There are two things that businesses need to succeed in the online world: a website and a blog. However, simply having these two necessities does not mean that visitors will flock to your site. The reality is that the choices you make during the design phase can have just as much of an impact on your traffic numbers as the content that you feature. In other words, even if you are selling the most innovative product in the world, it may still be difficult to get people to buy it if it is not wrapped in the right virtual package.

Does Design Matter to Offline Companies?

If you provide products or services exclusively to the offline market, you might believe that your website design does not need to be a major part of your marketing strategy. Some companies of this type even purposefully choose the least expensive website design and hosting options because they fail to understand how integral their online presence will be to the future of their bottom line.

Forrester Research’s retail forecast for 2015 to 2020 points out just how bad of an idea it is to skimp in this area. Their findings indicate that at least 45 percent of all offline purchasing decisions will be primarily influenced by each applicable company’s website and other online marketing techniques. This means that you could cut your potential almost in half if you fail to fully capitalize on your website design and blog.

Which Design Factors Are the Most Important?

The colors you choose for your website can make a big difference in the type of audience that will be responsive to your message. Several studies have shown that women and men both prefer blue and green, but if your primary market is men, you should steer clear of purple, brown and orange tones. Because women list the color purple among their top three choices, this would be a good choice if you are directly targeting the female market.

Other factors that matter greatly include load time, easy navigation and the proper placement of images and text. For example, if the entire home page is a long text block, you are going to instantly turn off the majority of your visitors. Therefore, if you need a section that contains a large amount of text, make sure that you put it on one of your interior pages. It is also a good idea to break up text with some images or negative space.

How Much of a Difference Can Web Hosting Make?

The company that hosts your website and blog can have a big impact on your overall success. After all, if you choose a hosting provider that does not offer reliable uptime and puts a lot of restrictions on the amount of traffic that you can receive, it will end up hurting you. Fortunately, you can avoid these issues by using a minimalist design and selecting one of the best 10 website builders.

Make sure that you closely analyze each website builder review to determine which option is the best choice for your specific needs. Keep in mind that some hosting companies offer robust site builders with a large number of templates to choose from. Others are more bare bones, but they could still be the right choice if you do not need a template.

Ultimately, every company needs a well-designed website, regardless of whether or not they sell products online. Do not forget that the site host you choose can also help or hinder your performance due to load times. In fact, 40 percent of Internet users will not wait more than three seconds for a site to load. Therefore, choosing the right colors, content, navigation and hosting company are essential, and this mixture can dramatically increase your conversion percentage and decrease your bounce rate.