Just keep in mind here that a website can be gorgeous and still do absolutely nothing for sales. Sure, you’re probably busy with marketing automation for your ecommerce website, but that pretty site isn’t going to be enough. Sure, maybe the fonts are perfect, the colours look expensive, the photos are dreamy, the animations are smooth, and it feels like a brand that has its life together. Like, isn’t that what all businesses want? Well, yeah, but the problem here is that the actual performance is basically crickets.
Meaning there’s no orders, no enquiries, no course downloads, no email sign-ups, just people visiting and leaving like they accidentally clicked the wrong tab. But what gives? Yeah, this really does catch people off guard here because “pretty” feels like it should equal “professional,” and “professional” feels like it should equal “trust,” which should equal conversions.
But laying it down right now, websites aren’t posters, they’re more than that, they’re actual tools!
Looks Don’t Matter if the Site is Slow
Which is what catches everyone off guard when it comes to building a website! But seriously, speed is the first dealbreaker. Like, a stunning ecommerce site that takes too long to load is basically asking visitors to get annoyed and leave. People don’t sit there admiring the design while it loads; they just bounce, especially on mobile. And ecommerce traffic is very mobile-heavy, so that matters a lot. You don’t like slow websites, right? Well, no one does.
A lot of gorgeous websites tend to have too many plugins; usually, you’ll see video backgrounds and other super fancy features. Yes, they’re amazing, but they’re the culprits in making your website super slow. So it might help to instead look into professionals like Black Cat Website Design to help you get something that’s super aesthetically pleasing, but not overloaded with things that slow down the website. You can’t really DIY and balance that, but professionals have that magic touch to create that balance.
User Experience is What Makes People Buy
Now, with that part said, user experience is the next one. A site can look incredible and still be confusing to use. Like, product pages need to answer questions quickly. What is it? What does it include? What size is it? What’s the delivery time? What’s the refund policy? What happens after purchase, especially for digital products like courses or downloads?
Bluntly put here, if the information is hidden, or buried, or written in a way that’s vague on purpose, customers hesitate. And why wouldn’t they? Well, lots of things to keep in mind, and yes, all of this is mostly geared towards e-commerce, but it’s not too different for portfolios or service-based websites either.
Search Visibility isn’t Built with Pretty Alone
A lot of small businesses assume a beautiful site will automatically rank well, but search engines don’t rank based on vibes or visuals. Yes, it’s a crazy assumption that a lot of people do. Instead, they rank based on structure, speed, clarity, and content signals. Seriously, a site that looks amazing but has weak page structure, thin copy, or confusing navigation can struggle to show up in search results.
