Small businesses face big problems that tax the owner’s time and skills. Issues in financing, law, taxes, facility management, personnel, and more preoccupy them. And, the problems distract from the business’s survival.
Developing a productive website is one more challenge. Most business owners are not clear on what they want or need. And, they certainly don’t know how to build a website that pulls traffic, engages viewers, and makes buying easy. Forbes sums it up, “If you get your website designed wrong, you can easily lose thousands of dollars initially, and ultimately lose even more money in potential revenue that you could be making from a well-designed, properly functioning website.”
No matter what type of business you run, you need a great design!
An effective website must be part of your original business plan. It must be ready to go before you open your business doors. And, it must grow with your business. It just isn’t not an option.
First Impressions: Website builders will tell you that you must look at your site as others do. If you understand that people come to the internet with an intention. They may want information. They may need research. But, if they come to the net wanting to buy, you must ask what will make them stop and stay with your landing page.
Branding Power: If you sell a product, you must construct the website to picture, power, and push your brand. It must be shown from every angle, specifically at work in the hands of the people. If you offer a service, it takes more to make the idea tangible, but visuals and quality copy can do it.
Authority/Credibility: Any customer wants evidence of expertise and transparency. Owners want to explain “about us” to build confidence and trust to initiate a customer lifetime value. Retaining customers is cheaper and more efficient than finding new ones.
Engaging Looks: Grabbing customer interest is impossible if you don’t know the targets you are trying to reach. So, you should ask what there is in the website appearance that gets their attention. Assuming things like colors, typography, and composition are in place, you must insist on technology that optimizes navigation.
Picture Perfect: Pictures, photographs and illustrations tie the product to customer needs. Videos, cartoons, and slideshows engage the eye and tell stories. And, virtual tours bring customers into the picture. The website’s content must balance text and vivid visuals. An article at Inc.com warns, “A lot of small businesses get the content aspect right but miss out on the media part, which is just as important.”
Search Ranking: The higher your site places in Google ranking, the more exposure you get. But, searching browsers to not look for pictures or content unless they are coded in a way to grab attention. So, good design is not just about good looks. It’s about the inner workings of tags, links, and more. This makes placement of content copy, keywords, and ads important.
Your lesson learned
Ecommerce or ezine, no matter what type of business you run, you need a great design. Visitors to your website know what they want out of it. If they can’t tell what to do next within three seconds, you may lose them forever. You must fix that problem before it happens!
