Take this scenario ~ If you were running an offline business, would you allow your salespeople to be dressed in shabby clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making sure that your staff wear professional looking clothing or uniforms, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, its the same case with your website. If your website is put together in a shabby manner and looks like a 5 minute “quick fix”, you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care about quality.

On the other hand, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about quality and professionalism. They will percieve you and your business as organised, focused and credible.

As well as your website, you should also have everything related to your business well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little aspect of your business matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business ~ your brand! Once again, think of the “shabbily dressed salesperson” analogy, and you will understand the point that a well designed website is important.

Jenni

Here are a few tips to help you avoid making those mistakes.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is extremely popular. If a lot of people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic and just another website on the block.

The whole point of using a web template is to save time, money and effort. All that is needed, is for you to just change the title and add your content details and you’re done.

One of the biggest mistakes one makes is to try and customise the template beyond its original design. While that may be good in the sense that you’re attempting to create a unique look, you’re also defying the very purpose of using a web template — to save time, money and effort.

However, on the other hand, if the template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes.

For example, you may find a very nice template that suits your hobby site, but it has one small problem, the original designer has put an image not relevant to your hobby, in the header graphic. This is generally something that is easy to replace,  however, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your target audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they suit your purpose.

Jenni