I’m often asked from business owners if they need a website. The answer is almost always yes. Of course this depends on the industry. But think about it this way- what do you do when you google a business and you find nothing? Maybe you’ll get a Facebook page to show up, then you go to the account and it’s not managed. You immediately disregard the legitimacy of the business. I know I do. We live in a very digital age, if you operate a business that you take seriously, you need a website, or a home online.

Your Digital Home

In this digital age we use online marketing, social media ads, email marketing, and even print advertisements. When we market online, or even print, we need to send our customers and clients somewhere. The place that houses all of our business information- about, contact, and product/service offerings is your website. If you want to play the game in this day and age a website is a must. If you haven’t touched your website in 15 years, you need to have it redesigned, yesterday. Sounds harsh, but you’ll be looked over in the blink of an eye if someone lands on your website and its way outdated.

What Makes A Good Site?

Research shows it takes just a couple of seconds after landing on your website for a user to decide if they’ll stay or go? Is it a cluttered, jumbled up mess? Do they go cross-eyed just looking at it? Are the pictures blurry and pixelated? Does the information on the home page make no sense?

A good website is clean and easy to navigate. You want to guide users to the information they’re looking for, seamlessly. You want a clean layout that is mobile optimized, meaning the layout on mobile phones is easy to use. Your pictures should be clean and crisp. Mobile phones have cameras that can take adequate photos to achieve this. If you don’t want to go that route, stock photography is also an option. You want clear call-to-actions. A call-to-action is when you tell or ask a user to do something: “sign up to receive X freebie” “Download X offer” “Click here for X sale”, get the picture? You don’t want your users endlessly reading text, they want to be shown where to go and what to do.

Your website should be up-to-date. When someone lands on your website and they see a product or service offering that you quit offering 3 years ago, they’ll click the big X at the top of the browser and then never come back. Your contact information should be easy to find and up-to-date. Whether it’s a phone, email and/or contact form, your users need some way to get a hold of you.

Finally, your about page. This is the second most visited page, next to the home page, and is often overlooked. Your users want to know about your business and about you. A good about page is an absolute must.

I hope this helps you decide if you need a website. If you found this helpful, share with a friend!

If you need help with building a website or a re-design, I’d love to help. Learn more here -> https://www.blayrgourley.com/web-design