In about one second, your website visitors are going to decide whether they like you or not.

Like it or not, people do judge a book by it’s cover. This is especially the case when people come to your website. They’re asking themselves:

• Does this site look trustworthy?
• Is the information here up-to-date and reliable?
• Who’s the person behind this website (the author)? Does he/she look reliable?
• (If I have a question) can I easily contact someone? Is there a phone number/email/address somewhere?

If they don’t like the color, they’re gone.

Can’t quickly find something? Gone. 

Think about it a slightly different way…

Ever go bar hopping and judge a place by it’s atmosphere?

The look, the feel, the sound, et cetera. If you don’t like the place, you walk out and go somewhere else. But if you do like the place, you stick around and have a few drinks.

People are judging your website in much the same way. So doesn’t it make sense to design your site with this in mind? How can you create an atmosphere that makes people want to stick around?