In case you are still wondering about your position on the web, this article may help you clear up a few basic questions and generate a truly effective plan that will help you re-position your web design and its offerings/elements in a way that get your more visitors as well as more lead conversions.
A few business marketing novices are still debating whether or not the look of a website is as important as the product or service the website is advertising. What do you think (let me know in the comments). Personally, I thought the answers was obvious until I kept hearing the question be asked multiple times over.
So does it really matter how your website looks? Or is it sufficient to just do-it-yourself? After all, you just need a spot online, meaning just some type of web presence…right?
Tell me, have you ever seen a very pretty lady surrounded by average or less than average ladies? Did you the notice the pretty one more or the ones that look like they’ve been beaten with ugly sticks? That’s what the World Wide Web is; a few attractive marketing pieces swimming in a sea of basic-ness. If you want more for your brand and your product, taking the high ground is only a phone call and a creative brief away.
Words of wisdom from my grandma to all: “Honey, if you’re going to go cheap do it on your nail polish, or something else like that. But don’t be cheap when it comes to your face.” Ok, so my grandma never actually said that, but I bet she thought it because she was pretty smart. And, when I’m a grandma (watch it…) I’ll make it point to tell my grand kiddos that when it comes to putting your best face forward, cheap is not going to cut it (unless you’re going for the cheap look, of course).
We all know that having a web presence is crucial.
However, unless you’re starting a new business or re-designing a previous site, you’re already way behind the game if you’re just getting around to creating one. Now just being online is almost irrelevant on its own. In addition to looking good, giving away something of true value, have a funnel system for tracking visitors, setting your pages up for Schema/structured data, making sure Google can find all your pages, ranking your most important pages, creating landing pages, and oh my gosh the list goes on; why do all of that on something that is not as beautiful as it could possibly me?
More importantly, how far do you think you’re going to get with a perfectly SEO’d unattractive site that does not have an optimized UX flow. I know it sounds daunting and, if it were your job to physically get these things done, it would be. But that’s not your job. Your job is to decide what you want, understand what you need, and delegate those b***es out!
Back to the original point, if you haven’t done the things listed above AND you’re just now building a new website for your business (whether its a brand new business or not) you have some ground to cover, particularly in the area of content creation. Despite the fact that getting a great-looking website is definitely something that you just kind of need to “get done,” it can’t possibly be a good idea to come in at the fourth quarter of the game with a broke-armed website.
Back to budgeting. If a budget has to come into play for an entrepreneurs, but when it comes to whether or not skimping is a good thing, it’s much more frugal and wise (rather than cheap) to skimp in other areas instead. Consider it. Your web site is literally the face of your company. Of all people who have access to the Internet, 85% of them do NOTHING without checking it out online first.
Even more crucial is the fact that, for some businesses, their website is a part of their product and is literally the only way they can be found online. So even if you have to go the route of a great-looking WordPress template which, combined with page speed enhancement can actually do the trick, it’s important to get creative with your funds and get the job done right as soon as possible.
I actually had a friend ask me to send him the name of the place I was having my birthday party so he could look it up before coming. As if even though we’ve been friends for years, the tech-impression the venue had created was going to somehow decide whether or not he was coming to my party. The audacity!…and the reality.
Well, yes. Of course how your website looks matters. In this age of highly competitive marketing and vast alternative solutions to almost every product, putting your best foot forward online is a basic necessity and not an optional luxury.
Now for a self-serving marketing plug. If you need help updating your web design, click here to contact me for assistance.