Web Design Adelaide

For new businesses, you are starting with a blank sheet of paper and thus you can ensure that from the very first day your website appears online, it is something you can be proud of.

For those who own, or are running an existing business, the question which you must ask yourself with regards to your website should be, ‘ Does it have a positive or a negative or negative impact on my business?’. Even if the answer is a positive impact, the follow-up question is ‘Could it do even better?’.

The reason we suggest that you ask those questions about your website is that there are many business owners and CEOs who are not aware of just how much more than the one they currently have, that a professionally designed and fully functioning website can enhance their business.

Here at Slinky Web Design Adelaide, we regularly receive calls from business owners and those responsible for the online activities of their company, who believed they had a website which worked, but they have now seen their competition launch new websites and almost immediately they have seen a drop off in the number of online contacts, quotation requests and sales from their website.

The other calls we often get are those from businesses whose website is so out of date, poorly designed, or which functions erratically, that not only does it fail to provide any positives, but it is also actually harming that business. This is an important point because many business owners think that if they just leave their website as is, despite the many issues it has, it will not do them any harm. The reality is quite the opposite.

How A Substandard Or Out Of Date Website Can Harm Your Business

If a business has had the same website for many years there can be a fair degree of loyalty towards it, and it might almost seem like an old friend. No doubt when it was first launched all those years ago it seemed modern, and it likely used what was then the latest design features and coding.

It may also have performed very well with respect to providing that business with new leads, showcasing the company’s products and services, and it might even have been responsible for helping to generate an increase in sales.

Where the problems start with older websites is that as the months and years roll by, technology advances, design elements improve, the online behaviours of consumers change, and in recent years all of these have occurred at a much faster pace than they would have done previously.

What this then leads us to is a situation where not only do websites that are 10, 15, or 20 years old look tired and out of date, but even some built 5 years or so ago are beginning to lag behind.

Today’s internet users expect more from websites than what might have been the case a decade or so ago, and if your website is not well-designed, functions well, and provides consumers with a user experience that they find positive, with the twitch of their thumb, they will be gone, and likely lost forever.

However, simply having someone click away because they do not like your website is just the start of your problems. From the conversations we have had with our existing clients, and from the research we have done ourselves, here are just some of the many issues and problems that a business can face by having a substandard website.

More Liable To Hacking, Security Breaches, And Data Theft
Reduced Ranking On Google And Other Search Engines
Frequent Website Outages And Downtime
Additional Costs For Temporary Website ‘Fixes’
New Product And Service Launches Fail
Reputation Is Tarnished
Company Brand Is Diminished

Poor Online Reviews
Reduced Numbers Of Leads And Inquiries
Loss Of Existing Customers
Reduced Revenue
Lower Profits Or Even Losses
Your Local Competition Grows Whilst You Go Backwards

If your business had to deal with any single one of the issues on that list it would be upsetting, but imagine having to deal with all of them, which in many cases is exactly what business owners and CEOs have had to do, all because their website was not fit for purpose.

Why Having A Professionally Designed Website Is Essential More Than Ever

There might be some of you thinking that simply to stop any of the negatives we have listed above from happening would be all the reason in the world to have a new website, and that would be fair comment. However, there are many positive advantages too and we will come to those further on. What we want to touch on first, is why exactly websites have become such an essential tool for a business.

We say ‘essential’ because it is not just the fact that a website can help a business to grow and be successful , but in the cold light of day, a website is essential for many businesses to even remain in existence. That might sound stark, but that is the reality of the modern business world we are in.

As the internet has continued to grow in terms of the numbers of people using it, another phenomenon that has had every bit, if not more of an impact on how businesses operate, is the reasons people use the internet has changed.

Initially, the internet was a means to communicate with others, even if they were on the other side of the world. Email, chatrooms, and forums were the reason many people came online. As more and more websites appeared, the internet also became a huge resource with regards to learning, research, and finding information.

Fast forward to today and those reasons are still why many people go online, however with the speed at which technology has advanced, both in terms of the types of online platforms that can be created, and with respect to the devices that used to access the internet, what can be done online bears little resemblance to those early days. Here are just some examples:

Social Media
Streaming Sport/TV/Movies
Shopping…For Just About Anything
Online Banking
Make Payments For Bills etc.

