People posting pictures of themselves online and your business’ website design are similar in a lot more ways than you may think.
SYRACUSE, N.Y.-- Your website design does the same thing for your business as what a selfie does for a social media profile. But how is a teenager taking a picture in a mirror at all similar to your business?
Social Media & Real Life Personal Judgments
What you choose to put on your social media influences people’s perception of you. This is how human social interaction has always worked. If you’re interviewing a potential hire and they share with you their love for expensive vodka and poor decisions, you probably won’t hire that person. An increasing number of hiring managers would also not hire that person if the potential employee shared their ‘vodka-and-mistakes’ tendencies on social media. One-third of hiring managers look up prospective employees’ social media accounts, according to an April 16, 2013 Forbes report. This shows the parallels between an online representation and an in-person representation.
A selfie is just one example of this. Selfies are literally and figuratively your face. Similar to how all-star athletes are the “face” of their league or team, selfies are both your face and the “face” (or representation) of you. Since a selfie is just a picture of you, people judge you based on your selfie. These judgments would be purely aesthetic unless you were doing something in your selfie that added to it besides just showing off what you look like (such as wearing a political shirt or doing something funny). Selfies, like all things we share on the internet, influence what people think of us.
Your Website Design is a Reflection of Your Capabilities
Imagine if your local pizza shop had boarded up windows, faded, chipped paint and graffiti on the sides. You probably wouldn’t want the food you’re putting in your mouth coming from a place that looks like that. Similarly, if your online shoe store looks cluttered, dated and just plain bad, people aren’t going to trust you with their personal or financial information.
But website design is much more than a good looking site. Imagine if a book store didn’t organize their shelves; Curious George is next to War and Peace, the Harry Potter series shares a shelf with Cooking at Home. You’d get frustrated trying to find what you want, and go to a different store. The same thing applies to your website; if information isn’t easy to find, people will quit quick--especially on the internet, where waiting 2 seconds for something to load is too much for most people. It’s not a good look for a book store to have cluttered shelves, and a website design that makes it hard to find what people came for reflects poorly on a business, too.
A poor website design is like an unorganized book store: both are confusing, and make it hard to find what you came for.
These same reasons are why a website design with informative content is important. Imagine if one of your satisfied customers recommends your business to a friend. The person who receives the suggestion will want to find out about your business. They’ll do this by looking your business up online. In fact, 81% of consumers research a business online before buying, according to industry research. Like the vodka-and-mistakes potential hire from earlier, will consumers or clients like what they find out about your business online?
Mobile-Friendly Website Design Matters
Those potential customers or clients are less likely to buy from you if your site doesn’t look or work right on a phone or tablet. If your site isn’t made to be accessed from a mobile device, people may need to do a lot of frustrating pinching and swiping to find what they’re looking for. Obviously, a frustrating customer experience is never good. 60% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, so not having a mobile-friendly website design is a disservice to most people.
Picture Perfect Website Design
In addition to providing a clean, professional look on whatever device your site’s accessed from, our website design team are usability experts, and can make your site user-friendly. All ACS Web Design & SEO sites are optimized to make it convenient for potential clients or customers to contact your business, and your site will be developed to make your business easy to find on popular search engines.
Just like how people want to look good online, businesses must look good online, too. ACS Web Design & SEO has helped over 200 businesses look good online, providing the experience and personal attention to properly show what makes your business unique.
To make a good impression, contact us.