The majority of people will look on the internet for products, services, or businesses that they are in need of. The phone book days are long gone! So if you want people to be able to find out about your business, then you need to have a website for them to look up and get the information that they need. That is why you need to be online and have a website. Not only do you want your site to show up when someone searches for something relevant on a search engine, but you want it to look good too.
Having a website that looks good is something that is important for any business. The website is the first impression that someone will have of your business. If they have never heard of you before, and the design of your website looks quite amateur or isn’t laid out well, then they could be put off our business right away. Even if you don’t have an eCommerce element to your store where someone will give you their details, anyone landing on your website needs it to look trustworthy or they are likely to just click off. You should think of your website as a digital storefront or a showroom. You could get new customers from first impressions or put people off for life, so you need to make it look good.
A good website needs to be first and foremost be clean and free from any bugs or viruses. This starts with having a secure website, and making sure that you update any of the plugins or other elements that you use, in order to protect your site, and protect the customers clicking onto your site. A good website should also be well organised. If it is hard to understand, navigate or find what they are looking for, then potential customers will click away. People aren’t very patient when they are looking online, so starting out with a clear and organised web design is giving your business a quick and easy boost.
As has been briefly mentioned above, you need your website to not only look good but look trustworthy too. If you are using a design that is old, not very modern or stylish, and is a site that doesn’t function well, then you can hinder your potential customer opportunities. Clicking onto a site that someone has never used before can feel daunting, so you don’t want them to be put off. If they are going to be spending money on your website potentially, then there needs to be some peace of mind that the website is secure and professional. A branded site will also help to increase brand awareness, as well as help potential customers to feel confident in your business. At the end of the day, your website needs to motivate website visitors to want to do business with you.
Your website is the first port of call, whether you have an online store or not. Which is why contact information on the site is so important, as well as other information like opening hours, location, and social media profile buttons. All of these elements should be easy to find; consumers shouldn’t have to hunt around for this information. Website visitors will be looking for a quick solution to what they searched for in order for your site to come up in the search. So make it easy for them. Consumers will also want to look at a website that is visually appealing too, so that is a consideration, regardless of which website platform you use.
There are many internet users these days that access websites on their phone or other mobile device. So if your website isn’t set up to be mobile-friendly, then you have instantly alienated a large number of potential customers. Increasing mobile use to access the internet means that your website needs to be properly built and designed for optimal mobile viewing. If you are designing the site yourself, then this is something to bear in mind. We would be able to do this for you, though. On a similar note, a quality website will look good in all browsers. A quick way to test this is to do a browser test for the website, to make sure that it looks right and functions well across all browsers.
Having a good quality website, whether it is on Wix, WordPress, or somewhere else is one that is well-polished. This means that loading is quick, there aren’t a bunch of annoying pop-ups and ads, and there aren’t any spelling or grammar errors, blurry images, or just retro-looking clip art. These are simple things to avoid, but it might surprise you just how many people don’t get this right with their web design.
