In this day and age, it’s crucial to have a website for your business. And, when you are in an industry that relies on aesthetics to attract clients, such as interior designers, home builders, general contractors, or architects, a beautifully designed and functional website is even more critical.
Websites for general contractors, interior designers, home builders, and architects must do double duty. They need to not only give your visitors relevant information about your company, but they must have plenty of photos showcasing the work that you do, so the clients can see the quality of job they will get when choosing you to handle their home.
If the website for a home builder, general contractor, architect, or interior designer looks unprofessional and sloppy, how can a potential client trust you to design or build their home? Many won’t and will simply move on to a competitor that has taken the time to have their website professionally created by an experienced website designer, instead of trying to do-it-yourself and ending up with a mediocre website.
Interior designers know how to make a room look pretty. They can handle the arrangement of furniture so it is functional, the choice of a color palette for a room, and they know how to arrange lighting to highlight the features of a home. Yet, despite all of their talents at interior design, many home decor specialists fall short when it comes to trying to build their own website.
Interior design and designing for the web just aren’t quite the same thing. Just like a general contractor or a home decorating specialist has their own particular skill set that allows them to create a beautiful and functional living space, so does a website developer who understands the ins and outs of online marketing, SEO, and website design.
Why you should leave it to the professional website designer.
Let’s face it, while I can design the heck out of a website for an interior designer, I am pretty much useless when it comes to doing interior design for my own home.
However, I am not oblivious to this fact, and I realize just because I am good at one aspect of design, I am not necessarily good at another. I know my limitations.
That’s why I would hire a professional who knows how to take care of things around the house for me, instead of trying to do it myself and have it come out looking mediocre and only halfway done, at best. Why shouldn’t it work the other way around too?
The website for an interior designer, general contractor, architect, or home builder needs to be inviting, user-friendly, and, most importantly, inspiring for website visitors. It should look as professional as possible and showcase the wonderful work that you do for your clients. Anything short of this could be leaving money on the table when it comes to trying to attract new clients to your business.
It takes less than 1/2 a second for a website visitor to form an opinion about a website that will determine whether they like the site or not. This in turn, determines whether they will leave it quickly or stay.
First impressions matter… a whole lot.
First impressions are important, and often your website may be the first interaction with your company for someone. It takes less than 1/2 a second for a website visitor to form an opinion about a website that will determine whether they like the site or not. This, in turn, determines whether they will leave it quickly or stay.
These aren’t made up numbers; they come from a specific psychological study that was done. And, Google confirmed that number with their own research as well.
A British study also analyzed how different designs influenced trust on websites. Their study concluded that the look and feel of a website is the primary driver of first impressions. Similar results were found in research for Consumer WebWatch which showed that the average consumer paid far more attention to the superficial aspects of a site than to even its content. They based the credibility of a company on the overall visual designs of the website, including layout, typographic, font size, and colors.