Video Calls/Conferencing
Online Gambling/Casinos
Completing Forms And Applications…For Just About Anything
Following Health/Fitness Plans
Using Downloadable Apps…For Just About Anything

No doubt you will know of many more, and one in particular which we have not mentioned is that more and more people are able to carry out their employment duties online which became especially prevalent during the lockdowns caused by the Covid pandemic. as well as people working from home, families, and friends had no option but to use the internet as a means of staying in touch via the likes of Zoom and Skype.

These have simply added to the already vast number of people who now see the internet as part of their everyday lives, and with the advancement of mobile devices they can use the internet whenever they wish and wherever they are. Businesses must realise this all presents them with a huge opportunity to harness the internet via their website, but only if that website has been designed and built by professionals.

Your Options For A New Website

If having read everything thus far you know it is absolutely the right thing for your business to have a new website designed and built, then there are a few options you might consider, however, we will be upfront and warn you that most of them will not produce the desired results you are looking for, so let us examine each of them in a bit of detail.

Do It Yourself
There are some people who have some knowledge of website design, or who have someone working for them who does, and who might wish to build a website themselves. What you find is that the majority of these websites tend to be for personal use, or for a business that is operated by a single person. In other words, for most businesses in Adelaide, this type of website will not be sufficient.

For a start, unless you are a fully qualified website designer, it is likely to be built from a template which means that any customisation will be limited. Also, much of the coding which is responsible for the operation of a website will be too basic and might not have many of the functions you want to include.

Another point we would make is that as a business owner or CEO, your skills, and ultimately what you do best, is running that business and making profits. Every minute you are either building a website or subsequently monitoring and maintaining it, is a minute you are not growing your business.

Hire A Freelancer
This option is one where you first have to find a freelancer, and these can be found on websites like Fiverr and Upwork. From the outset, we will tell you that the majority of freelancers are diligent and will complete the work, but many of them will be limited with regards to the standard of websites they can build.

For a start, they are just one person, and you are unlikely to be their only client so the amount of time they are going to have to dedicate to your website will be severely limited.

Further whilst they might have an array of skills, it is unlikely that they could be classed as an expert in any of them. This means that their levels of design skills and programming skills might be sufficient for an average website but not to the point where the websites they are designing are going to extraordinarily special, which is what you should be aiming for.

Slinky Web Design Adelaide
A quick reminder that your new website is going to play a crucial role in the success of your business, and that is why its creation should only be entrusted to those who have the skills, expertise, experience, and resources to design and build it from start to finish.

That is exactly what the professional designers and programmers at Slinky Web Design Adelaide can do for you, and rather than relying on just one person to build your website, be that you, an employee, or a freelancer, you can depend upon our entire team who are dedicated to building websites that any and every client we serve is delighted with.

We offer a range of web design packages to suit every budget, and such is our desire to help every business, be it a small start-up or large corporation. We also offer monthly payments to make it affordable for every one of them.

VIEW PORTFOLIO

Now we have outlined why having a professionally designed website is essential, we are sure that you are keen to know what those other advantages we mentioned previously are. One of the main reasons that clients of Slinky Web Design Adelaide are so delighted once their website is complete is that there are not just one or two benefits, there are several of them.

Ultimately any business wants to make increased profits, and ‘spoiler alert’ you will soon see that is one of the benefits of a website designed and built by Slinky Web Design, but what is key to appreciating the overall picture here, is that every benefit we are about to outline, will contribute towards that goal of greater profits.

Some will have a direct effect, and others might be considered periphery, but one thing that applies to them all is that they will give any person who visits your website a more positive view of your business before they leave. It might not be enough to sway them on their first visit or even their second, but a professional website design will certainly take them closer than an old, substandard website.

Ready? Here we go…

Your Website Will Perform And Function Properly

No matter what form any piece of technology takes, the higher the standard it has built to, the more chance there is of it working properly, and less chance there is of it failing or breaking down. This principle applies as much to cars, washing machines, and computers, as it does to websites.

