Inside Business published an article by Molly Yurick on March 25, 2019 titled “Five website features that may be working against you.” Yurick explains how one’s website is more than selling products, providing services, and sharing information. She states that it is more important to focus on the audience that will be viewing your website. One must tailor the website to meet the needs of the people who visit their site. Yurick says, “As a website owner, your job is to turn those visitors into paying clients.” She reminds people to find ways to hold the customers’ attention while they are looking at the site. She discusses five website features that might work against one’s favor. The list includes aggressive pop-ups, translation plug-ins, auto play video, bad mobile version of site, and an infinite home page. Viewers do not want to spend more time closing pop-ups that exploring the page content. It is important to be cautious of translation plug-ins as it can “skew the meaning” of the text, but it can be smart to use one if you want to expand your business to other parts of the world. More people browse the internet on the phone over a computer, so it is important to make sure the mobile site is easily accessible. Finally, an infinitely long pay might be confusing and distracting to anyone viewing the website.
The textbook discusses how companies should invest effort into creating and maintaining websites with a good design. Larson & Draper (2019) says that businesses should make each web design decision carefully while thinking of the end goal each time. Most web designers use design principles that they follow. Hendricks writes in Forbes (2015) that a website’s design will affect the entire presence. He found through a research study that design elements are actually more powerful than the content itself. I enjoyed reading Yurik’s article because she offers advice on what not to do when creating your website design. It can be overwhelming with all of the web design elements that are available, and one might not know what works best for their particular audience. Like the textbook mentioned, web design might have more power than content because it is what catches the viewers’ attention to initiate that interest in the site. I know that I do not like to get on a website and see too many pop-ups. It is also important to make sure that the display does not change whether someone is on a desktop computer or a mobile phone.
References:
Hendricks, D. (2015). Understanding The Full Impact of Web Design On SEO, Branding, And More. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2015/02/11/understanding-the-full-impact-of-web-design-on-seo-branding-and-more/#5f8d6cdc64fe
Larson, J., & Draper, S. (2017)Digital marketing essentials. Rexburg, ID: Edify.
Yurick, M. (26 March 2019). Five website features that may be working against you.” Inside Business. Retrieved from https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/columns/article_23bd8afc-4f3a-11e9-be92-d30fee8f6f06.html
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