The Importance of Good Web Design in the Beauty Industry

The beauty industry is booming right now. Countless businesses across the globe are selling beauty products, services, and even their expert know-how. Whatever way you're involved in the wondrous and glamorous world of beauty, there are things you need to keep in mind when you're planning and building your beauty website.

Why is Good Website Design Important?

Your website is often the first point-of-contact your prospective customers have with your business. Thus, it's the first chance to make a fantastic impression. And you know what they say; first impressions count!

Your website displays a visual representation of your business to the world. Embarking on an online website journey takes dedication and articulation. You must present yourself and your business as an organization that takes pride in what they do, whatever that may be. To do this, you need good website design.

Think of your website in terms of a physical store. What would that be like if you had one? Would you want it to be neat and tidy? Would you like it to be easy for your customers to navigate around and find what they're looking for?

The principles of a website are no different. The browsing and purchasing processes need to be appealing to look at, easy to navigate, and clearly laid-out to maximize its success.

Consider Your Customers

It stands to reason that someone with a keen interest in beauty will appreciate beauty when they see it. Think about your typical customers and their personalities. Make-up artists, for example, will take great pride in the details of their work. Their whole career is based on making people look beautiful with their skillful make-up techniques and their expert beauty tips.

Your website needs to match the personality of your typical clientele. Good website design can achieve this.

Your website is the face of your beauty business. And your web design is its make-up!

The Busy Beauty Industry

With so many people interested in beauty, it's a busy industry to work in, and even shop in!

The increased interest in beauty topics has resulted in a rise of beauty businesses attempting to meet the demands of the public. In particular, the demands of the "selfie culture" and social media, where appearances are everything to many young members.

All this points to one definitive conclusion - the beauty industry is showered with public interest. And that means that beauty websites have to work extra hard to meet the technical requirements of potentially large amounts of traffic.

The 8 Second Attention Span

Businesses and consumers alike don't want to spend time waiting for slow-loading pages or attempting to navigate around a website. They want what they want, and they want it now!

A (perhaps not-so-surprising) study conducted by Microsoft in 2015, concluded that consumers these days have an attention span of just 8 seconds. But here's the surprising part; that's one second less of that of a goldfish!

You can read more about the findings of this study here.

What Does this Mean for Beauty Websites?

The 8 second attention span era means you need your website content and design to be snappy and to the point. It means you need to do something extraordinary to impress your audience and to make sure that they remember you.

Think outside the box and make your website stand out and be unique. Being like everyone else these days just won’t cut it. There's too much competition and too many businesses marketing to the same people, promising the same thing only better.

If you want to be remembered, you need to begin with a beautiful, expertly-designed website. You then need to include engaging content in the form of text, images and video.  Finally, you need to build some persuasive marketing campaigns to get people to your site and buy your products.

What Would an Ideal Beauty Website be Like?

In your perfect world your website will be:

Beautiful - Your website will be sleek, smooth, and beautiful to look at. Remember, appearances are important in the beauty industry, and your website is no exception. Consider your color scheme, your logo, your text fonts, your menus, and your imagery.

User-centric - Your website will enable smooth and seamless navigation from page-to-page while considering your target audience. Everything will be clearly labelled and linked properly and strategically placed to best achieve your main objective – conversions.

Mobile Friendly - Your website will work wonders on mobile devices as well as laptops and desktops. Over half of internet searches are now conducted on a mobile device. So if your site's not compatible, you could be slashing you potential audience in half.

Consider all those busy beauty buffs and their on-the-go lifestyles. Consider your prospective customers sitting in a salon waiting for their highlights to develop, while at the same time browsing beauty sites on their mobile phones. And lastly, consider their 8 second attention spans while they're waiting for your not-so-mobile-friendly webpages to load. Will they wait patiently? Or will they click off it and look elsewhere?

Your Domain Name Matters Too

Your domain name is also part of your website's image. Pick a name that will stick in people's minds and that will be easy to recognize. You can experiment with your domain name, but it's worth making sure that it's relevant to your website and what you're offering. Self-explanatory domain names tend to work best for marketing purposes because people know what to expect from the sites before clicking on them.

Domain names are usually very affordable, and are a fantastic way to compliment to your website's overall image. Take some time to search for one that represents your website and its design perfectly.

You're Good to Go!

Now you know the importance of good web design, you can take some positive steps to achieve it. Put all these aspects together to create one amazing beauty website.

And remember, your website is the face of your business. Make it beautiful!