You might think as there are no moving parts, how can a website ‘break down’, but you have to remember it does have coding, programming, plugins, and other design elements. Whilst they are on a website visitors may have some interactions with it which may also rely upon some of the programming used to build a website.

If any of the programming or coding which you might consider ‘under the bonnet’, does not work properly or fails intermittently, those visiting the website are bound to encounter those flaws and faults. This can mean the website loads slowly, pages fail to open, the graphics and text look strange, and there may even be error messages which appear on the user’s screen.

We live in a fast-paced world, and nowhere is that more prevalent than online. People are not going to sit around and wait for a slow-loading website, nor are they going to endure errors. Instead, they will go elsewhere, because to do so they need simply click another tab on their browser.

That is how quickly you can lose a prospect, or more to the point how quickly one of your competitors can gain that prospect, due to your website not functioning properly.

But it need not be like that. A professionally designed website from Slinky Web Design will be built by professional programmers who are experts in ensuring that the functionality of a website is as it should be. They will also thoroughly test your new website to ensure everything is working correctly.

Your Website Will Be Less Vulnerable To Hacking And Malware Attacks

You are no doubt well aware that not everyone who operates online has good intentions and that means that there is a criminal element who seek to make gains using underhand and in most cases, illegal means. Much of the publicity surrounding their activities tends to be when they manage to hack the website of larger companies and organisations and steal the personal data of individuals.

However, smaller, and local businesses, including those here in Adelaide, should be under no illusion that just because you might not have the data of millions of people stored on your website’s servers that you might not be a target. Hackers operate at all levels and they are just as likely to send malware to your website to disable it and demand a few thousand dollars to release it.

The older your website is the more vulnerable it is to attack, and it is for this reason many clients come to Slinky Web Design to ask us to build them a new, more secure website. Now, we must stress, given the complexity of some hacking malware no website can ever be is 100% protected but the modern programming we would use to build it will ensure that your website is not an easy target.

Beyond this, we also offer an additional service that provides even greater protection including the monitoring and testing of your website for malware attacks, so if security is a concern, please speak to us.

Your Website Will Be Compatible With Mobile Devices

Whilst the internet might be considered the biggest leap with respect to how recent technological advances have changed our lives, there is also a case to be made that mobile and other smart devices have made every bit as much difference. When the internet first became popular, it could usually only be accessed via desktop computers but all that has changed in the past 20 years or so.

With mobile phone technology making huge leaps and bounds, what could once only be done whilst sitting at a desk and using a PC, can now be done on a device that is held in your hand and is no more than a couple of inches wide. The term smart device is often used to describe a mobile phone for the simple reason that the fact they can be used to make and receive phone calls now seems inconsequential.

We may make calls on them, but mobile phones are now more like mini-computers, and of course, they can easily connect to the internet. That means anyone in Adelaide who has a mobile device with internet access can visit your business’s website, and their experience when doing so will only be optimised if that website is mobile device compatible. If it is not mobile compatible your website might not load or look right.

Every website designed and built by Slinky Web Design Adelaide is mobile compatible and as part of our testing procedures we make doubly sure that all the pages of your new website load and display as they should on all devices including PCs, laptops, tablets, and of course mobile and other smart devices.

Your Company's Branding Will Be Strengthened

Branding for businesses can take many forms from a simple company logo at one end of the scale to a company’s entire business model being founded upon the strength of its brand and in some cases, more than on its products. For most businesses in Adelaide, their branding will not need to be on the same scale as the likes of Nike or Disney, but it can play a significant role in their success.

Effective branding can make your company recognisable to Adelaideans, and when the time comes that any one of them is the market for the goods or services you provide, then you are far more likely to be one of the companies they consider if they are aware of your branding.

Where Slinky Web Design can help strengthen your brand within the design of your new website is by ensuring that the colours we use are consistent, that any fonts associated with that brand are used, that we include your logo where appropriate and that each page reinforces your branding, be that with words or with imagery.

Trust In Your Business Will Increase

There is a commodity that many businesses possess that if you asked their owner to swap it for a suitcase full of gold, they would point blank refuse to. That commodity is not their premises, their trademarks, or even their product blueprints. It is in fact the trust that they have built amongst their customers, clients, and within their local marketplace.

