Since you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you have some familiarity with feng shui, or at least find it a bit intriguing. As a refresher, remember that feng shui identifies conditions in a space that affect us in either positive or negative ways, and its principles help guide us in adjusting a given environment so that its energy is balanced and supported. But, until now, have you been assuming that feng shui is only for your home or office?
Maybe 20, or even 10, years ago, that might have been the case. But today, most of us spend more time moving through websites, or what I call virtual spaces, than moving through physical ones. And each of those websites that we visit during a given day is bombarding us with information. Not only information that we can read and see with our eyes, but also subconscious messages that we feel. Ever been on a website that creeped you out or made you feel depressed? Maybe you’ve visited one that was so unremarkable you couldn’t remember it five minutes later? What about the ones that made you feel joyful and excited? How we feel about the websites that we visit plays a huge role in whether we spend time on that site, buy from that site, or share that site with our friends.
Thinking about websites in this way, as virtual spaces, allows us to apply feng shui principles to them so that we can adjust the feeling or vibe they’re giving out, just as we would for a physical space. If you have a website of your own, you know that websites are a critical marketing tool that tells visitors and potential clients a lot about you, so it’s crucial that they make a great impression.
Yep, Your Website Has a Feeling To It
How do you feel when you see this website?
And now how do you feel?
Since you were paying attention, you’ll probably notice that you felt differently about each of those example websites. This is because websites, just like physical spaces, have an energy to them. As a visitor, a website will evoke particular feelings from us in the audience, some of which are universal and some of which will be person-specific. But (in an interesting twist) if you’re someone who has a website of their own, your feelings about that site can just as easily translate to your visitors and impact their feelings about your site. Do you feel a little anxious or uneasy about your site? Maybe you aren’t comfortable giving out your website to people because it doesn’t make you feel good. Maybe it makes you feel a little ashamed of what you’re putting out into the world. If you don’t feel good about what you’re presenting, then there’s probably something out of alignment energetically with your site, and visitors can feel that just as easily as you can. This could show up as decreased amounts of traffic to the website, little or no inquiries, or a total unawareness that you even have a site. On the flip side, if you feel happy and proud about your site and love to show it off, you’ll probably notice the opposite: lots of traffic, inquiries, and attention.
Your Website Should Reflect YOU
Another aspect to consider when evaluating what feelings your website gives off is whether your website reflects who you are and what you value. A lot of people, unfortunately, design their website based on someone else’s tastes (like a web designer) or what’s trendy. But you would never decorate your home based on someone else’s tastes, right? So why do we do that with our websites? If it doesn’t represent who you are truly are and what you value, then it’s going to give visitors the wrong message about you. As a visitor, have you ever visited a site that felt totally different from the person or company behind it? We tend to then think of that person or company as fake, out-of-touch, or misleading, which decreases our trust in them as professionals. Ensuring that your website is an authentic reflection of who you are will align the energy of the site with your true intentions and make it work for you and not against you. If your website isn’t an extension of you, it will never feel right and it probably won’t attract your right audience.
When considering how to apply feng shui principles to websites, there are three aspects to consider: feelings, function, and design. I’ve covered feelings above, so let’s move on to feng shui considerations for how the website functions and how the website is designed. And if you’re curious about what sort of feelings YOUR website gives off, reach out!