5 Signs That You Should Invest In Custom Web Design

Not sure whether to go custom or to purchase a theme?

Here are five telltale signs to look out for:

1. Your Page Speed Is Lagging

As mentioned, a Google study found that 53% of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. In fact, the probability of a bounce increases 32% as page load speeds rise from one to three seconds.

Lagging load time is a sign of poor site optimization — something professional web developers can remedy for a fast and functional site ecosystem with custom website services.

2. You Are Not Reaching Your Target Audience

Do you find that you are attracting consumers who are not compatible with your offering?

Or maybe your website traffic is lacking and your page views feel out of control?

If you’re attracting the wrong audience and/or your website has a low number of views, the answers lie in your SEO and digital strategy — something that the pros at an expert web design company know exactly how to handle.

We know that the majority of consumers are discovering brands through search engines such as Google. There are algorithms that dictate which websites appear for specific keywords and how they rank.

To reach your target audience, you’ll need to use relevant target keywords, and social media platforms, to name a few.

3. You Are Not Achieving Your Conversion Goals

Your website’s ultimate goal is to convert target visitors, right?

Growing on-site conversions requires a deep understanding of your target audience and their online behaviors, as well as a design that answers their unique needs.

Custom website design allows you to tailor your conversion funnels and user journeys for a seamless and engaging on-site experience. In turn, this tailored experience is more likely to grow your user engagement and conversions.

For example, they know that placing a booking form in the hero section of your hotel website can increase conversions, and they know that including a searchable product catalog with a spec sheet can do the same for manufacturing websites — insights that are key to increasing your conversion rates.

4. Your Website Looks Generic

By using a website template, you are sharing the same designs with thousands of other brands.

A custom website is designed to meet your unique goals, reflect your brand, and satisfy your target audience’s expectations.

As such, a custom website provides a truly unique user experience.

5. Your Site Is Optimized For Desktop Viewing Only

Have you ever tried to open a website on your phone and were met with a massive wall of text and navigation buttons so small your entire thumb covers most of them?

It’s safe to say that you didn’t stay on the site for very long. In fact, 67% of users consider bad UX as a main reason to leave a website.

As of 2024, there are over 6.9 billion smartphone users. That’s almost double the number from 2016, and it is steadily increasing.

Today, custom web development projects include responsive development by default as mobile friendliness is one of Google’s core web vital signals.

Whether you choose a traditional desktop-first or the increasingly popular mobile-first approach, we recommend testing your website thoroughly during development to ensure it renders well across devices.

Custom Web Design Best Practices

We utilize industry-leading best practices and industry insights to inform our web design decisions for every brand we partner with.

Our professional website developers are experienced in a wide range of design techniques and technologies, ensuring that we can create custom solutions that meet the unique needs of each client.

Additionally, we assign a dedicated, senior-level digital strategist to each project to ensure that all communication is streamlined, deadlines are met, and the project stays within budget.

This approach allows us to provide personalized attention to each client and deliver successful projects that exceed their expectations.

Some of the best practices we follow that make us a professional web design company include:

1. Strategic Planning

To build websites that perform, we begin every custom web design project with a deep dive into your industry, target audience, competitors, user behavior, and your goals.

Based on the insights we gather, we then create a custom digital strategy that’s unique to your offering, including an actionable roadmap to help you achieve your goals for online growth.

2. Responsive Design

More than half of the total internet traffic stems from mobile devices.

We conduct research into your user behavior to determine which custom website development approach works best for your target audience, whether desktop- or mobile-first. Our experts build seamless digital experiences unique to every brand, to boost engagement and conversions.

3. Search Engine Optimization

Did you know that 53% of the total website traffic comes from organic search? Through SEO, you can grow your online visibility, reach more people, and attract organic traffic.

Based on our SEO experts’ findings in extensive keyword research, we optimize your web pages by utilizing target keywords in your headers, title tags, meta description, and image tags – to name a few – so your website ranks on search engine results pages.

What To Do Once You Hire A Custom Web Design Company?

While project ownership should lie in the hands of your chosen custom web design agency, your contributions as a business owner continue to be invaluable.