Trust is so valuable to a business when it exists because if they were ever to lose that trust from people, such is the impact of that,
it might even mean that business struggling to survive. The other element is that trust is not something that occurs overnight and is instead something that builds and grows over time. However, whilst it may not occur instantly, it can certainly be lost in an instant.

When Slinky Web Design builds a website for a client, we will seek to include elements within it that lend themselves to gaining trust from anyone who visits that website, and we will certainly ensure that nothing within the design could in any way cause a visitor to mistrust that client’s business.

The first impression someone has when they land on your website can influence how much they trust you, so we make sure the appearance is professional and clean. We also refrain from spammy elements like pop-ups that are difficult to close or flashing graphics that are little more than a distraction.

We can also include graphical elements that confirm you are a trustworthy and reputable company such as the logo of a professional body you belong to , or membership of your respective local trade association.

Your Website Confirms Your Local Association With Adelaide

Assuming you are a business that operates in and around the city of Adelaide, then it follows that the vast majority of your prospective customers and clients are residents of Adelaide. Now Adelaideans, just as those who live in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, or any other city will first and foremost seek out a local company, long before they look elsewhere.

This fact means that it is beholden upon any business to ensure that when a local resident visits their website, that it is abundantly clear that the company that owns that website is a local one, and in this case, that it is a company with a very strong association with Adelaide.

That local loyalty can be harnessed by a business within its website, and when Slinky Web Design Adelaide is designing your website we will make sure that there can be no doubt you are an Adelaide business.

This can take many forms but in the main, we may have your Adelaide address, a map showing your location within Adelaide, testimonials from clients based in Adelaide, and even some images of Adelaide landmarks that local residents will instantly recognise.

Your Online Marketing Will Be Supported

Whilst some businesses focus on marketing offline, given the huge importance of the internet today, the vast majority of businesses market online. The goal of much of that marketing will be to drive traffic to the company’s website where prospects might complete a quotation request, enter their email for more information, or if it is an eCommerce website, possibly make a purchase.

The critical factor in all of this is that if the website that the traffic is being sent to is substandard, is poorly designed, and has technical issues, all the marketing work and expense will have been for nothing. An offline equivalent would be seeing a newspaper ad for a nearby restaurant, and when you get there you find the paintwork is peeling, the windows are filthy, the cutlery is grubby and, and half the menu is not available.

Regardless of the marketing methods you use, and how much or how little you spend on online marketing, all of it will be a complete waste if the destination for the traffic lets you down. That is why a website built for you by Slinky Web Design will make the difference because then any visitor arriving via one of your marketing efforts is going to see a well-designed website, and one more likely to induce them to take action.

Visitors Will Have An Excellent Experience Whilst On Your Website

There are lots of reasons why you would want to make sure that any visitor who lands on your website has the best possible user experience possible as it is likely to lead them to take some kind of positive action that benefits your business. In no particular order, these include:

Recommending Your Website To Others
Writing A Positive Review
Adding A Link To Your Website On Their Own Site
Writing About Your Website On Social Media
Leaving Their Contact Details

Requesting You Mail Them A Brochure
Requesting A Call Back
Completing A Customer Survey
Requesting A Quotation
Making A Purchase

Each one of these positive actions either benefits your business with respect to building its trust and reputation, or it takes that visitor closer to them making a purchase, notwithstanding the fact that on some websites if their experience is that good they might actually do that on their first visit.

Of course none of these will be possible if instead of having a great experience on your website, they experience the opposite due to slow load time, page errors, and a website that looks hideous. Only a professionally designed website will provide visitors with the experience they would and with our design professionals, Slinky Web Design websites achieve exactly that.

Google And Other Search Engines Will Increase Your Ranking

If there is one thing you need to know about the #1 search engine, Google, is that they are absolutely committed to remaining at the top of the pile. Given that they receive 70% of all search traffic there does not seem much danger of them being toppled any time soon, but that does not stop them from striving to extend their lead over the other search engines.

Google has determined that the reason they have got to ‘numero uno’, and the way in which they will stay there is with the results that they generate whenever someone enters a search being the most relevant and also the highest quality. Note that those ‘results’ are all links to individual pages of websites, albeit many are for home pages.

