The internet is a vast resource of information. Customers used to have to visit stores and talk with sales staff to learn about the products that they wished to buy. Today, consumers are more likely to do their research online where they can read reviews and information about the products, and they may not even go to a store to purchase their chosen product. This means that for today’s businesses good website design and maintenance are important.
Whether users will visit a site or not depends on a number of factors. A badly designed website can take a long time to load. Reports have shown that 40{c584a3c71b685fcd96beea1844aef9782c2ee6d09f6362cffd32c21cdeda575f} of users will simply give up and leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. The theme of the website is also important. The colors chosen will influence how many people stay on your website. Information needs to be clear and easy to read. Even the layout of a website can determine how many users will read your page. For example, the first two paragraphs of a website are the most important in encouraging visitors to stay. Lists with bullet points are easier to read and understand and this attracts more people. Website design is important, get it wrong and you could lose customers, get it right and you could attract and, more importantly, keep many more visitors.
The attention span of people today is much shorter than in previous decades, and certainly people are used to a society in which information is available 24 hours a day at the click of a button. In the past when websites were relatively new, a company could afford to have a poor website, but as competition has increased, having a website that is well-designed and current has become much more important. Poorly designed websites will not get the message across and will deter visitors from visiting or staying on your website.
One thing that those who are not familiar with websites might not consider is SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO determines where your page will be seen when someone does a search in a search engine. Ideally you want your business to come as high up as possible in the search pages. If your business is only on the fourth or fifth page, the chances are that the user will not even get to those pages.
So what do you do if you are not that technically minded or you do not have the time to keep your website optimized and up-to-date? The answer could be to use the services of a company that specializes in website design, or you could recruit specialists to take on this work for you. One way of doing this is to use the services of an umbrella company. Umbrella companies can find the specialist staff that you need, so even if you are not that technically minded you can get the best people for the job.
Today being online is more important than ever for a business. However, being online by itself is not enough. A well-designed website that is maintained and kept up to date is vital for businesses to stand out in the market.