Does Your Web Design Drive Away Potential Customers?

There’s no getting around it anymore – if you have a business, you need a business website. Even if your company has already established a solid reputation and a large number of loyal repeat customers, there are still millions of consumers out there who need your product or services, but will never know you exist if you don’t have a presence online with compelling web design and informative content.

Furthermore, those who already know about your business will often seek to establish your company’s credibility through your web presence; an opportunity to learn more about your product or services at a leisurely pace, without the pressure of connecting with a salesperson or representative. While an aesthetically pleasing web design may not specifically lead a reader to the final conclusion that your company is expert and reliable, a complete lack of web presence can easily lower your credibility factor, since many consumers believe that “any ‘legitimate’ business would have a website.”

Think restaurant with no phone… this certainly wouldn’t instill confidence in the consumer, who has come to expect that a quality establishment would by default have a phone number! As time goes on and technology grows ever more pervasive, the same now applies to a business with no website.

How Much Does Web Design Really Matter?

More than you might think. While it’s true that your web site should first and foremost be an informative tool to elaborate on your product or services, the actual web design is a critical component in instilling a positive or negative experience for your visitor. All the great information you provide will never be seen if a visitor is turned off by the web design and opts to leave your site before reading it.

You may be thinking, “But how can web design turn away visitors?”

Here are just a few of the common missteps that can drive your visitors, (aka, your valuable business prospects), away from your web site before you’ve had the chance to properly pitch your goods to them:

TOO BUSY web design

Surely you’ve encountered one or more sites of this type; you know… the web page that looks like it was created by a web design student who’s so excited about all the new ‘tricks’ they’re learning, they just toss in every bell and whistle they’ve acquired along the way. The result is a flashing, blinking, confusing and often obnoxious mess. Your web design should excite the visitor, not raise their blood pressure. Few readers will remain on a page with so much ‘noise’ going on.

Lack of consistency

An inconsistent web design will only confuse readers – and confused readers do not convert to customers. While it may be tempting (and often effective) to try something new and different with your web design, there are certain components which should remain standard, so your readers become quickly familiar with your web site content and navigation. Call it ‘edgy’ to change the site’s navigation menu from page to page, or to switch up fonts from one paragraph to another… but your readers have come to expect some common aspects they find as standard on most websites, and making them ‘work’ to discover your special variations is generally not a good idea.

SLOW loading time

This alone can wreck the visitor experience, and drive away potential customers in an instant. If your web design is overloaded with intense graphics, tons of video, flash components and unnecessary plug-ins, your pages may not display as quickly as they should. Particularly for visitors who have slow internet speeds or older computer equipment, it could mean your site never fully loads – so readers simply click away and go find a site that more rapidly delivers the information they seek. When it comes to web design, outstanding doesn’t have to mean intense; make it easy for your visitors to click through your pages with ease and velocity as needed.

There are many more ways in which a visitor may be repelled by a poorly-developed website design, and we’ll be sure to return with more in a later article. In the meantime, the next time you’re browsing the web for a product or service, make note of any turn-offs you encounter on various websites, and how they ultimately affect any decision you make about the business of product. Then, you will see that web design most certainly matters!

PearTree: The Web Design Experts

At PearTreeDesign, we have the expertise and ability to create eye-catching, custom web designs for every type of business. With our talented team of web design experts, developers and animators, there is no project or web design we can't handle.

We can also provide powerful tools, such as custom review pages, YouTube videos, and social networking pages that help increase exposure and presence over the web.

If you haven't yet established a web presence for your business, or simply need to update an outdated web design, take a moment to request a quote for web design services from our team. It's free, easy and well worth your while if you're falling behind on the world wide web!

Just click the button below to tell us what you're looking for and when you need it, and we'll email you a custom quote within 24 hours: