Why Your "Fancy" Website Might Be Costing You Money
I see it every week here in Brisbane. A local business owner—maybe a landscaper in Carindale or a boutique law firm in the CBD—spends thousands on a brand-new website. They show it to me, beaming with pride because it has buttons that glow, images that slide in from the side, and a background that moves like a movie.
Then I ask them one question: "How many more phone calls has it made you?"
Usually, the room goes quiet.
There is a massive myth in the web design world that "movement equals modern." Designers love to talk about "micro-animations" and "user experience," but most of it is just fluff that gets in the way of you making money. If your website takes three seconds to "animate" a menu while a customer is trying to find your phone number, you haven't built a high-end site; you've built a digital roadblock.
At Local Marketing Group, we look at the data. We care about whether a person in Chermside who needs an emergency plumber actually hits the 'call' button. Here is the blunt truth about moving parts on your website and what actually works to grow your business.
Myth #1: Movement Makes You Look More Professional
Most business owners think that if things aren't sliding, fading, or popping, the site looks "cheap."
The Reality: Over-animating your site makes you look like you’re trying too hard. Think about the last time you used a site like Amazon or realestate.com.au. Do things fly across the screen? No. They are fast, clear, and get you to the checkout or the listing immediately.
When you add too much movement, you actually distract the customer from the one thing you want them to do: contact you. If a visitor is busy watching a clever animation of your logo, they aren't reading your customer reviews or looking at your services.
The Data: Studies on how people use websites show that the human eye is naturally drawn to movement. That sounds good, right? Wrong. If you move the wrong thing—like a decorative icon—you pull their eyes away from your phone number. You are literally distracting your customers from giving you money.
Myth #2: Animations Don't Affect Your Google Ranking
This is a dangerous one. You might think those little moving bits are harmless, but Google hates anything that slows down your site.
The Reality: Every time you add a movement effect, you add a piece of code. Too much code makes your site heavy. A heavy site takes longer to load on a mobile phone.
In Brisbane, plenty of your customers are looking for you while they’re out and about, perhaps on a patchy 4G connection in a cafe. If your site is busy trying to load a "fancy" entrance animation while they are waiting, they will hit the 'back' button and call your competitor instead. Google tracks this. If people leave your site quickly because it’s slow, Google will stop showing you at the top of the search results.
To keep people on the page, you need to give visitors exactly what they want the second the page loads. Usually, that’s your location, your price, and a way to call you.
When Movement Actually Makes You Money
I’m not saying your website should look like a word document from 1995. Movement can work, but only if it serves a specific purpose: Visual Feedback.
Visual feedback is just a fancy way of saying "let the customer know they did something right." Here are the only three times you should spend money on animations:
1. The Button Click: When someone taps a button on their phone, it should change colour or depress slightly. This tells them, "Yes, the site heard you, we are connecting the call now." 2. The Loading Bar: If they’ve submitted a quote form, a small spinning circle tells them the site hasn't crashed. It keeps them from clicking 'submit' ten times. 3. The "Call to Action" Nudge: A very subtle pulse on a "Call Now" button can help turn phone visitors into customers by drawing the eye to the most important part of the screen.
Anything else is likely a waste of your time and your developer’s hours.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
Let’s talk dollars. A typical "high-end" designer might charge you an extra $1,000 to $3,000 just for custom animations and "interactive elements."
If those elements slow your site down by just two seconds, you could lose up to 30% of your potential enquiries. For a builder or a solar installer, that’s tens of thousands of dollars in lost contracts every single year.
I’ve seen dozens of Brisbane businesses scrap their expensive, moving websites after six months because the phone stopped ringing. They went back to a simple, fast, clean site and saw their enquiries double overnight.
What Should You Do First?
If you are looking at your website right now and wondering if it’s too "busy," here is a quick audit you can do:
The 3-Second Rule: Open your website on your phone. If it takes more than 3 seconds to be fully usable (not just showing a loading screen), you have too much junk on it. The "Where Am I Looking?" Test: Look at your homepage. Is your eye drawn to a moving image or your phone number? If it’s the image, you’re losing money.
- The Mum Test: Ask someone who isn't tech-savvy to try and find your prices or your contact form. If they get frustrated by things popping up or sliding around, delete those features.
Summary: Focus on Results, Not Fluff
Your website is a tool, not an art project. Its only job is to get you more work. If an animation doesn't directly help a customer understand what you do or how to hire you, it doesn't belong on your site.
Stop paying for "micro-animations" that satisfy a designer's ego. Start investing in a site that loads instantly, works perfectly on a mobile phone, and makes it dead easy for a customer in Brisbane to find you and call you.
Need a website that actually rings your phone instead of just looking pretty?
At Local Marketing Group, we build sites for Brisbane business owners who care about profit, not prizes. We cut the fluff and focus on what gets you more customers.
Contact Local Marketing Group today and let’s get your website working as hard as you do.