Having a website is paramount to running a business. However, just having a site alone doesn't mean your business will grow and thrive. Having a bad website can be worse than having no website at all, as it can confuse and drive away your potential clients. One of the worst aspects of bad web design is clutter.

What exactly is clutter?

We define this as:

- Too much, or too wordy content.
- Too many images.
- Too much browsing choice in the form of buttons and tabs.
- Poor and crowded layout.

Is it worth investing in decluttering?

If you are taking a look at your cluttered site and wondering whether it really is worth investing in an upgrade, we can guarantee you that it is.

Here's why:

Cluttered sites lead to fast click away rates

Today, people are time poor. If your potential clients have landed on your website, there is a good chance they already know what information they're looking for, and if they can't find it quickly, they will move on to the next company on their list. You really only have a few seconds to grab someone's attention, and if they are feeling overwhelmed by images and information they won't stay. Cluttered sites take more time to navigate because the eye is confused, and there is a direct correlation between too much clutter on a site, and how quickly someone will leave the site.

Our brains crave order

There is a reason why sleek and simple designs with lots of white space are effective. The best websites have short and informative pieces of information alongside arresting photos and compelling calls to action. Sites that are overcrowded look less credible. This is because our brains want order and simplicity so they can quickly process information, and we tend not to trust sites that violate this rule.

Your website is directly impacting your bottom line

Even if you don't sell products directly through your website, your potential clients might navigate there to find your contact information or important details about your services. If they leave before you connect with them, this is eating into your profits.

Clearly, a cluttered website is costing you in fundamental ways, so talk to the web design Canberra experts at Canberra Web about an update today!

When starting off your new business website, it can be extremely tempting to use one of the myriad free website builders or blogging sites out there. As well as sites such as Wix and WordPress.com, there’s Blogger and even website builders available from many web hosts.

They can be relatively easy to set up, especially in comparison with something like self-hosted WordPress, where the learning curve can be quite steep. You can even have your site up and running within a few hours even if you know nothing at all about HTML or coding.

So why wouldn’t you want to use one of these website builders, especially as they’re free?

1. Your own domain and email address

You need your own domain name that reflects your business, such as www.yourcompany.com, and www.yourcompany.wix.com or www.yourcompany.wordpress.com doesn’t cut it for a professional company.

With many of these free site builders, you’re either left using their format for your domain name, or you can connect your site to your own URL, but you have to pay extra to do it.

It’s also much more professional to have This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. than to have to use Hotmail, Yahoo or similar because your site builder doesn’t provide you with the option of email addresses at your URL.

2. Your business needs a professional, branded look

Many free site builders are very limited when it comes to design and functionality. You’ll find the same templates over and over again on multiple sites because businesses used a site builder that simply wasn’t as customisable as they needed.

It's far better to use self-hosted WordPress and pay for hosting and an excellent, completely customisable theme so you can have your website fully designed to suit your brand.

3. You need to own your own real estate on the web

If you build your business on a platform you don’t own, such as Blogger or WordPress.com, what happens to your business if they either decide they don’t like your site and wipe it overnight, or if they go out of business next week and your site disappears?

Unless you own your own domain name and host your website yourself, you are extremely vulnerable to the rules and whims of the platform you use, and you simply can’t afford that for your business.

If you’d like to find out more about our services at Canberra web, including responsive, fully brandable web design Canberra, get in touch on 02 6223 2222.

It might be tempting to use free website builders like WIX and Weebly. They’re cheap and they seem so simple for you to put a website together – what could go wrong?

But like with anything, you get what you pay for, and your website is no different.

If you decide to go with the cheapest or free option, you might regret it later.

Free website builders aren’t great for SEO

Many of the free website builders out there aren’t search engine optimised. This means when you build your site, it will be a struggle for it to rank highly in Google searches. And this could spell disaster for your business.

The structure and code of a website affect how SEO-friendly it is, and these free websites aren’t very SEO friendly at all. Some of them are built completely in Flash, which certainly isn’t Google-friendly.

Unfortunately, you don’t have code control when you use these free websites, so you can’t even change the coding if you wanted to.

Mostly one-page websites

Another element for websites which rank poorly is when they have just one page.

Google loves websites with multiple pages, as these are seen to be more informative, and yet many of the free website builders only feature one page.

This can be very limiting, not simply for your online presence but also for your business.

A website that’s lacking structure

Another issue with these small websites is that they often don’t have a beneficial website structure. And it is this structure which is very important for SEO.

For example, if your website is organised in a detailed way, it will have a hierarchy, and this is something that search engines like Google love.

This means a blog post might have a hierarchy such as www.examplewebsite.com/blog/free-website-builder

Google loves these URLs as it helps them to pinpoint content on the web, meaning it can find your content. If your website isn’t full of these kinds of links, then Google won’t look favourably on you.

These are just some of the many reasons why you should avoid online free website builders.

If you’re looking for a new website, why not go with a Wordpress design Canberra-based business such as Canberra Web? We can help! Get in touch today for more information.

Are you still thinking about building a website for your product? Do you think your social media accounts are good enough to establish your identity?

Well, the best solution is to create a website, which would represent your organisation's ideas and values. Think about a situation where your customer asks about your website, and all you have is your overloaded Facebook page. This might sound harmless, but having a website can assure you these three benefits:

1. Freedom of control

Owning a website is like managing an organisation in itself. All your professional achievements, technical information, product-related discussion, answers to the general queries, and other important information will be housed in one location that's under your control. Your social media pages, such as your organisation's Facebook page, on the other hand, will be at the mercy of Facebook algorithms. Your Facebook content would persistently face risks of being hidden or not generating enough traffic. Not to mention that it simply isn't comprehensive enough to communicate your business in detail, or widely accessible to all internet users.

2. Playing smart, not hard

Creating a website is NOT a big deal. Are you aware that WordPress is one of the most user-friendly content management systems, and you can have a domain of your own with no more than AUD $50 per month? We provide you plenty of solutions to assist you in incubating your product's identity through a website, and WordPress design is one of them. Instead of constantly spending on Facebook page promotions, try boosting your site's ranking with SEO content.

3. Time and resource management

Instead of constantly answering the same question posed by different people on your social media, your website can handle your pressures and collate your customer enquiries in one place. Social media channels are "marketing tools", but each query requires a specific response and can be a drain on your resources. On the other hand, your website has the true potential to display your identity to the outside world. You have the magic wand of controlling and managing the content, and by featuring product guides, an FAQs page, and insightful blog content around your product or service, you can ensure it is the go-to hub for everything related to your business or even your wider industry. You can even install a chatbot to answer the bulk of simple queries on your behalf.

Simply said, your website denotes your official presence, and if you don't own one, you might not be highly regarded by your potential customers. Canberra Web offers you solutions and provides you with the best professional support to help you get a professional identity. Give your website a chance to prove its worth! Speak to our WordPress design Canberra team today.