They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While that may be true I think we can all agree most things easily fall into a category of good looking or not good looking. This can be applied to cars, buildings, clothing, etc… but it is also applied to your business. From your business cards to your website you are taking a piece of art that represents your company and presenting it to someone else to judge. Now I’m not saying other intrinsic factors won’t dictate how they feel toward your business, but that visual image you’re presenting to potential customers is a powerful one and one that can impact your bottom line a lot more than you may think.
Let’s simply look at your company website and how it’s appearance can affect your business. Let me begin by saying at the heart of it your website is definitely a piece of art. A quality web designer takes more pride in their work than you may think. They take this totally blank canvas and make it come to light from your thoughts and their ideas with the goal of providing that “wow” factor to you and your audience. Just because a website is used for a purpose other than it’s own visual beauty doesn’t mean it’s not a result of hard work and creative genius. Remember that next time you speak with a potential web designer. Look for that passion they have for their work like a prized painter would and you’ll know you made the right choice in designers.
Okay, after that little tangent lets get back to why the look and feel of your website can alter your business tremendously. I’ll build you this scenario where you are in the need of a plumber, someone to come into your home and fix a problem. So you turn where everyone else does, Google. You type in your search for a plumber and find the top few results. (Editors note: Remember beauty is only skin deep. What’s on the inside counts too. So great Search Engine Optimization helps get your site to be one of those top few sites listed.) In those top spots you decide to click the first one you see for XYZ Plumbing Company. You get to their site and it looks like it was built 10 years ago. There is nothing visually appealing about it. It’s difficult to navigate and find the answers you’re looking for. There may even be some fancy music automatically playing in the background. Not a site that builds trust or legitimacy. So what do you do? You hit the “back” button on your keyboard and move on to the next result. Well let me tell you, that poor looking website hurt them more than just losing the business of that one individual. The way Google reads that action is Joe Customer typed in “plumber” in the search bar, came across XYZ Plumbing Company website then hit the back button. Therefore A (xyz website) must not equal B (answer to plumbing search). If this continues to happen then XYZ Plumbing Company falls down the Google ranking. Conversely, the next website Joe Customer clicks on is a well-designed and great looking plumbing website. They spend a few minutes on the website looking at information and finding answers. The time on the site goes up, Google sees this as A = B and the website moves up the rankings getting them more clicks and thus more calls and more business.
Your website is just one example of making the right visual impression on potential customers. People judge everything, it’s in our nature and we can’t help ourselves. So before you pass out that business card or brochure or flyer or have a website built, please make sure you take it seriously and sit down and discuss things with some professionals. These things become the face of your business so why not make it one hell of a good-looking face!