Is Professional Web Design Actually Worth It? Yes, and Here’s Why!

Welcome to Kelly Ryann Co, where weddings meet web design and miracles happen. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little, but honestly, not that much. 

Good web design can be a miracle for your small wedding business! Professional, custom website design helps you in so many ways.

1) Stand out in an over-saturated market

2) Connect with your ideal client

3) Showcase your skills

4) Rake in organic natural traffic.

Can I get a heck yeah?? This is what good web design can do. A good wedding site can make you a highly sought-after wedding vendor. 

Bad web design might as well chase people away with a baseball bat. Bad web design can hurt your online ranking and make you appear unprofessional. Ultimately, it will make you lose business.

Don’t believe me? Check out these statistics from Forbes: 

• Users form an opinion about a website in 0.05 seconds
• The number one way users decide on the credibility of a business is determined by the web design
• 57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website
• 38% of users won’t engage with a website if its layout is unattractive

• 61% say that if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds, they’ll go to another site
• In North America, 51.2% of web traffic comes from mobile devices

You get the picture. Web design is important. It can literally make or break your small wedding business! Take it from a web designer who works exclusively with wedding pros. 

So, here are the things to consider when designing your wedding website!

The Two Things Your Website Must Do To Gain Clients

First Impressions: Designing Above the Fold

Someone should be able to know two things right away when they land on your page.

1. Who you are 
2. Who you are for 

The wedding industry is as diverse as humanity itself. This is why it doesn’t matter how “over-saturated” the market is. You will be someone’s dream vendor. You will never find yourself working with others. And that’s okay! In fact, that’s exactly where you want to be. 

You want your website to tell your visitors exactly what you do and who you do it for immediately. Remember that first statistic? People are forming their opinions in 0.05 seconds. 

So you better make sure they know WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU DO before they judge ya! 

If you’re an adventure elopement photographer, that’s what you lead with. If you’re a luxury wedding planner, that’s the first thing someone should see! This way, when someone opens your website, they know if you’re someone they’re interested in. 

This is called the Hero Section of your website. And here are some examples of eye-catching, clear hero sections that tell site visitors exactly what they need to know: 

The hero section on Jeslyn’s website tells you exactly what you need to know: who she is (a photographer), who she’s for (weddings, elopements, and families), and where she’s located (Reno Tahoe). 

You also get a pretty good idea of her vibe from the photo she chose, which highlights a spacious landscape, and her super-cool cowgirl logo. 

Here’s another prime example. Before you see anything else on this website, you see a mountain. This speaks to wild nature and adventure! From the colors and the images, you can tell that this person is bold and passionate. Plus, the words tell you the important details! You’re looking at Lake Tahoe Wedding and Destination photographer. 

If this is your vibe, you know right away that you should keep scrolling. 

(Psst! I designed these! And I can do it for you, too 😉)

Your Website Should Feel Like YOU 

Consider the vibe. This might not be a professional term, but I don’t care. Think of that greasy pizza joint from your hometown. You know when you click on their website and it makes you cringe a little? That’s what we’re trying to avoid. 

That might be your favorite pizza place. The food might be fantastic! But for someone new to town, that’s the last place they want to try. Why? Because it feels unprofessional, messy, hard to navigate, and low quality. 

The same goes for your wedding website. If your website looks thrown together with mismatched colors, random fonts, and fuzzy pictures, it doesn’t matter how good your work is.

If your website looks low-quality, people will assume your work is, too. 

Here are some easy ways to make sure your website isn’t making people cringe: 

• Use high-quality photos. Proudly showcase who you are and what you do! And make sure the photos upload properly to your website and are clean and crisp. 
• Choose easy-to-read fonts. It doesn’t matter how fancy the font is if no one can read it. Choose something clean and simple. If you’re a luxury wedding pro and only work with fancy-schmancy couples – use your words and photos to show that. Not the font. 
• Manage your color choices. Color is wildly important in conveying feeling. Choose colors that represent the way you want your clients to feel, even if they aren’t your favorite color. 

Are you all about hiking through the woods for a mountaintop elopement? Stick to earthy tones that will attract your ideal client!

Are you a florist who specializes in whimsical, moody floral installations? Stick to rich, deep colors. 

• Leave lots of white space. Our eyes need to breathe! You might have lots of info to share and great pictures to display on your website. But you need to space it out so that it’s easy to read! If you want people to leave your website, bombard them with text, colors, pictures, and buttons. If you want them to stay, space it all out!

I’m willing to bet your local pizza shop struggles with this. Don’t be a pizza shop. Be a pro wedding vendor (and look like one too!). 

Important Back-End Tips To Keep Your Website Running Smoothly

Having a professional-looking website is one thing. But it’s not everything. If you want to optimize your wedding website and have it rake in clients while you sleep, you need it to work like a pro, too.  

What does this mean? 

It means utilizing Search engine optimization. It means clearing away the junk that slows down your load speed. And it definitely means making sure your site is mobile-friendly! 

Search Engine Optimization: What You Really Need to Know 

Big-bad SEO isn’t as complicated as it seems. It has layers of intricacy, but there are only a few things you need to know to help your website rank.

• Make sure there are no blocked pages on your website (seriously, this one’s a biggie)
• Utilize keywords in your Meta Descriptions and Title Tags 
• Include alt-text on your images 
• Triple-check the links on your website and make sure they go where you want them to!

(If these bullet points make no sense to you, you’ve got to read some of my other blogs!)

How to Decrease Load Time

Let’s go back to those statistics. “61% say that if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds, they’ll go to another site.” 

Do not let slow load time lose your clients! According to Hubspot, your website should load within 4 seconds. But websites that load in 1 second or less have three times the conversion rate. 

My biggest tip for a fast-loading website? Compress your photos. This is especially helpful if you’re a wedding photographer, florist, or planner with lots of pictures of your work! I use TinyPNG to compress my pictures, but there are lots of options out there!

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

If you read those stats, you know that over half of all web traffic is coming from mobile devices. Make sure your website has a cohesive mobile experience! Especially if you find business through social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. People are clicking that link in your bio and judging your website from their phones. 

Have you ever visited a website on your phone? Have you had to navigate it using a tiny dropdown menu that’s smaller than your thumb? It is so freaking frustrating! Stand out from the other wedding websites by optimizing the mobile version of your website. 

Plus (here’s a fun bonus statistic for you),  74% of online users will return to a website that is mobile-friendly. It’s time to get those return users!! 

Want your Wedding Website to Gain Natural Traffic? Work With Me.

If those statistics scare you – good. As a wedding pro, you can’t afford for your website to be working against you! Investing in professional website design is investing in the future of your business.  

So, what do you say? Ready to watch those clients roll in? You’re in luck! I have a few spots open for fully custom websites left in Q3 this year!

Not sure which one is right for you? Book a free consultation call where I can learn about you, your business, and what miracles you’re looking for. 

XO, Kelly