First impressions are too powerful to ignore

There’s a universal fear among fathers with daughters. You realize that one day there will be a knock at the door and a young man will be waiting on the other side to escort your little girl somewhere for the evening.  You know the day will eventually arrive. You just hope and pray that the guy with his finger on the doorbell will meet your approval.

So you open the door and give this guy the once over. You check out his clothes, see if he’s polished his shoes and shaved his face. You look out in the driveway to see what kind of car he’s driving. When you shake his hand you check it for firmness – and give him a sniff to see what he smells like.

It’s the old first impression.

Much of your opinion of this young man will be formed during that initial 10-second meeting. If the first reaction is negative, he may never be able to overcome the bad first impression. Or, at least, it might take him a long time to dig himself out of the hole.

However, if the first impression is positive, you could end up liking the young man more than your daughter!

First impressions are powerful.

That’s why the homepage of your website is such an important part of your business. The homepage must look good, must have quality content and it must work. If it fails at any of these things, you may have lost the business before you’ve even had a chance to get started.

When you open a bad website, one that looks bad and doesn’t meet your needs, what do you do?

Next!

Just like that kid standing on your front doorstep, you’ve got about 10 seconds to convince the visitor to your website to stay around and look.

That’s why your site should look professional – no outdated fonts, ugly graphics – and certainly no unicorns.

That’s why your site should be easy to negotiate – the navigation bars should be simple to understand and get around.

That’s why your site should work! Is there anything worse than a site that contains empty headings or outdated links.

Remember: There’s a lot of competition out there. Don’t give a visitor to your website another reason to move on.