People still judge a book by its cover. We all do, whether intentional or not.
The same thing happens day in and day out on your website. It’s a visible representation of your business online. If it’s amateur or outdated, it leaves a bad first impression. It may even leave your audience wondering if your business is trustworthy.
Take this study for example: Participants were directed to search Google for health information relevant to them. Afterward, they discussed their first impressions of the sites they had visited.
Now, when searching for health information, what would be top of mind? Wouldn’t it be whether or not you could trust the information? Logically, should the design of the site be a factor in the trustworthiness of its information? Yet, of all the factors mentioned for rejecting or mistrusting a website in this study, 94% were related to design.
So since the design of your website directly impacts its ability to draw people toward your business, is yours due for a redesign?
How Can You Tell?
- Has your business changed recently? When a business changes in significant ways the old website may work against you. Make sure it supports your organizational goals.
- Does your site have a dated look? A website designed in 2013 will not look current in 2019, and this leads to visitors rejecting or mistrusting your website. They’ll spend less time on your site and you’ll acquire fewer customers.
- Is your site navigation fast and intuitive? Good navigation means that information is clear and easy to get to, nothing is deeply rooted or hidden, and pages are accessible for the search engines. If your site navigation frustrates your visitors, they won’t stick around long enough to become customers.
- Can you easily update content on your website without having to call your web designer? Not all that long ago, the majority of websites were static HTML sites. Your options were to learn HTML, buy expensive software, or rely completely on your web designer. But those days are long gone for anyone who’s switched over to using WordPress as the foundation of their website.
- Can you browse the site efficiently on a mobile device or tablet? You may be able to see your full website on your smartphone, but navigating it could be a nightmare. In 2019 you need a responsive design, meaning that the content resizes and reflows smoothly onto any mobile device. It’s not only good for users of your site, but Google places high priority on mobile usability. Your search results will suffer with a site not optimized for mobile.
- Do the images positively portray your brand – or are they pixelated, not sized quite right, or in other ways not quite professional? With the default camera installed on your smartphone, you’ll be able to take high resolution images unique to your website. Or you can find quality stock photos on sites such as iStockphoto or Bigstock, and tweak them using Canva to produce unique images.
- Does the homepage of your website clearly communicate what you do? The most important information needs to be displayed right up front. Although your home page welcomes visitors, the text should not read ‘Welcome to Our Website.’ Think it through … what is the most important thing you want visitors to know about your business?
- How’s your search engine ranking? According to Search Engine Journal, 93% of all Internet traffic comes from a search engine. Redesigning your site with SEO in mind will ensure that potential customers can find you online.
- Do your pages load fast enough? According to KISSmetrics, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less and 40% of people will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
- Does your website encourage social media interaction? Again, from Search Engine Journal, 41% of businesses are winning customers through social media channels.
If it’s time to redesign your website, we can help, and getting started is easy.
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