Is Your Site Embarrassing?
Yesterday I made a request on a group for people to send me links of their personalized children’s products. I’m working on a new page on Idea Queen, and decided it would be better with links to stores. Well that and I was slightly stumped – I needed suggestions. A link back is only fair.
Most of the suggestions and sites were absolutely wonderful. Those I got anyway, as I tend to weed out those who don’t read instructions by throwing in a different email address to send replies to. Wouldn’t you know that works pretty well, since if they hit “reply” sending it to the wrong address and ignoring most of the email, they usually have ignored other important guidelines as well.
But I digress.
As mentioned, most sites were great. However, there were some that were just……wow. Now I may sound like a total snob, but if your site is embarrassing, I don’t want to link to it. I found myself making excuses as to why I couldn’t link to some based solely on the fact that I didn’t even want to look at the site, let alone recommend it. (If some of you are reading this, know some sites DID have a solid reason I couldn’t list it and it wasn’t your design!)
I know my sites aren’t perfect. Quite a few of them need a serious overhaul and redesign. I’m also not picky to the point I shame sites with poor SEO layout or aren’t W3C compliant. I can overlook those for the most part (unless your site is set up to sell SEO services, then I AM picky if you aren’t following basic SEO rules!).
The way I see it, your website is your online image. I think most would agree with me here, too. Think about it – would you buy candles from someone at a craft show sitting in a tattered shirt and stained jeans? How about if they didn’t bother to brush their hair that day? Do you trust them as much as you would someone who looks nice? The answer for most is probably NO.
You may think me snobbish, but it’s not just me. There’s a lot of people (aka YOUR CUSTOMERS!) who pay attention to image. Lucky for us who do business online, we don’t have to dress up to impress our customers. Our website is there to do that for us. And a tacky looking site isn’t going to impress the.
A clean, simple design is really all you need. When you start adding things you think looks “cool”, your customers might think exactly the opposite. I know you can’t please everyone, but a nice looking website for the general public is a must online. Always have someone other than friends and family review your site. It might get ugly, but you need to think of the comments as what a potential customer might think. They really aren’t “just being mean”. They are helping you present yourself better online, thus improving your sales. Don’t get mad, just make changes.
So take a look at your site. Is it embarrassing or can it sell? Excuse me while I go look at my own sites now……. :wink:
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Kara
Topics: Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
March 8th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Honestly, I never knew, until now, that someone’s website could be really embarassing, but thanks for pointing that out.
