DesignMarketing & CommunicationsUsability
Your website is your brand online: Take it seriously
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Filed under Design, Marketing & Communications, Usability
2 comments
Imagine walking into a restaurant. Inside, the building is clearly falling apart. The wallpaper is peeling off the walls, electrical wiring is exposed, there’s dust everywhere. You point this out to the manager, and the manager responds, “Oh, that?...Well…I’m in the food business, not construction, so ignore all that. Just sit down and order, and you’ll see how great we are!”
You’d leave, right?
Make sure you’re not using the restaurant manager’s logic regarding your website. Many organizations still see a website as something they know they need, but they’re not sure why. As a result, many just don’t take their websites seriously. Your website is your brand’s representation online; make sure you put as much thought into it as every other facet of your business.
I have a lot of friends who are musicians, and I’m always amazed at how readily they will use a site like MySpace, or an all-Flash site to represent them on the Web. You could argue that they are musical artists, not Web designers, so they put their creativity into their music, not into the appearance and functionality of their site. When I hear this argument, I think of the restaurant manager in my earlier analogy.
Is your organization’s site woefully outdated? Is it inaccessible to the disabled? Is it unusable on smart phones and mobile devices? is it full of irrelevant or inaccurate content?
Your website is many people’s first impression of you; they will associate it with your brand, so make it count.
Comments
Mike Mella, Be like water
From Toronto, Canada
Monday, December 6th, 2010 at 2:17pm
Hi Caryn.
Yes, a neglected website can damage a brand just as easily as a well-maintained one can benefit, so upkeep is crucial. Glad to see you’re on board with it.
Thanks for the comment!
Mike, I completely agree. I update my site on (almost) a daily basis and make sure all links are active and all information is up to date. I can’t imagine having old dates on my site or inaccurate details about *anything*. It would be embarrassing! I’m not a web designer (well, by trade…) but it only takes a few minutes a week to pretend to be your own client, browsing through your own site.
What a great article! You’ve prompted me to look at making my site more “smart-phone-friendly”. Thank you so much.