SEO vs Design
As a web designer I constantly hear questions about driving traffic and optimization for the search engines – yet, what I find most fascinating, is that there seems to be much less consideration for the actual design of the website itself. When designing custom websites for our clients we use SEO enhanced platforms and strive toward best practices for optimizing the site, but nothing – I must repeat – Nothing takes the place of good design!
When your customers land on your home page, what they immediately see will determine whether they stay to further explore, or simply click off to another site. After that function plays an important role in creating a user-experience that will keep customers coming back to use your site.
Here are a few very important things to take into consideration when thinking about Web Design -
What is the goal of your website?
Basically there are two considerations – a) attracting customers to your physical place of business or, b) the sales of your services or items online. In either case you need to know who your market is and what will capture their interest. Therefore the design needs to fit with your customers’ idea of your business. This seems to be the most difficult part for web clients to grasp.
We know that you love puppies – but you’re trying to sell soap. Our job is to create a design that focuses your audience on soap, and it’s more difficult if we have to incorporate your love of puppies, which doesn’t make much sense to us or your customers. You must separate yourself from the equation and stick to the goal of the website – which is to sell soap.
Does your design fit that goal?
Many clients seem to feel that just having a website is good enough. And especially if they’ve tried to create one on their own and it’s taken many hours to just get it working – enough may seem to be enough. Others seem to follow the thought that it’s a pretty good design for the ‘local’ competition – without any consideration that this is your business in a world-wide marketplace.
The best place to start thinking about the design of your site starts on the internet – with looking at similar types of websites – and the absolute best place is start looking at the ‘best of the best’ sites. Good design doesn’t have to be expensive, but bad design can cost you your business.
InForm & Function
What type of information do want to provide to your customers? This is a really important question to ask yourself because a lot of our clients try to start off with the ‘sell’. No matter what the business, no-one wants to be ‘sold’ on anything. Choose instead to inform. Don’t try to sell anyone ‘the best that money can buy’ – because no-one’s buying it. What is it? Why is it important? