SmallBusinessNewz

As the Internet gets older and more flooded with sites, it is more important than ever to have a professional-looking web site if you want customers to take your business seriously.

This should be common sense by now, yet it is appalling at how many wretched designs for business sites exist out there.

eCommerce sites

If you have not focused on having a professional looking site while running an eCommerce store, you should be ashamed of yourself. When your entire business exists online, you cannot afford to turn off potential customers by presenting a tacky, poorly designed site.

For one thing, it can automatically extinguish any credibility you hope to build in a matter of seconds. How can you expect a customer to trust you enough to purchase something from you if they think that you don't even take yourself seriously enough to have a decent looking site.

Now aesthetics are obviously left to opinion, but it is pretty easy to tell if effort was put into any given design.

Sites for Brick and Mortar Businesses

Perhaps you don't see this of as much as an issue if you don't run an online business, but for any brick and mortar store, your website is one of your most important advertisements. And guess what...the credibility factor comes right back into play.

Maybe your customers aren't buying from you online, but that doesn't mean they won't look you up. If your site doesn't convey the element of professionalism, they just might go to your competitors who do take the time to provide a professional-looking site.

Other factors to consider

Things like typos can also deteriorate your reputation as a credible business. Customers will think that if you don't even care enough to fix errors like this, why would you care about them? Typos happen. God knows I'm just as guilty as anyone, but try to maintain some kind of quality control. It gets especially bad when they are excessive. Read over your text. Again, this seems like common sense, but running through submissions at the Small Business Directory, you'd be amazed at how often this is a problem.

Cheesy animated gifs, popup ads and music that starts when the site is loaded are huge turn-offs for visitors. Keep these things in mind when building your site. Minimizing customer annoyance is crucial to keeping them around.

Who's going to design it?

Perhaps you're not too experienced in web design. Who can blame you? You've probably had enough on your plate. If you don't have a designer on staff (which I would recommend), there are more freelance designers out there than ever before.

Can you afford to hire a freelance designer? They're not always cheap, but my guess is if you look hard enough, you will find one that is willing to work within your budget, partially because there are more than ever before, and just like you, they are looking for business too.

Other options

Of course there are templates and themes available all over the Internet for purchase, but they often lack the personal touch of using a real designer. And by purchasing these things, chances are that there are a bunch of other sites that bought them too and look exactly the same, and that is not the best way to make your business stand out from the crowd.

Make Design a Priority

To wrap this up, just make having a professional-looking web site a top priority for your business. Your customers will appreciate it and so will you when they start taking you seriously and buying from you.