Hello,
We here at DKMHosting.com were wondering just how important design is in the Web Hosting industry. We are still not sure if we want to buy a new design that is high priced or just leave the one we currently have (that is not that great). What do yall think? How important is a web hosts design? Is it something we should spend greatly on?




Best Regards,

John, whatever you do, just change your design. It's an emergency. It would be better to buy any templates at templatemonster.com. Work 4 or 5 hours and give better image to your prospects.

Hello,
IMO tm.com shows me that a company is either cheap or is just doesn't have any creativity. I'm not arguing with you I'm just seeing if I'm viewing this all wrong (lol). Keep the suggestions coming please.


Best Regards,

design is everything a bad design scares customes away.. think out of hte box go surfing around the web looknig to buy products and see how much their website influences you... look at
www.liquidweb.com looks nice
now look at
http://www.yourhostnow.net/index/

what would you rather buy from?

When it comes to web hosting, your most important priority is to be sure your services are reliable and you are providing your current clients what they need. BUT when a prospective client first comes to your web site and are interested in your services, your web site's design is a powerful tool that can help you convert web site visitors into web hosting clients. Your web site's design tells the visitor a great deal about your company. I have heard many people on WHT say that with web hosting what's most important is how reliable the service is and that's true, BUT not when it comes to getting the customers in many cases.

If someone is referred by one of your existing clients and they already know how good your web hosting service is from listening to the referrer, then your web site's design might not have as much weight, BUT if you are advertising and someone comes to your web site for the first time, your web site's design becomes an extremely important tool to present professionalism and build trust in your web site visitor's mind (and yes design can do that).

Can a good web hosting company with a poor design become successful? Yes they can.

Can a good web hosting company with a poor design improve sales by redesigning their web site? Yes they can.

Are you reaching your maximum revenue potential with a poor design? No you are not.

I personally don't feel your web site design is poor, but I do think there is room for improvement and I would recommend spending your money on a professional web designer. Redesigning your web site should not be looked at as a cost, it is an investment because it will most probably boost your sales if done properly. Good luck!

Edit: Nevermind...

Hello,
Thank You so much for all of the feedback!!! I'll be sure to keep yall updated (we decided to go with a new design!!!) on what happens, again thank you!


Best Regards,

I'm a little old school on deisgn, and think you should present yourself in a professional manner, but don't go overboard on all the eye candy etc. Have a picture of yourself on your site. Let folks know that you're a real person and not just some non-personal website.

Informative text is badly lacking on a lot of host's sites, IMO. I like to think the text (ad_copy) is just as important as the images and "design". I think I tend to focus more on the text, and when it comes to the graphical side of things, less is best, imo.

Remember, folks land on our sites to get a benefit for themselves, so it's up to us to know what that is, and how best to faciliate that transfer of benefit.

You should be fine as long as your site is decent.

IMHO, the current site that you have should very well do the job. There is no need to spend money on a better design.

Customers don't choose companies purely based on design. A good amount of it goes to whether the company looks solid. Only extremely cheap web designs would turn customers off.

Just a pet hate of mine - it's MB not 'megs'.

Or maybe I'm just old fashioned :)

I don't like those template monster or boxed art templates alot of companies on WHT use.

Depending on your target market, you could probably get away with one of these templates.

But if these companies are targeting the crowd on WHT, then your target market might be more knowledgable and have seen the design over and over again, thus likely leading them to believe certain things about your company.

An original design, IMO is much better than any of those template driven websites which are not unique.

I would rather brand my hosting company nicely than use a template which isn't unique.

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
I'm a little old school on deisgn, and think you should present yourself in a professional manner,
but don't go overboard on all the eye candy etc.

Nice design, AussieBob. It's nice to see an individually designed website :)

I just checked your source code, that's the way I also design my websites:
basic HTML with tables and/or a frameset, without scripting.

They might not look as fancy as many templates but usually I get a positive feedback.

Yangxi :cool:

And google absolutly loves simple designs!

Think of it like a storefront. This is where your customers get their first impression of your company. Think of the last time you walked into a retail store, and things were cluttered, or looked cheezy, how likely would you be to return to that store?

Your site/design is your storefront, make it look good :)

Originally posted by yangxi
Nice design, AussieBob. It's nice to see an individually designed website :)
Thanks. I'm far from a web designer, but I'm happy with the outcome there. It doesn't seem to have problems in securing sales, so something's working! :)
They might not look as fancy as many templates but usually I get a positive feedback.
Yeah, in my book, the more white on the site, the better. :gthumb:

I think it all depends on your point of view, you can use a nice template to grasp the user's attention making them go "wow" and then endulge them in a wealth of information.

OTOH, you can keep it simple from the start yet elegant and professional!

Both can work, just have to figure out what works best for you ;)