5 Myths About Web Design
Websites are the most effective way to tell the world about who you are. There is also a saturation of information surrounding the strategies one should use to create an effective site that reflects your brand. We're here to bust some of the top myths in the business.
1. "Everything Must Be Custom"
Well, not exactly. Although custom features and special design elements may sound enticing, they're not going to necessarily bring you more business. If you want a website that's easy to manage and allows for delegation within your company, a content management system is much more streamlined, and therefore useful. Why waste your time with widgets, updates, and other confusing elements when there are content managers like Squarespace that can automate these tasks for you. This allows you focus on the day to day aspects of your business, while we construct brand aesthetics and content builds.
2. "You Don't Need To Have Everything Together"
Don't put the cart before the horse! The website is an integral element to a successful business, but it needs supporting brand identity to come off as authentic and open for commerce. Brand icons, logos, fonts, brand colors, image inspiration, and other content assets are necessary to dressing your site in the look of your brand. Have a clear vision before you collaborate with a designer and they will surely be able to materialize that vision quicker and with more ease.
3. "The More Information The Better"
Unfortunately the attention span of those of us using the web is brief. So brief that the monologue you wrote about your brand won't be read, it will most definitely be skimmed. The best way to organize information on a website is to edit it down to it's most important aspects and focus on the elements that set you apart from your competitors. Visual organization of information is key, as consumers are twice as likely to read bolded, bulleted, and numbered lists (such as the title of this blog), as they are regular font paragraph text.
4. "You'll Only Need To Design It Once"
Many people start the design process and then stumble somewhere in the middle. They're gathering content assets and thinking of their big website launch, perhaps how they'll have to generate buzz around it. It's easy to get hung up on the perfect website, wanting every element to be present, just as it was envisioned. Experience tells us that websites are constantly changing. Your business will not look the same one year to the next. Be an active website owner by regularly checking your analytics, and committing to a redesign every year. Your website is most successful when it reflects its most valued customers.
5. "A Website Can Take The Place Of Your Real Business"
One of the main motivations people have to create their site is that they want to generate new business while they are off doing other things. This is simply not a strategy based in reality. A website is not a magical wand that attracts your customers, only you have that magic! Your website must act as a framework for the easy functioning of your day-to-day work. If you can use it to manage subscribers, sell products, easily explain to new customers who you are, and use as landing pages for advertising campaigns, it is successful. Utilize your pages for these reasons, and see how your business flourishes.