Why Your Business Needs a Great Website
There’s no doubt the options for businesses to market themselves to the wider world have grown dramatically in recent years. One tool that has become a standard feature is the company website. While it might seem the easiest thing to throw up nowadays, many businesses fail to put enough thought into the design and content they provide for their potential customers.
According to marketing firm Kinesis Inc.:
“75% of users admit to making judgements about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design. And 94% of a website user’s first impressions are design related.”
Having a great website is therefore important. But what does it mean for your business?
Customer Expectation
Look at sites in your industry or sector and you’ll see some beautifully designed and structured websites. Customers expect to see this kind of thing nowadays. They want easy access to your information and they want to be able to achieve their goal without too much trouble. Whether you sell online or offer a service, a customer is less likely to choose your business if you don’t look the part.
Business Reputation
People like certainty when they are buying a product. A website is one area that you can develop your reputation and credibility and that’s important. If you have an old or shoddy design or your content contains difficult to read and badly written text, poor image quality or simply takes too long to download, all these can impact on your valuable reputation.
Look it at from your customer’s point of view. Would you be happy to buy from a website that looks unprofessional or hasn’t been updated in a long time?
Website Security
We’re all more likely to buy online nowadays but a badly designed website will undoubtedly give your customers pause for thought. Are they going to get out their credit or debit card if your checkout looks like it was developed on the hoof? A new, great looking website not only provides that added level of security because it’s regularly updated, it also looks the part which means people are more likely to trust it and click the ‘buy’ button.
It’s a Brilliant Marketing Tool
While social media and online advertising are all well and good, your website is the single most valuable marketing tool in your armoury. It’s vital that you make use of this important space as best you can. A well designed website gives you complete control of what you do, whether that’s creating a state-of-the-art checkout or developing focused landing pages to attract certain customer demographics.
Smart Devices and Your Website
It’s becoming increasingly important for websites to be flexible which means they look good on a wide range of devices. We’re used to using our smartphones nowadays to shop and explore the internet. If your website isn’t mobile ready, then you are missing out on a lot of potential customers who will simply go elsewhere if they can’t see your content – most probably to your nearest competitor.
Search Results
Poor websites rarely feature strongly on search engines like Google. A carefully designed site that is unique to your business and has the kind of content that helps you feature near the top of the rankings means people can easily find you, whether that’s for local searches or international. If you want to sit on top of those rankings, you need a website that packs a punch.
The good news is that great web design is more accessible than ever. You don’t have to stick with a substandard site that fails to engage customers. From bold designs, to stunning graphics, brilliant content and cutting edge usability, there’s absolutely no reason why your business shouldn’t have a great website designed specifically for your needs.