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If you want to get down to it, your website is a crucial part of your business – it’s the way people first see you a lot of the time, and it’s got to be right because of that. After all, it’s the first impression you make on potential customers, and in the online world, first impressions really do count for a lot – perhaps for everything. If your website is attractive, easy to use, and packed with useful information, people are going to trust you – but if it was last updated years ago and takes ages to load up, trust is going to be hard to find.
A bad website can make your website look outdated, unprofessional and, worst of all, forgettable. And in an age where people make snap decisions in seconds, that’s something you just can’t afford to be.
So, exactly how does your website influence your reputation? And how can you make sure it’s working for you instead of against you? Keep reading to find out more.
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First Impressions Are Everything
Imagine you’re looking for something in particular and you do some online searching – perhaps you come across a link that looks promising, but when you click on it, the website you’re hoping to see takes ages to load and when it does load, it looks awful. Are you going to keep looking if you can’t find a clear menu or professional photos and it’s just an outdated mess? No – you’re probably going to leave and go to a different site altogether (one you can trust more).
And that’s exactly how your potential customers are going to be thinking as well, which is why your website has to grab people’s attention. It can do that in a few different ways, including:
- Modern design with the help of a web design company – it’s always wise to use professionals to get the best results.
- Easy navigation – no one wants to spend ages trying to work out how to get to different pages and back again.
- A layout that makes sense – people don’t read websites like books, they scan them, so that has to be taken into account.
- A fast loading speed – no one is going to wait if there’s another website they can go to (and there will be).
If your site looks unprofessional, people assume you’re unprofessional, and it really is as simple as that, which makes it an easy thing to change when you need to.
Speed Is Important
It’s so frustrating to come across a website that looks like it can give you what you want, but that takes so long to load you run out of patience and decide it’s just not worth it. Yes, years ago, that was normal, and we all had to be a lot more patient, but today, it’s not necessary, and most people are expecting something a lot faster because that’s what technology allows – slow websites are bad for business and can ruin your reputation.
Studies show that if your website is taking more than three seconds to load, you’re losing visitors – that’s not a lot of time at all. And what’s worse is that Google doesn’t like slow sites either, so it’s bad for SEO and fewer people will even be able to find your business in the first place.
You can fix this problem by:
- Optimizing images – big files are slower to load, so optimizing them to make them small but keep their crisp look works wonders.
- Get good hosting – the cheaper the hosting, the slower your loading speeds.
- Minimize unnecessary plugins – too many plugins will also slow your website down.
Your Website Is Your Brand
Your website isn’t (or shouldn’t) just be a place to put your contact details and some images – it’s the online face of your brand, which means it needs to tell people who you are, what you do, and why they should care about any of it.
A stylish, modern website lets them know so much about you, from your level of professionalism to how you do business – a cluttered, busy, amateur-looking website is clearly going to send out the wrong message entirely, which is why you’ve got to work hard to make it look and work as good as possible; your business’s reputation is on the line, after all.
Colours, fonts, images, tone of voice… these are all things that shape how people feel about your brand. Do you come across as fun? Reliable? High-end? Affordable? If your branding is all over the place, it confuses people, and confused people probably won’t be buying anything from you.
Working with professionals, as we mentioned above, can make sure your site actually tells people who you are and really reflects your brand, so it’s definitely worth investigating – it could take your business to the next level, so it’s an investment that could pay off nicely.
A Good Website Builds Trust
Would you trust a business with a website that looks like it hasn’t been touched for decades? Probably not. A bad website raises some big red flags, and it makes people ask some important questions:
- Is the business legitimate?
- If they can’t maintain their own site, can I trust them to handle my order or service?
- Why does the website feel unsafe?
- Am I about to get scammed?
These aren’t the questions you want your customers to be asking because they’re going to mean they walk away most of the time, especially if they never can find out any answers. On the other hand, a well-designed, polished, professional website makes people feel safe and reassures them that you’re professional, reliable, and worth buying from – which is exactly the outcome you’re going to want.
What do you need when it comes to building trust? Well, you’ll want a few different things, and they include:
- A secure website (HTTPs, not HTTP because people will notice the difference these days).
- Clear contact information.
- Testimonials and reviews.
- A professional look.
Your Website Is Always Working
Think about this – your website never takes a break and it’s always working, whether you’re in the office, at home, on vacation, or asleep. Your website is helping people all the time by answering questions, showing off what you’ve got to sell or the services you offer, and generating leads and, ideally, it’s even making sales.
That’s why you need to ensure your website really is going all it can to look good and attract customers, because if it’s doing all that, it’s making you money.
You’ve got to make it easy for people to contact you if they need to (and even if they don’t need to, the fact that they can see your contact details is comforting and builds trust), and you need to ensure all the right info is on the site, like clear pricing, FAQs, and good product descriptions.
Then you’ll also need to guide visitors towards taking action like booking an appointment, making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter and so on. If your site isn’t doing these things, it’s not working hard enough for you, and that’s a big missed opportunity.
It’s Got To Be Mobile-Friendly
These days people use their phones more than their computers if they’re browsing online – for the most part, at least, and if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re basically pushing potential customers away.
So just what is a mobile-friendly website? It’s one that has large enough text to be able to be read clearly (but not so large that it takes up the whole screen). Plus, you’ll want buttons that are big enough to tap without getting frustrated or hitting the wrong place on the screen. And of course, you’ll need a layout that actually works on a smaller screen, otherwise it won’t matter what else you do because people will swipe away too quickly for it to make a difference.
And also, Google punishes sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, so if your site doesn’t work on a phone, your rankings are going to suffer and fewer people will find your business in the first place.
Your Website Makes Marketing Easier
If your website is well-designed, it does a lot of the heavy lifting for your marketing, so it’s actually more important than you might initially think if you want to get the most out of your marketing campaign.
You might be running ads on social media, for example, and those ads are going to send people to your website – if it’s a mess when they get there, those potential customers will go away again, and you’ll have wasted money as well as giving people a bad first impression of your business, which is hard to come back from when there’s so much competition.
If, however, they arrive at a professional, well-designed website, they’ll stay for longer (which is great for your SEO and Google rankings), plus they’ll be more likely to want to buy whatever it was they came to the site to see.
In other words, a great website means that all your hard work when it comes to marketing won’t go to waste at the very last hurdle, and that reason alone surely has to show you how important it is to get your website right.
Are you ready to create Something Spectacular?
Here, at Moss51 Art & Design, we specialise in SEO content writing for your business website or blogs. Your blogs and website pages need to look nice with well-written content to attract customers and search engines. Let’s talk.
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