Would You Hire Your Own Business Based on Your Website?
Imagine you're looking for a contractor and a friend recommends someone they swear by. Apparently, their work is great, their prices are fair, and they actually show up when they say they will. All sounds pretty good, so you decide to give them a shot.
You pull up their website to take a look, but that’s where things get a little less convincing. The photos are blurry, the logo looks different from the one you just saw on Google, and a banner is still informing you about their social distancing policies from 2021. Hmm. “Are these guys even in business still?” you wonder as you head back to Google to see what other options are out there.
The company might have been just as good as your friend said they were, but because their website didn’t match your expectations, it caused you to look elsewhere for another company that did. That gap between how good your business actually is and how it comes across online can easily make or break a sale. The good news is that closing it often starts with a few simple changes you can make yourself, once you know what it is that you need to look for.
What does brand alignment actually mean?
Brand alignment is the practice of ensuring that a company's internal values, identity, and employee actions match its public messaging and customer expectations. It's a fairly simple idea, it’s just that the name makes it sound like you need a consultant and a whiteboard to actually understand it.
For example, let’s say you describe your company as organized and easy to work with. Someone visiting your website should be able to find what they need and book an appointment, all without getting lost along the way. Your logo plays a role, but so does your wording, reviews, pricing, and the experience someone has when navigating through your website. All of those details help a potential customer decide whether the business they're seeing matches the one you're describing. “We make your life easier” becomes a much harder sell when your contact form requires a laptop, emotional support, and three separate tries to actually submit the form.
People know what a good website feels like
Think about the last time you were shopping around for something you didn't know much about. Maybe you needed an accountant, or your car started making a noise that turning up the radio was no longer fixing. You probably looked at a few businesses, read some reviews, and tried to figure out who seemed like they knew what they were doing.
You might not have known enough to judge their actual expertise, but you could still tell which companies made you feel comfortable reaching out. Your customers are doing that same little bit of detective work when they look you up.
The thing is, people spend enough time online to have expectations about how a website should look and work. They expect to be able to read it on their phone, find the information they came for, and click a button that takes them where it says it will. When those basic things become difficult, it's pretty reasonable for them to wonder whether working with the company will be difficult too.
There's even a name for part of this. Nielsen Norman Group describes the aesthetic-usability effect, which means people tend to perceive attractive designs as easier to use. That doesn't mean a nice-looking website gets a free pass to be confusing, but it helps explain why appearance can affect someone's expectations before they've explored very much. You can read more about it here.
Now, is a messy website proof that someone does bad work? Of course it isn't. But if a customer has three other companies to choose from, you don't really want to rely on them giving yours the benefit of the doubt.
Looking the part depends on who you're trying to reach
Imagine you're booking a restaurant for an anniversary dinner. You're probably going to look at the menu, check out some photos, and try to get a feel for the place before making a reservation. If they're charging $90 for a steak, you'd like to see what makes the evening worth that kind of money. A few blurry photos and a menu you can't open on your phone aren't giving you much to go on.
Now imagine you're just looking for somewhere to grab a sandwich on your lunch break. You probably care more about what's on it, how much it costs, and whether you can order ahead. A simple website that makes those things easy to find could be exactly what you need.
In both cases, the website helps you figure out whether the place is right for you. The steakhouse needs to give you a sense of the evening you're paying for, while the sandwich shop needs to make getting lunch feel easy. Each one has a different reason for someone to choose it, and that should come across when you visit its website.
The same goes for your business. If you're a Bellevue interior designer helping people plan a full renovation, good project photography and an explanation of your process can help someone feel comfortable discussing a big investment with you. If you clean gutters, showing your work, explaining your service area, and making it easy to request a quote might answer most of the questions people came with.
Before getting caught up in fonts and colors, ask yourself what a customer needs to see to feel confident hiring you. Once you've figured that out, you'll have a much better idea of what actually belongs on your website and where it's worth putting your effort.
So, what should you actually change?
Start by opening your website on your phone and pretending you've never heard of your company before. This is a little harder than it sounds, because you already know where everything is supposed to be and what all the wording means.
Look at the first thing a visitor sees. Would they understand what you do and whether you can help them? Something like “Interior and exterior painting for Seattle homeowners” answers a lot more questions than “Bringing your vision to life.” The second one could be a painter, a wedding planner, or someone selling prescription glasses.
Once that's clear, think about what you want people to believe about your business and whether your website gives them a reason to believe it. If you talk about personal service, show who they'll actually be working with. If you're proud of your craftsmanship, give them clear photos of your work. If you say getting started is easy, go through the process yourself and see whether that's true.
It's also worth checking what happens after someone reaches out. If your website promises a response within one business day, who's checking those messages? Do they know that's what the website says? Your team needs to be able to deliver the experience you've just told a potential customer to expect.
Here's something you can do today
You don't have to turn this into a whole rebranding project. Set aside twenty minutes and give yourself a few things to check:
Write down three things you want customers to associate with your business. Maybe that's being reliable, friendly, and straightforward. Pick qualities that reflect how you actually work, then use them to judge whether your website gives off that same impression.
Compare your website with your Google Business Profile. Make sure your logo, contact information, hours, and services agree wherever they appear. If you stopped offering a service two years ago but it's still listed somewhere, now's a good time to remove it.
Try contacting yourself from your phone. Actually fill out the form and submit it. Check whether the message arrives, what the customer sees afterward, and whether anything about the process would make you give up halfway through.
Fix one thing that could put someone off. Update an old photo, make your headline clearer, or remove an unnecessary question from your contact form. Choose something you can finish today so you actually get the benefit of doing this little exercise.
If you're having trouble spotting anything, ask someone who hasn't used your site to find a service and show you how they'd book it. Try to let them figure it out without helping. If you catch yourself saying, “Oh, you just have to scroll down and click that thing over there,” you've probably found something worth improving.
It's easy for your website to fall behind while you're busy doing the actual work of running your business. That doesn't mean you need to start over, but it does mean it's worth checking whether it still represents the company you've put so much effort into building.
So, take another look at it with that original question in mind: would you hire your own business based on what you're seeing? If there's something that makes you hesitate, then that might just be a pretty good place to start.
