Websites not selling to its full potential | Whitecliffs Hair Clinic

While on Facebook, an advert appeared for hair loss company Whitecliffs Hair Clinic. Seeing the humour in the advert, I decided to post a link on my wall to poke fun at it..and me.

But then when I looked at the website, I couldn’t help but think how unprofessional it was. This is a company who wants individuals to spend several hundreds of pounds on treatment yet they promote their services by using an amateur website. It truly is shocking.

As a future web designer (I hope), this is something that I see regularly and would just love to get my teeth into and fix.

To me there is a number of problems with the site:

Branding

Or should I say, lack of it. I get the feeling that the site has been thrown together not taking into account how it gels with the company as a whole.

Large organisations make sure that their websites are an added tool within their branding. You go to any of their sites and you just know you who you are dealing with. Here, that it not clear.

It also doesn’t help that there is no company logo attached to the website. Do they have one? Which company doesn’t? Plus the homepage doesn’t even have the company name showing. Hello? Are you insane?

Designed using free templates

Although templates have a place within the internet, there is a danger that individualism is lost if not used carefully and depending on the nature of the business they shouldn’t be used. Personally, I think this is one site where I don’t think is acceptable for it to be used so openly. There is a difference on where a template is used to sell t-shirts to one selling hair. The price of the product needs to be reflected in the look of the site. A cheap looking site (such as this) does not reflect the price of the services on offer.

On Facebook, I stated that I would never trust a site that uses free templates. Maybe I should have been clearer and state that don’t trust a site that uses free templates and doesn’t hide it. The footer includes the wording “Designed by Free CSS Templates”. This is just screaming ‘amateur’. So if I am thinking this about a website, then how do I feel about the services that the company have to offer?

Don’t even get me started on the ugly grid header. I feel like I need to vomit.

Look and Feel of the website

I may be picky, but I don’t think black is a suitable background colour for this type of business. To me it needs to be light and fresh. I would suggest the owner takes a look at some other industry websites, such as Belgravia or Advanced Hair Studio, for an idea on how they should look and feel.

What is also noticeable is the lack of unity from page to page. Font sizes and styles change page to page.

Spelling & Grammar

This is not something that I picked up on, because I didn’t investigate the site in that much detail, however it was brought to my attention that spelling and grammar was also an issue with the site. A prime example would be on the homepage where it states “Our new range of gents hair extentions will change your life” Can you spot the mistakes?

There is plenty of applications about that can check spelling and grammar. I would suggest using one of them to write-up the content and then transfer to the site.

Content

There appears to be a lack of content. Taken into account the sensitive nature of the service that they are offering, I would have expected there to be a little more information on the site.

The website boasts of over 25 years experience, yet the website doesn’t show this. You look at competition websites and you feel like they actually know what they are talking about.

I have no idea what the type of services are on offer, and how do I know they would be able to help me.

Their advert for the company mentions two things that seem to be missing from this website, endorsements and their charity. These should be included, especially testimonials. At the end of the day feedback always help sell a business.

If I was a customer looking to have this type of treatment, then I definitely wouldn’t even contemplate using this company. Maybe I should ask to re-design their website in return for free treatment on my baldy head!