Here are some common steps you will need to take:

1. Establish Clear Communication Channels

Interaction is key in communicating your expectations and providing consistent project updates.

Therefore, we recommend setting and maintaining a clear set of communication channels from start to finish. At ROYAL NEW YORK LIMITED , we utilize multiple channels for diverse forms of interaction, including email, project management systems and video calls.

2. Share Your Brand Vision & Goals

To create a custom design that stays true to your brand identity, you’ll need to share your brand vision and goals.

Best shared through a bespoke brand book design, designers will use these guidelines to create and on-brand, results driven user interface and experience.

3. Provide Required Media Assets

Providing content is crucial in keeping your website’s visuals in line with your wider brand identity.

Take our design for Dunnion Law, for example. Only by utilizing the media assets we were provided with could our expert designers create a beautiful design that speaks directly from the brand itself.

4. Collaborate On Design Concepts

From initiation to launch and beyond, your input and collaboration will help direct our designers’ strategies and decisions.

For example, by highlighting the design aspects most important to your business, our team can then create a wireframe layout that revolves around the areas you hold in highest regard.

5. Review & Provide Feedback

Before launch, our design team will present mock-ups of your website design. This will first occur in a stripped back wireframe form before design aspects such as colors, animations and visuals are added.

Your feedback as the client is an important step to ensuring a custom design has been created to perfectly match user intentions and desires, while promoting your business’ brand values and style.

Custom Website Examples From Our Kitchen

From seamless navigation to engaging effects and animations, our award-winning designers deliver winning custom websites. See a selection of our best work.

1. J&H Tackle

The client: J&H Tackle is a family-run business that sells name-brand fishing equipment at low prices.

The design: The design includes an enhanced visual hierarchy, simplified navigation and a customer-centric approach, ensuring an intuitive shopping experience where finding and purchasing fishing gear is easy.

Dynamic content and video marketing showcase the brand’s expertise and affordability while promoting deeper engagement with customers.

2. Sandler

The client: Sandler is a leading sales training and development organization, responsible for empowering sales professionals and leaders worldwide.

The design: Our team brough Sandler’s corporate branding strategy to life with a sleek, on-brand custom web design.

The site’s professional tone is provided by a blend of UI-optimized features, from smooth transitions to colors and typography born in brand research.

3. G Pen

The client: G Pen is an advanced cannabis vaporizer engineering company, focusing on transforming the current cannabis experience through aesthetics, portability, functionality and UX.

The design: Our eCommerce design experts delivered a custom Shopify store to drive conversions at G Pen, with on-brand messaging implemented throughout a custom eCommerce experience.

Meanwhile, our SEO experts produced incredible results in generating online visibility.

4. American University in Bulgaria

The client: The American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) offers a range of higher education opportunities and extra curricula programs across a trio of campuses.

The design: Our custom website design for the AUBG focused on creating a streamlined user journey for prospective applicants.

With engaging call-to-action buttons and easy-to-navigate menus, we helped to increase applications at the university.

5. Buddha Brands

The client: Powered by plants and fueled by purpose, Buddha Brands sells a collection of sustainably made and healthy snacks and beverages.

The design: We delivered a fun, vibrant e-store redesign to match Buddha Brands’ energetic brand identity.

Exciting animations, popping hover features, and captivating colors all add to the invigorating online experience.

Drive Higher Conversions To Your Tailor-Made Website With ROYAL NEW YORK LIMITED 

At ROYAL NEW YORK LIMETID , we provide bespoke services based on consumer, industry and competitive research.

This way, we make goal-oriented decisions and custom web designs that drive conversions for your brand.

As a full-service professional web design company, our key services span:

• Custom web design and development
• Local web design and development in New York, Miami, California and more
• eCommerce development for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and more
• Digital branding
• Digital marketing and consulting

For every project, we deliver:

• Project ownership
• Transparency
• Measurable results

Our design team offers free consultation & custom proposals for custom website design projects. This gives both us and our clients the opportunity to explain our processes, understand your website requirements and further discuss the project at hand.

Simply fill out the Request a Quote form, tell us about your goals and our experts will provide you with actionable insights and cost estimates.