The top illusions about the Internet
Illusion #1:
There are so many website builders out there, why don’t I build my own website instead of spending money on designers?
This fallacy has led many businesses to serious financial losses, or at best, to a lot of lost profits. It’s true that anyone (with a little time and effort) can make a website. However, desire is far from enough for a professional site.
Just as when listening to music, you immediately understand whether the performance is by a professional musician or a music enthusiast, so it is immediately clear to any visitor to an amateur site that the site is made unprofessionally.
However, the real problem here is that visitors always transfer the qualities of the site to the qualities of its owner.
In other words, if your site looks unprofessional, don’t waste your time trying to convince your customers that you, as opposed to your site, are professionals. No one will believe you…
Web design has long since become an exact science driven by strict laws and principles. The real problem with the amateur site is that ignorance of these laws inevitably leads it to failure.
If you’ve decided to make your own personal site to post your family photos or family tree, it’s probably worth trying to make your site yourself or leave it to the “accountancy guy who knows computers”.
However, if you have decided to build a commercial site for your company, don’t be fooled. Leave it to the professionals. You will save yourself a lot of money, nerves, time and frustration.
Illusion #2:
Then I’ll hire web designers and they’ll do all the work.
Another way to fail on the Internet! Even the best designers can’t build your site without your active participation.
Unfortunately, many web designers will tell you exactly this: “Just place your order and we will take care of the rest” (this is a verbatim quote from a colleague’s site).
Do not succumb to such manipulations!
The truth is that at least 80% of the success of your site lies in its content – in the texts it contains, and you have to take care of these texts yourself.
As we’ve emphasized many times, good design can increase the impact of content, but it can’t replace it. Finding good web design professionals will only give you the chance to make your texts and illustrations look professional and be presented in a proper professional manner. Nothing more than that!
Good designers can help you with guidance and advice on how to prepare your source materials so that they have the maximum possible effect on visitors.
However, designers cannot prepare these texts themselves. You or people from your company should take care of this.
Pay special attention to the planning and preparation of materials for your site. Otherwise, you will just throw away the money you will give to build it.
More about this source text
Illusion #3:
Updating the site is a simple job. The secretary of the boss can do it too.
Don’t fool yourself! Updating content on the site is a critical process for your company, extending far beyond the purely technical typing of texts.
Even the smallest detail of your website matters for the image of your company.
A wrong landing page layout, for example, can turn visitors away and drastically reduce your website’s performance.
A single spelling mistake, even an inadvertent one, can cast doubt on your own literacy!
A poorly processed photo can cast doubt on the quality of your entire production!
Never forget: visitors transfer the qualities of your site directly onto you.
Don’t let non-professionals deal with your company’s image! This always costs more than hiring even the most highly-paid professionals!
And one more thing: whatever content management system your site is equipped with, standard computer skills are far from enough to work with it. It’s a powerful tool, and handling it by inexperienced or poorly trained people can cause you more trouble than you realize.
Illusion #4:
The more the better.
Website volume is a double-edged sword! A content and functionality-rich website can really be useful as long as both functionality and content are “on point”. They must satisfy a real existing expectation, and not appear on the site just for the sake of having them.
We have all witnessed dozens of sites where forums are installed that no one enters, “shopping carts” that no one uses, extensive photo galleries that no one views, and comment fields in which no one writes anything …
Having a website on the Internet is now really a must. However, your site doesn’t have to be everything to everyone. Start with a minimal site containing only the essentials.
Subsequently, supplement the site with content and functionalities when you really feel that this is necessary.
Illusion #5:
In order to be successful, the site must be first of all “eyecatching”
One of the most classic illusions, as a result of which the Internet is full of beautiful but pointless websites.
Even if the “artists” on the Web may find it unpleasant, the facts show that the most successful sites on the Internet are the result of a combination of well-thought-out functionality and rich content, rather than sophisticated design solutions.
Just two examples: the most successful site of all time, which has long made its owners billionaires – Google.com, is known for its extreme “asceticism” in terms of design.
Another example: A company like Mercedes-Benz can afford the best designers ever born. Despite this (or possibly because of it), the Mercedes-Benz site is, to put it mildly, sparing in terms of graphic design. It is another confirmation of the rule that less is more 😉
Need more examples? Check out the sites of IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, or even Rolls-Royce.
All of these companies can afford the highest-paid graphic designers on the planet. However, they pay (no less) for real working sites, not works of fine art.
Don’t get us wrong! We are not against a good-looking and beautiful site. Quite the opposite! We are only reminding you of the simple fact that the dominance of form over the content on the Internet does not lead to anything good.
Illusion #6:
The Internet is a new economy driven by new economic laws
Deeply false! The Internet is neither a new economy nor a new, “virtual” world. The economic laws that drive the Web are exactly the same that drive the real economy.
The Internet is just a new medium in which normal economic laws operate. If a business model doesn’t work in the “normal economy”, there’s no reason why it won’t work on the Internet.
Illusion #7:
Making money on the Internet is quick and easy
This illusion is a consequence of the previous one! However, if an economic scheme does not work in the “normal” economy, there is no reason why it should work on the Internet.
It is true that in Internet trading the profit margin is often greater than in “conventional” (brick and mortar) trading. However, this is mainly due to the fact that working through the Internet saves a lot of costs for commercial premises, personnel, warehouse space, and advertising.
The power of the Internet is in drastically reduced costs, in fast communication and unlimited global reach, not in “easy money”.
Illusion #8:
The website will be my best advertisement
No, your site is not an advertisement! (Please remember this well.)
If you’re looking at your websites like a newspaper or TV ad, you’re going in the wrong direction.
Save your superlatives, advertising slogans, and “we’re the best” expressions! People have long been disgusted by advertising gibberish, and it only repels them. They have had enough of the advertisements flooding them every day on radio and television.
Don’t drive visitors away from your site by making it look like an advertisement block.
When the ad block comes in the movie, you use the time to go to the bathroom, right? Don’t do this to your website…
Look at your website as a communication channel. Communication has always been the essence of the Internet. The web was created as a means of communication and will always remain so.
Want to say something to your customers? The site is the right place. Do you want to receive feedback from your customers, distributors, or partners? Use your website again. Planning a promotional campaign? The website should be at its core.
In short: if you want to be believed, use your site to inform, not to brag …
If you want to learn about more mistakes that you could avoid on your site, please also see our article “Why is my site not performing??”
