Would you trust a brand that offers web design services and has a very chaotic website or user-unfriendly design? Probably not. Why would you then do the same on your own website? Why offer and promise excellent services in a way that is far from excellent? Whether it’s unattractive design, broken links, grammar mistakes, poor localisation or illegible fonts, your users will read between the lines and detect any inconsistency. Even tiny bugs and glitches can turn your website upside down, discourage your potential customers or make your business untrustworthy.

Below you can find 4 tips that will help you present your business online in the best possible way.

1. Design a website that converts

Whether you hire a web designer or create a website by yourself, remember that your future users need only about 5 seconds to decide if they can trust your brand or not. The first impression counts, so your website has to be clear and easy to navigate. Make it responsive, add relevant images and focus on high-quality content.    

2. Test it and review it

Once your design is ready, test and review every single item: graphics, menus, pages, text, fonts and links. For example, check if your website displays correctly in different devices and browsers, pay special attention to fonts and load time of your images. Have a few people to look at it to gather more feedback and ask for advice or recommendation. Don’t launch your website if there are any disturbing issues, even if it’s “only” the use of colours or font.  

This screenshot shows how not to localise your website. It’s a Polish home page of a localisation service provider who claims “We localise everything – on any device” and fails to use the right font on its website. Polish characters weren’t supported in the selected font, so another font was used to insert the individual letters. A big no-no in website localisation and web design! Plus, the images/links don’t load, so all in all the page leaves an impression of a localisation service provider who can’t properly localise its own website.

3. Localise it and make sure it’s top-notch

To reach more consumers and enter new markets make your website available in other languages as well. Don’t limit your efforts to translation only, but make sure the whole user interface is localised, i.e. completely adjusted to the culture of your foreign consumers. Any errors in localisation may have a destructive effect on how your brand and website are perceived, so make sure your localised pages are flawless and appeal to your users.

4. Monitor it regularly

Don’t rest on your laurels once your website is up and your localised versions look perfect. Verify each update before it goes live and remember to check your website regularly to make sure there are no unpleasant surprises.

If you claim to offer high-quality services, prove it on your website. Whether it’s localised or not, high-quality content and neat design is a key factor for the success of your website. What’s a minor issue to you (e.g. the mix of fonts like on the image above) might be a big no-no for your users. So double check and test your website before you launch it.

Photo by D. Pawlak

Dorota Pawlak

Dorota helps digital brands infuse their content with a local touch. She is a localization consultant, translator specialized in IT, prompt engineer, and a book author. Dorota teaches online courses on localization, writes for her blog and a Medium publication. She also runs a Small Biz AI, a Substack newsletter for freelancers and small business owners ready to discover handy AI tools.