Nowadays, every business has a website. But all websites aren’t created equal, and some certainly look much nicer than others, don’t they? Whether it’s a pixelated image, a font that’s hard to read or a background colour that makes the site look as thought it’s straight out the early 2000s, a website that doesn’t make a good first impression is missing a good opportunity to win a customer over. Here’s why your business website should look the part…
Your website is the first place your customers learn about you
For online businesses (many businesses that operate in a physical space as well as the online space), their company website is often the first chance a customer has to learn about the business. So, shouldn’t it be a good one? An intuitive layout, high quality images, an easy-to read font and many other design factors play a critical role in creating a good first impression, and is something that could culminate to result in a conversion or a long-lasting relationship with your business.
Your website will reflect your brand and your brand values
Secondly, your business website should look the part because it’s an opportunity to tell the world what your brand is, what you stand for, and what your brand values are. For instance, a colourful, punchy and energetic website will convey that you’re a business that’s youthful, upbeat and animated, and a toned-down, calm and professional website will convey that you’re a safe pair of hands, reliable and steadfast.
And, the devil really is in the detail: clearly displaying your logo and mission statement will mean you’re more likely to ‘win’ your target audience over as it’s easy for them to see who you are and what you’re offering. But, it’s also worth the extra effort of pulling extra design elements into the overall layout. For example, using a carefully considered (and consistent) colour palette in your main body area and in your footer, widgets, clickable links and sharing icons will give the impression of uniformity and attention to detail – good characteristics for a business to be associated with.
Your website sets the tone for quality, security and reliability
Finally, your website needs to look the part as it’s an opportunity to set the tone for the quality, security and reliability of the service you’re offering the world. A suspicious-looking site, a missing SSL certificate or broken links won’t build confidence, whereas proper certifications, redirects and a company address and contact details somewhere readily accessible will build trust with your visitors; enough trust, perhaps, to encourage visitors to stick around and become paying customers.
However, as well as looking the part and making that all-important first impression, it’s important that your website acts the part too. But what does that mean? Well, it means that as well as looking the part to prospective customers, your website needs to be structurally sound, properly set-up and supported by a high quality host.
For these reasons, do some research and find a host that can provide you with reliable business hosting. This will ensure your website doesn’t suffer from downtime, meaning that not only will you actually get the chance to make a good first impression, but you’ll also get the chance to make a good repeat impression when a customer pays another visit to your site, whatever the time of day or year – even when you’re experiencing busy spikes in traffic.
Choose a host for your business website by ensuring that the host is able to provide excellent customer support, has a great reputation, and can offer a packages that is scalable in order for your website’s infrastructure to grow along with your growing business.
After all of this, your website will look and feel the part.
