Have you ever considered the first interaction future consumers have with your company? In certain situations, customers learn about you through referrals; if you own a physical shop, they can directly go to your company; they may identify you from an ad shown on social media; or they can obtain a business flyer from your employees or associates. They research goods and services online several times and find you listed in Google search results, at which point they enter your website.
So, this is the critical moment that the web design can make the difference between attracting and scaring away a potential user. Your website may either provide trust to users and create trust or do the reverse, causing uncertainty, mistrust and a sense of uneasiness towards your business.
Most small companies have minimal budgets, so they try to cut corners to make web design inexpensive, believing that this would not have a detrimental effect on the development of the business. Inadequate web design and content, however, are very visible, with the following being the most frequent errors:
Each web page should be clearly displayed with your title, phone number and email address. Provide a contact page on your website to make it easier for users to contact you, since writing to your organisation directly from your website requires less friction compared to making a phone call or writing the text.
Be sure that the website is well built and doesn't seem like an amateur made it hastily.
Each phrase and each image on your website matter, and with so much detail can be an annoyance that keeps you from successfully communicating your overall message. Only keep content that illustrates the value you have on your website, ensure that you match content with white space, and structure content in some ways that is simple to navigate.
Potential clients prefer to trust their friends rather than corporations, so they won't hear you if you tell them how fantastic your services are. Instead, other people will be asking what they think about you. To gain from the power of referrals, you should provide testimonials from real clients, with their images if available.
Visitors tend to see latest and interesting content, so if a product launch from 5 years ago is your last post in the 'News' column, you desperately need to have some updates.
It is important that the website is structured around providing first-time visitors with simple and reliable navigation. The value of user interface and easy navigation in a website should not be understated. You ought to have a navigational-first mind-set when developing or refining a website.
Every successful webmaster or company owner is aware of the challenges a slow website could bring. If it takes longer than 3 seconds for your website to launch, your ability to hold users on your website will be drastically affected. From enhancing server response times to optimising massive image files, there are a range of ways you can boost your website speed.
A legal company positions maximum care on their website in the eyes of the average person. When the website seems like something in 2020 out of the 90's, they would be vigilant as to whether or not this website was all easily tossed together to scam a few unsuspecting buyers.
Take a look at whether the content is actionable or not. If the content just sits there as something fun to read, but doesn't really steer your audience to any product sites, walk them through the buying process, or lead them, among many other items, to sign up for a newsletter, so it can't be deemed effective in creating audiences. They'll remember your name and website if you're lucky, but ultimately, you're right back to where you started.
With easy clickable icons, big readable text and similarly short loading times, the website needs to work as flawlessly on the smartphone as it does on the desktop. It's no longer enough to treat mobile as a niche, as most users, particularly first-time travellers, would do their everyday surfing on it.
Designing websites is a labour of passion. For the website, there will still be challenges, but how drastically complicated these problems are to contend with will have a significant effect on your ability to build an audience.