IS YOUR WEBSITE CASTING A SHADOW ON YOUR BUSINESS?
These days, a website isn’t just a tool where prospective clients go to read more about you and your services or go to find your location … it’s a place where you will be JUDGED … and judged harshly. You could have the most incredible restaurant in your area, but a hideous website can cast a shadow on everything you offer … will some people look beyond your website? Of course … there are always exceptions to every rule … but why roll the dice??
WAYS A WEBSITE CAN CAST A SHADOW ON YOUR BUSINESS:
IT’S NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY: a website that is hard to use a mobile device can create a very high bounce rate … meaning potential clients come into your website on their phone, get discouraged, and click out right away …
IT’S DATED: bad photos? undesirable fonts? trendy colors from 10 years ago? If your website is dated, people with current tastes might get the feeling you don’t have pride in your business … and decide not to pursue what you offer.
TOO MANY WORDS: these days people are visual shoppers … they want to be pleased with photos … as they have been trained by Instagram, Pinterest, editorial style magazines … if they go into your website and just see a wall of words, they may get overwhelmed and head out the way they came in …
IT’S POORLY DESIGNED: in addition to being visual shoppers, people these days are sensitive to ‘layouts’ … if the website they ‘click in’ to feels chaotic or pixelated or has too many moving parts, they could get impatient and leave your website without a visit to the ‘contact us’ page …
IT TAKES A ROCKET SCIENTIST TO UNDERSTAND: Getting too ‘cutesy’ with the wording in your navigation or ‘hiding’ important pages with too many ‘creative’ call to action moments can frustrate a visitor … your website needs to be easy to understand and friendly to navigate …
It’s important to be your own critic … do you wince when you see your website? Do you wish it looked different? Has it been a while since you updated photos? Is your gallery up to date with your most recent work? Are call to action buttons not going to the pages they are meant to? It’s important to visit your business website frequently and as soon as you start to get uneasy when you look at it, it’s probably time to update it or hire a professional to revamp it …
XO~ Heather
