Understanding the Real ROI of Professional Web Design

There’s no denying the value of well designed, optimally performing website for your business. In fact, it’s arguably the single most valuable tool you have at your disposal for generating leads and conversions online. While there are plenty of businesses that start off thinking that a website is just a formality, it doesn’t take them long to uncover its true potential.

However, technology is moving faster than ever and so are consumer expectations. Businesses that genuinely want to thrive in the digital landscape absolutely need a website that keeps pace with the changes and exceeds consumer standards.

The only real problem is that unless you’re an experienced web designer this can be nearly impossible to do. Many businesses are left choosing between risking the strength of their online presence or investing in professional website design – something that can be a hit to the budget.

When you’re facing this business conundrum, it’s important to not look at the straight cost of professional web design, but instead at the ROI that it provides. The right web developer can ensure that your site provides exponential returns on your investment. What does this mean? Let’s find out.

The Factors of Professional Web Design that Affect ROI

Before we can start talking about the mathematical basics of calculating the ROI of your website, it’s smart to take a few steps back to square one and discuss which factors are going to have an impact on the final number. Let’s start with the basics of search volume and click through rate (CTR).

What we’re talking about here is a comparison between the likelihood that your website will appear in search results – something you probably already know as SEO – and how many people actually click on your link when you appear in their results. Your website needs to be built with a dedicated strategy for appealing to a search engine’s algorithm. For example, keywords with a high search volume will increase your chance of a higher ranking, but only if they’re combined with other important elements of SEO.

The goal of course, is to increase your visibility and get as much traffic moving towards your website as possible. If you’ve investing in a digital marketing strategy, then you probably have a few different cards in the game that are aimed at making this happen. Social media outreach and email marketing are two prime examples of traffic generating strategies.

So, you get all this traffic flowing to your site and your number of visitors is climbing at a steady rate, but what is happening once they get there? Do they look around for a few seconds and say never mind, or does something about your site compel them to stay around and maybe even engage with your lead capture element? The amount of traffic coming in to your site doesn’t matter quite as much as the number of high quality leads that commit. A great web design can help make this happen.

Next, we have what’s called your conversion or closing rate. This is a number that represents the number of visitors to your site that have actually reached the point of making a purchase or committing to your service. The higher this number is, the better your website has performed its key tasks.

The Equation

When you think about it, all of this is quite a lot of pressure for your website. It’s essentially the vehicle that will carry your customers from the point of introduction to conversion and then on towards customer loyalty. This means it has to meet an incredible number of people at different points in their journey and supply each of them with an equally rewarding experience. When we talk about the ROI of your website, this is the process that the number is generated from. If you’re website is excelling at each point, then the resulting ROI is going to be one that knocks you off your feet.

Now, if we wanted to break down the ROI of your website design, we could do it with a simple equation that’s basically the total of your web design expenses divided by profits received through consumer interactions with your web site. You could compute this number fairly easily and it would give you a rough idea of how profitable your website is or isn’t, but the true ROI is actually much more nuanced.

Let’s begin by considering the fact that the ROI of your website isn’t necessarily a static number. For example, say you acquired two new customers who have spent the exact same amount of money. They count equally for the purpose of the standard equation. However, in this case one of them had a singular need and they may return to you in the future based on their experience but the other is one who will be continually nurtured and invest with your brand on a regular basis.

Suddenly, they’re not so equal anymore. When looking at the overall ROI of your site, you need to consider if yours is built with the features that nurture customers to the point that most of them have high lifetime value for your businesses. Simplified or amateur web design often fails at this.

Additionally, there are other fluctuations like maintenance costs that need to be taken into consideration. Professional web development is going to require less in terms of ongoing costs because its already going to be optimized for the latest technology, SEO and consumer trends. Factors like these can be hard to calculate in standard ROI equations, at least in the beginning, but can have a significant impact on the ROI long term.

Work With an Experienced Web Designer

There’s no way to overstate the value of a professional website and we’re the web design company that can help you achieve the type of ROI that your business needs to thrive in today’s digital landscape. If you have questions about the process or how investing in our services can influence your bottom line, we’d love to talk with you. Contact J2O Designs today and let us be the website design company that helps you define success.

This article was originally published on the J2O Designs Marketing Blog.