When I originally started my business I decided to attempt (with a lot of help from my brother) to design the website myself. I enjoyed the process, but not being a web design expert it took me a lot longer than it would have done a professional web designer and obviously the look of the site reflected my lack of expertise. Looking back in Hindsight I've realised that was probably a mistake, however I tend to prefer to treat the past as the past and focus on what I'm able to change today. So, as the business has developed and grown I decided that the time had come to for my website to reflect that. To be frank it should have been redone long before now but it's over the last couple of months I've had the opportunity to work on updating it.
Through the process of developing the new website (with the fantastic help of @cssgareth) I've been reviewing a wide range of other sites from a wide range of businesses to help develop ideas and concepts for my businesses new site. Whilst reviewing all these sites and working with Gareth I think I know a little bit more about what makes a good, bad or ugly website now.
My current site, as proud as I was of it at the time it was originally build, absolutely sits in the "ugly" category however I believe it had one redeeming factor. As amateur as it looks, I did try to put a "face" to the business with both video content and on our "about us" page. One of my biggest bugbears when visiting a site is when it's too generic. Whilst I understand that in some bigger businesses it's tough to put a face behind the business, however some larger businesses have bucked this trend (like Richard Branson and Virgin) and it hasn't seemed to do them any harm.
So, if your a small or medium sized business owner do you believe it's important to put a face to your business? Do you think there are both advantages and disadvantages to this approach? Do you think it's important to have a face behind the brand, or do you believe that it's not the most effective thing to show on your website? As ever your thoughts are more than welcome...
A really interesting question Chris, and I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer depending on what your business is. I am currently debating the same thing with myself actually - like you, my business (at this stage) is very much about me. But with our websites, should we be portraying a more impersonal image? I'm not sure, and I've been trying to strike the right balance with my own site - www.lfcevans.co.uk
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Comment Dan. I think it's about the right balance between professional and personal. Whilst I agree that the site should look professional, is there any disadvantage in putting some details about the faces behind the business?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that websites without some personal details tend to look quite generic....and if there are a thousand websites out there which look the same, why would a consumer choose to use that service!