How bad website design can hurt your business

All web designers know that a great website that is both easy to use and simple to navigate is extremely important to have for any business. However, justifying the expense of such a website is still quite a struggle for many such businesses.

The truth of the matter is that a solid website that has been professionally designed is not simply a symbol of status. The whole reason for having a website is to increase sales by a significant margin. If there are usability problems such as difficult navigation, making the experience of using difficult, this increase in sales may just not happen. And a lot of businesses don’t fully appreciate this fact.

Why do Businesses Have Trouble Understanding this?

Even if they do understand the benefits of good web design, businesses are still prone to neglecting their web presence by not spending enough money or time. Why? Here is one reason: The fact that they have built the business with their own hands from the ground up. They may believe that because they have done so well in these other areas, they can go and make the website themselves as well, saving money.

That leads us to the second reason. Websites can cost thousands of dollars. Small companies may find the idea of saving that money too tempting. This is magnified by a deep lack of understanding of how important a robust website is to keep one’s competitive edge.

Some Hallmarks of Bad Web Design

1. The Design Is Cluttered

One of the important things you want to enhance on your site is the user experience. There are many things that go into creating a positive UX. And there are things that can damage it. A visual design that is busy and confusing is one of these factors. You want a fresh visitor to your site to be able to know exactly where to go to get what they want in a matter of seconds. Visual noise will only create frustration in this area. Plus it will look unprofessional, reducing perceived credibility.

2. Bad Content

Search engine optimisation or SEO requires good content. It also increases conversion rates. If you want your website to be at the top of a search result, you need to have good content. This means having a blog that is regularly updated at least twice per week. It creates the impression that you are active within your industry. The blog also needs to have useful information, so this disqualifies any personal blogging.

3. It Thwarts User Expectations

Users want certain things from the websites they are on. The top thing they want is high usability. If your website has anything that makes the usability worse, you can expect to lose money.

How this Affects Your Business

Bad design makes your business look less credible. Your customers will get the impression that you are out of touch with the current technological landscape. And all of this will make your customers look elsewhere for the services you provide, thinking that yours will most likely be substandard. So don’t be afraid to invest properly in a proper web presence. You will get that money back.

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Glen Hunter is an online marketing consultant, PHP programmer, project manager, writer, blogger & social media enthusiasts.