By now we all know that your brand makes you credible, motivates buyers, and creates customer loyalty. But if you have a bad Web site you could be undoing all the hard work you did in building that brand in the first place!
Surprisingly, some people still underestimate the value and importance of a website. Your website is a vital part of your business image. A quality Web site gives visitors the information they want, when they want it, and where they want it. In the era of instant gratification, that’s tremendously important.
A bad Web site is hard to navigate, has poor content, and frustrates customers. A frustrated web user will leave your site, visit your competitors website, and, if that site provides what they were seeking, your customers will do business with the competitor. They will make assumptions about your credibility or your ability to meet their needs if your website hasn’t clearly provided them what they were looking for. This bad experience with your Web site can carry through to damage your entire brand.
User-friendly design and relevant content is the best way to build a Web site that reinforces the brand. The average internet user may not have an PhD in design, but they know a bad Web site when they see one. What makes a site “bad”:
FRAMES – Frames were a big deal in Web site design in the ’90s. Nothing screams “hey, I’m outdated!” faster than clunky frames. They can also interfere with search engine indexing, which makes it harder for your customers to find you.
BAD NAVIGATION – If your users can’t figure out how to get around your website, they’ll just leave. Make it easy to get “home”, have consistent navigation through all the pages, make reaching the next page a logical step in the customers discovery process.
TYPOS – Since second grade we’ve been taught that proper grammar, correct spelling and punctuation indicates intelligence. A visitor may forgive the occasional typo, but too many and they’ll assume you’re an idiot. At the very least, have someone else read your text before you put it online.
TOO MUCH FLASH – Flash is cool, but like everything else it must be used in moderation. Flash images take longer to load, which can be really frustrating to the customer using a slower connection.
JUST PLAIN UGLY – Clashing colors, mismatched fonts, and pixelated images can overpower whatever content was on the site and make the web surfer grimace with repulsion. Are you wondering if your site is ugly? Sit next to someone who visits your site for the first time and watch their reaction. You’ll know.
