First impressions matter. In just a few seconds, a potential customer will draw a conclusion about their experience with your business. Research has found that web design contributes to 94% of the first impression, so having a beautiful website is essential in developing a positive relationship with your customers.
Once a user goes beyond their initial response to how it looks, attention turns to the experience. Can they easily find what they need? Do the pages load quickly? Is the site responsive on multiple devices? Everything needs to function properly as 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site if they’ve had a bad experience.
With that in mind, it may be time to look at your current website with a critical eye. If you don’t feel it offers the uniqueness and accessibility your customers expect from your brand, it may be time to consider a bespoke WordPress website design. Take advantage of the full capabilities of the robust CMS and the big ideas and professional execution of a digital creative agency.
What Is WordPress & How Does it Work?
WordPress is open-source software that allows you to create and easily manage your website or blog. You can utilize thousands of available templates to build your online presence or build a theme from scratch for a more customized approach.
Features such as easy-to-use text editors, free and premium plugins, external integrations, and a robust development community allow you to create a site that meets the needs of just about any business, from local and B2B services to eCommerce.
Benefits of A Custom WordPress Theme
While creating a WordPress site without a designer is possible, there are numerous benefits to having a custom theme developed for your company. We’ll walk you through the many advantages and the impact it can have on your business.
Results of Custom Design
One of the most significant benefits of a custom theme is your ability to distinguish your company in a way that increases brand engagement. Rather than forcing your content to fit into a pre-designed theme, you get to showcase your business in a way that makes the most sense to your target audience.
In the user’s mind, 75% of your website’s credibility is determined by its overall aesthetics, meaning a beautiful site will keep users on the page longer and increase their trust in you.
Increasing credibility with your users goes a long way in the eyes of Google. A longer time on page can boost your organic ranking, ultimately driving more traffic to your site.
Purposeful Backend
A standard theme may come with plug-ins and layouts you don’t need, cluttering the backend with unnecessary code and elements.
With a custom theme, you can streamline the backend of your site, so everything has a purpose. This simplifies your workflow when publishing and editing content so you can do your work in fewer clicks.
Removing the excess code can decrease your page load time, which both Google and online users love.
Custom Post Types
To truly elevate your site, you should incorporate Custom Post Types. This will allow you to organize your content into categories so you can input, access, and render the content in a more organized way, creating custom-coded templates for your site that anyone can use.
Depending on what makes sense for your business, you can create Custom Post Types for categories such as:
- Events
- Reviews
- Portfolios
- Testimonials
- eCommerce Products
- Photo Galleries
- And More
Utilizing Custom Post Types will make for a better user experience for anyone publishing or editing content on your site. You can organize and input information more efficiently so the end-user will see functional and aesthetically pleasing content.
Extremely SEO-Friendly
WordPress is known for being SEO-friendly, but there’s a significant amount of work to be done to fully optimize a site when using a standard theme. When adapting your content to a template you run the risk of improperly implementing headings and tags, or missing them altogether.
A custom theme allows you to be more proactive in your SEO approach, creating a hierarchy of content through the use of design typography styles, content strategy, wireframing, and development. Ultimately, this will make optimizing your site easier as content is added or edited down the road.
Your website’s architecture also plays a critical role in SEO. Search engine bots crawl your site to gather the information needed to rank each page. Bots won’t index what they can’t crawl, so if they struggle to maneuver your site, you’re less likely to show in search results. You can create a more efficient structure that bots will easily navigate with a custom theme, boosting your search engine rank.
Performance & Functionality
Custom WordPress themes give you more control over the functionality and performance of your site. Rather than forcing your content to fit into a pre-developed structure, you get to build a theme that perfectly suits your business.
When your site is built to exact design requirements, you eliminate all unnecessary components. As mentioned previously, this streamlines your workflow and decreases your page load time, giving both you and your customer a better experience.
Critically, a custom theme ensures each element will be responsive on mobile and tablets. 85% of adults expect mobile sites to be comparable or even better than their desktop counterparts. The way each element adapts from device to device is a critical piece of developing a beautiful and conversion-friendly website.
Enhance Your Web Presence with A Custom WordPress Theme
Take control of how you’re perceived online with a beautiful and functional bespoke WordPress theme. Square 205 focuses on exceptional user experience through copy, design, and development of your website.
Whether you’re looking for an interactive experience or a simple yet beautiful way of connecting with your customers, we can help. Make a great first impression through custom web design and development.
