When customers are searching for products or services across a variety of sites in a competitive market, decisions about a site’s professionalism are often made within 10 seconds of viewing the home or landing page. In this brief time customers gather a surprisingly broad range of impressions including: company size, product range, product offering, brand, and often price. They demonstrate emotional feelings of connection or dissatisfaction, as well as feelings of anxiety and/or comfort. They often decide if they are in the “right place.”
The Stanford Web Credibility Project http://credibility.stanford.edu found that 47% of users make buy decisions based upon the site itself. This implies that if the site is professional in appearance and supplies the essential information in a clear and complete manner, nearly half your customers will be comfortable making the buy decisions without further off-site research.
Businesses all too often underestimate the importance of a good graphic look and feel. Sites may exhibit unprofessional graphic design, yet site owners wonder why so many visitors and potential customers abandon the site. If you’re in doubt about the effectiveness of your present website’s look and feel, user test your site on passers-by. Ask them to view your site alongside competitor sites. Ask probing, open-ended questions about their impressions and feelings. This will give you a good idea of the impression your site creates to visitors.
Certainly, content is king with regard to a web presence, but if viewers of your site are put off or disillusioned by its look and feel, chances are better than not they won’t stick around to view the very message you intend to communicate. In fact, how your website appears is the first form of communicating your brand and credibility to customers both current and prospective, and it all happens within the first 10 seconds of viewing your site. Image may not be everything, but it certainly is important, and establishing a visually appealing web presence really does matter. Don’t you think it best to get it right?
Tags: Branding, marketing-strategy, webdesign