Many online businesses, in their haste to get up a website as soon as possible in order to start raking in the customers and the revenue, completely forget about the importance of web design when it comes to selling online.
It helps to think of your website as a physical store. Before you invited the customers in, you’d take care to make sure that everything was organized, the place was easy to navigate for as many people as possible, and that the store was clean. If your store is cluttered, hard to navigate, and dirty, many customers will turn around and walk right out upon seeing the place, without giving a second thought to the products inside.
Web design is important in the same way. When you present your site it needs to be presented in a clean, clear-cut fashion that draws the customer in and invites them to explore the website more, rather than sending them running due to an onslaught of blinking graphics and clashing colors.
The best web designs, thankfully, tend to be the more simplistic ones. Make your links obvious and your text a reasonable size with appropriate colors. Note that “appropriate colors” doesn’t necessarily mean that the website has to be in shades of white – in fact, pops of color add interest and make your website memorable – but having a yellow background with pink text is going to shock your customers in a way that you’ll likely find less than desirable.
Also fortunately, while most of us might not be web design gurus, there are a number of people who have dedicated their lives to the art of website design and maintenance. If you are a person who struggles to put italics into your HTML documents, there’s no shame in admitting that you’re not the grandfather of code. This is one place where outsourcing can be a great idea. Yes, a look at many website design sites might make you reel with the prices they quote, but there are ways to keep the costs low when it comes to outsourcing web design.
Consider purchasing a ready-made site and then buying customized graphics on top of that as opposed to getting a site made from scratch. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Also consider talking with students from design schools – yes, you’ll have to pay them, but they often charge much lower rates, and many students will jump at a chance to build their portfolios.
Also remember that outsourcing your web design can be claimed on your taxes for an online business. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish – a good web design will serve you well and pay for itself in no time when it comes to the business of successful business.
