A nearby business (franchisee of a national chain) announced a new website today on their Facebook page. I truly believe they’re shooting themselves in the foot with the website they designed.
It’s built using a FREE service called Wix. Wix puts banners at the top and bottom of every page, with text such as “Create your stunning website with Wix. It’s super easy and free! Go”
The domain name on the new site is very long, something like:
http://turtlenappy.wix.com/nameofbusiness#!Home|mainPage
Not only is there no professional domain name, there’s no professional email address either – they use something nonsensical like “[email protected]”
The photos on the home page are blurry too; obviously not done by a professional photographer.
I don’t have a problem with Wix or any other free website builder – for a personal or hobby site.
But for THIS business?
C’mon. This is a national chain. Big building. Dozens of employees. They can’t spend a few thousand, one-time, to hire a professional web designer to create a solid, appealing first impression of their business?
How can they expect anyone to give them THEIR money, when they’re obviously not willing to invest any of their own? Prospects will wonder if they’re some sort of fly-by-night outfit, and they’ll ask themselves what else the company is skimping on.
If you’re a business, and you want customers, your website is no place to announce to the world that you’re broke. Or cheap. Or really lousy at marketing.
Doing that can COST you money.