge web design is a powerful tool. Beyond the four walls of a store or office, an online presence can attract large crowds.
Remember that a significant number of consumers become acquainted with businesses through their websites. Depending on their experiences, more than half of these are likely to proceed to the company’s physical location, so it’s important to create a web design that showcases your startup and builds its brand.
7. Build Credibility
Distrust is one of the major factors affecting startups. Consumers often prefer businesses with experience and established reputations. Transacting with a fairly new company is sometimes a risk consumers aren’t willing to take. Therefore, it is imperative to build trust using web design. Since websites are usually consumers’ first contact with businesses, it is crucial to design them in a way that conveys credibility.
Testimonials are a great way to convert potential customers. While they may perceive other forms of marketing as exaggerating a company’s prowess, they find testimonials more reliable. They view reviews as recommendations from average consumers like themselves, helping them know what to expect. You may also add photos of the business owner(s), employees, and office building as stand-alone images or creative infusions into the design. By showing potential customers the faces behind the business, trust increases.
If a startup offers products and services that require a step-by-step process, consider adding snippets of the production process to the web design. For example, the design could feature clips of employees at work so visitors get a better picture of what happens behind the scenes. Social media is another effective way to build credibility. Add links to the startup’s social media accounts so potential customers can further research their services.
8. Design an Interactive Website
With several startup websites following similar design templates, an interactive website stands out by offering a far more interesting experience. It is exciting when technology mimics human interactions. You see this with artificial intelligence (AI) assistants like HiveMind, Google Assistant, and Copilot. Now, it is possible to replicate this excitement in websites by designing them with interactive features.
Unlike established companies with regular clientele, startups need to maximize every website visit. Since the goal is to convert every visitor into a customer, a web development company for startups needs to design the UI to deliver an unforgettable experience, particularly on the first visit. Interactivity forms a connection with users, much like they are interacting with salespersons. Unlike static pages, the UX becomes communicative and, more importantly, it converts visitors.
While increasing organic traffic is important, it isn’t enough to establish a successful business. If visitors are unimpressed by what they find on your website, they leave. In addition to attracting visitors, seek to retain them. Design a website that transcends the typical click-and-scroll functionality. Make it amusing and engaging in a way that compels users to interact
Consider adding features like interactive virtual assistants, engaging calls-to-action (CTAs), chat widgets, animation, slideshows, and short quizzes/games.
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Conclusion
A staggering number of startups fail within the first decade. To escape this statistic, small businesses need outstanding strategies to break into the business realm. Impressive web design is one tool that helps build a successful enterprise, and you can take heed from the best startup websites.
A well-designed website introduces a startup in a manner unlike any other. With one click, potential customers can access all they need to know about a business. This makes the role of a startup web design agency vital.
Creating stellar startup websites is rarely easy. However, by leveraging factors like simplicity and navigability, a good startup web development company can create a unique and engaging website with compelling content, helping you reach out to your target audience and convert leads into customers.