This tells us that unless a website and the pages within that website, are relevant to the subject at hand, and are also of the highest quality, then Google’s algorithm which ranks websites will not be minded to promote it and may even demote it lower down those rankings.

You should be aware that Google monitors what happens whenever someone clicks from its search results to determine if the website they are clicking through to, meets its relevance and quality objectives. Simple data such as how long someone remains on the website, or how quickly they click away are both measures that tell Google whether to enhance or diminish the ranking of that website.

So, how do you ensure visitors do not click away immediately and stay for a reasonable length of time on your website? The answer is having a site that they would want to spend some time on. That will be a website that looks excellent, works properly, loads quickly, has lots of excellent content, is easy to navigate, and projects the company that owns that website as professional and trustworthy.

Conversions Of All Kinds Will Improve

In the section about user experience, we listed a number of actions that a visitor might take if the experience they have whilst visiting your website is a positive one. What we did not mention though is that the chances of them happening or of any other kind of action you wish someone to take whilst they are on your website, will increase greatly if your website looks great and functions well.

If you think about any time that you yourself have been on a website, any action that you are being asked to take, from the simplest such as entering your email address, to the more complicated, like completing forms that run into four or five pages, you will always be more inclined to do so if you have confidence in the website, and more especially, the company that owns that website.

A poor website that does not instil any confidence, by association makes it more difficult to have any confidence in the company that owns it, and presumably, has their name at the top of, that website.

Any website is only worth having if it moves people landing on it from casual browsers towards becoming customers. That journey will have many and differing steps depending on the specific business, but whichever type they are, with a website designed and built by Slinky Web Design, those next steps have an infinitely higher chance of taking place.

You Will Outperform Your Local Competition

Whichever business sector or marketplace you are in, your business is almost certainly going to have competition from other companies who sell similar products and services to yours. There are lots of ways you can try to beat your competition such as having superior products, better customer service, lower prices, and better marketing, to name but four.

Each of these can help, and if you add to the mix a high-quality professionally designed website, then the chances of beating companies in Adelaide who you compete with, are greatly improved. As you have already been reading, a professionally designed website from Slinky Web Design will produce a long list of benefits for your business, all of which help it to advance. Need a reminder of them all?

Your Website Will Perform And Function Properly
Your Website Will Be Less Vulnerable To Hacking And Malware Attacks
Your Website Will Be Compatible With Mobile Devices
Your Company’s Branding Will Be Strengthened
Trust In Your Business Will Increase

Your Website Confirms Your Local Association With Adelaide
Your Online Marketing Will Be Supported
Visitors Will Have An Excellent Experience Whilst On Your Website
Google And Other Search Engines Will Increase Your Ranking
Conversions Of All Kinds Will Improve

Impressive, don’t you agree? With all of these benefits helping to push your business forward, thanks to your new website you will not just be outperforming your competition, you will be crushing them, and that is before we even get to what most of Slinky Web Design’s clients tell us is the best benefit of all!

Your Revenue And Profits Will Increase

This should really be the section with the most amount of words but given that increasing revenue and profits is what every business owner and CEO is trying to achieve, we are sure you are well aware of its significance to you and your business.

We also hope that by now you can see that all the benefits we have explained in some detail and which flow from having a professionally designed website, will contribute hugely to your business seeing its revenues increase and its profits rise.

Of course, none of these is likely to happen, including greater revenue and profits, if the website which represents your business online is not up to the job. In fact, a poor website can do worse and actually take your business backward, so please seriously assess what your current website contributes in terms of profits, and if it falling short then the time is now to have a new website professionally designed for your business.

Are You Ready To Get Started?

Your professionally built website starts with you completing the simple contact form on our ‘How Can We Help You?’ page which you will find by clicking this link: https://www.slinkywebdesign.com.au/contacts. From there, one of our friendly team will call you to discuss what your ideas and requirements are with regards to your new website.

Once you give us the go-ahead we will ensure that we apply the same professional expertise and dedication to building the best possible website for your business. Even once it is built, we will comprehensively test it before it goes live. We can upload your new website to your host’s servers or, if you do not currently have hosting, we can also offer that as a service to you.