ATILUS - Web Design | Internet Marketing

About Your (Web) Competition

As a web designer I love and I hate the following words:

I don’t need a redesign. My website is pretty good and it’s much better than my competition. You should see the sites of my competition

I love these words because, if I can actually convince you that an upgraded or revised web site will help solve your company’s woes (which it just might) then the bar is low. I know my team can wow you with a great design and it will really help drive traffic for your industry, for your region, and help get the contacts, calls or solve some of your problems.

I hate these words because I know it’s difficult to convince you otherwise. You are sure your website will suffice, and maybe in some ways it has. And after evaluating your competition, you’re right, their websites really are deplorable.

But if we both stopped there we would both be making a big mistake, a mistake I was making until I had a recent epiphany on the nature of web design:

Your website isn’t competing against websites in your industry or region.

Your website is competing against ALL websites!

Your website is competing against Yahoo, Google and Digg for the eyeballs and attention of your visitors.

If your website isn’t visually attractive and differentiated, visitors accustom to well designed, easily-navigable mega-sites will immediately turn away.

Visitors aren’t just measuring your company against the other local mom-and-pop shops online. They are also measuring your website and the investment you’ve made in treating them right on the web. Your visitors’ only tools of evaluation, their only gauge on the legitimacy of your company is your website.

Sure, your website may kick your competition to the curb, but is it as nice as it could be, is it as easy to navigate as it should be? If not, you are alienating visitors who are accustomed to sites that are.