A properly designed website is essential to today’s businesses! For all intents and purposes, a website is the online version of a billboard. The best part about websites is they allow you to do so much more. Having your company set up online enables you with additional means of communication, arenas to provide material to sell your brand, and gives potential customers a deeper understanding of who you are. Being able to view information beforehand can give people the confidence needed in order to take the necessary steps to get in touch with your business. Having a user-friendly design ensures you are showcasing your business in the best way possible on all types of devices, spreading your reach to the public. They say the FIRST impression is the most important, whether face-to-face or, in this case, online. Our experts understand the many layers that go into the making of a website. Flare works with high-end programs and we are thoroughly trained in what we do.
Here are 6 reasons why YOUR website may be driving customers away:
- Confusing to Viewers
If your website wasn’t properly designed or given an adequate amount of time to be planned out, it can end up leaving customers really conflicted… or just plain leaving, with a click of the back button. With the high volume of businesses being represented online, your company needs to be sure to engage a customer quickly with your home-page and continuously with any pages throughout. You need an easy-to-use navigation system by using the correct type of menu, links, and SEO. Information needs to be fitting to the type of message you want your brand to portray and should be continued across the board. It can be something as simple as not being able to read the information due to font, text size, or coloring. Or it can be as complex as the layout not being properly optimized to their screen, so they aren’t able to fully view the site. No matter the reasoning, every aspect of your website’s design needs the appropriate amount of attention for all types of devices, people, and companies.
- Type and Amount of Content
This does not just apply to the leading material written about your company, but is true for items such as articles, blog posts, pictures, and SEO keywords you may link or post on your site. Any content published needs to be checked for overuse, loss of clarity and the type of language used. Do you want to sell your brand in a user-friendly manner that could appeal to all types of consumers or target your own specific customer-base? Sometimes people use not enough content, thinking it is better if it’s directly to the point, but this is not always the case. People like to see pictures, whether it be of your work, diagrams that help explain things faster than what is written out, and/or the actual faces of the team who makes up your company. You want to set your site apart from competitors while still maintaining the correct material for your brand. A professional web designer will assist you in deciding how much substance is needed and how to lay it out correctly on each page so it keeps the attention of your viewers.
- A Noisy Site
A site can fall on the “noisy” spectrum for ways other than just poor volume-control on videos and slideshows, but “sound-checks” are one of the most important boxes to check off while designing your website. You want to avoid allowing anything to be published onto your site without making sure that you have at least adjusted all areas of volume to a decent level. You always have to keep in mind that people also go online while on the go or at places where there is some sort of “unwritten rule,” (if you will), about sound and their limitations within that space. If your site begins playing an extremely loud video while the person is at work or in a restaurant, chances are they will just close the tab and not return. You do not want to leave a poor impression with someone, and especially not within a few seconds upon them entering your page. If your idea for the design allows it, I would highly suggest that you do not let any of the material with sound auto-play. Otherwise, if you are looking for something such as background music, enable it only at a more subdued level with the option for the viewer to adjust the volume as they see fit.
- Pages Full of Clutter
Sometimes people tend to believe that “more is better,” but this does not always apply to the task of website designing. You can easily clutter your website with its written content, pictures, length and number of pages, language overuse, and much more. Less can be more in the sense that having too much substance, especially the wrong type of material, on a website can easily turn a customer away. It could be that there are too many links to other sites, which will direct someone right off your page, and that could mean off your website for good. Or there could be a major problem with how much content you placed on a single page, which will not only affect loading times, but lose a person’s interest if they did not find what they were looking for within a short period of time. You need to couple up the right amount of detail with getting-to-the-point, and keep that going as a theme throughout your site’s design. Be sure to ask a professional web designer what they feel is a good length for the type of pages you require, along with how to properly layout your content. With the amount of websites the world wide web has to offer, people will either be initially satisfied with your website or they will be heading right back to Google to find one that they are.
- Lack of Updates
If you do not regularly updating your website’s content with your web designer, you may lose the functionality of your site. While others may not, certain plug-ins do need to be maintained regularly to work. You should ensure all payments associated with your website are made up-to-date to guarantee things such as your up-time, which is the duration in which your website is up and running for the public’s viewing. Furthermore, you should always check back on your website from time to time to obtain a refreshed idea of what message your website is giving its viewers. With the ever-changing technologies our world has to offer, you will want to stay ahead of the curve if you can. You can do so by guaranteeing your website stays engaging by enlisting new material, language (if needed), and areas of design to your pages, which will also keep your website current. Any time a page may not load correctly, the site crashes, and/or the written material isn’t adjusted to today’s consumer, you are risking the productivity of your business.
- Hard to Find Products/Checkout
Especially with e-commerce websites, people must be able to easily and swiftly find the items they are looking for on your page. When planning out your website, make certain you give the designer all descriptions of your products, even if a bit lengthy. The professionals will go ahead and find the correct keywords that will improve your SEO standing on search-engines within the material given to them. This helps navigate people to your site when they enter in certain variations of terms and the correct pages while on your site. You must have a secure checkout process, which seems like common sense, but there are people out there that will take unneeded shortcuts or are willing to link up with alternative practices. You will want to participate with such payment systems such as PayPal or Stripe, that are already highly-trusted among people. Make the steps for checkout simple, but be sure you are thorough with any warranties and fine-print. You will undeniably deter a customer if you have an unknown, complicated, or slow-loading process enabled for them to complete their tasks.
See: Improve Your Business with Mobile-Friendly Website Design
