5 Common Misconceptions About Website Design

Your website is the online face of your company, and it's often the first impression someone has of your company. It serves many invaluable roles, including:
  • Providing information about your products and services
  • Telling the history of your company
  • Giving consumers an inside look at what makes your company and your team unique
  • Offering important details about your hours, location, and contact information
  • Providing strong calls to action to guide your site visitors to what you are looking for them to do


It goes without saying that part of owning a business is having and maintaining an excellent company website. Despite their prevalence and universally acknowledged importance, however, many people still do not have an accurate understanding of the important roles they fill. This week, our custom-design website company will clear up a few common misconceptions about website design.

Misconception #1: 
Pictures Are More Important Than Text.


It's true that in today's visual world, pictures are an extremely important component of website design. However, they are not more important than text. While Google can technically "index" pictures (think Google image search), images do not add a great value to your search engine ranking efforts. In fact, they can actually hurt those efforts if they are not properly optimized for fast loading. Graphics are definitely important from a design perspective, but it is extremely crucial that you have high-quality copy (text) on all pages of your site, including your home page.

Misconception #2: 
You Need A "Contact Us" Page.

"Contact us" pages may still be useful in some cases, but in general, they are considered a thing of the past. We prefer to provide clients' contact information on every page of their websites. This saves our clients money while making it easy for visitors to their sites to contact them no matter what page of the site they are on. Don't mistake a "contact us" page with a lead generation form, though. While we are not proponents of forcing visitors to a "contact" page in order to contact you, it's very beneficial to provide clear call to actions and lead generation mechanisms.

Misconception #3: 
If You Build It, They Will Come.


Building a professional website for your business is important, but it's not the be-all-end-all of your marketing campaign. Rather, it should serve as the center of the campaign that other tools (social media, blogs, printed advertisements, etc) should drive traffic to. It also should be optimized properly so that it is more likely to appear in Google (and other search engine) searches. Great rankings are not automatic - it takes work and expertise. In order to drive visitors to your website, it's important to properly market it across multiple media and to properly optimize it for great organic rankings in search engines.

Misconception #4: 
It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect.


Some people attempt to rush the website design process. They're more interested in getting something up as quickly as possible than taking the time to build a high-quality site. However, your website is one of the first places new customers will go to find information about your business. As soon as someone visits your site, he or she will form an opinion of your company. If your site is poorly designed, takes forever to load, or is littered with typos and errors, site visitors will likely take their business elsewhere.

Misconception #5: 
Anyone Can Build A Website.


This is technically true - anyone with access to a computer and some basic technical knowledge can use a free online template to build a website. However, the most effective websites are not designed from templates. Templated websites may look okay visually, but they tend to rank horribly in Google. Great website designers optimize code and design websites to meet the latest SEO requirements. Additionally, they possess graphic design expertise to build a site that is as attractive as it is functional. Building a website is about more than simply hanging an online brochure under your domain name - it takes skill, expertise, and experience to build a truly interactive, engaging website that will professionally brand your company AND rank well in the search engines.

Trust MSW With Your Website Design Needs!

If you are preparing to build or redesign your business website, contact MSW Interactive Designs, LLC for a free, no-obligation estimate. We are proud to offer custom website design at rates that make sense for small businesses. Visit our website for more information.

~ Post by Bailey Puppel, Internet Marketing Specialist




www.MSWInteractiveDesigns.com
Phone: 877-211-5492


Info@MSWInteractiveDesigns.com

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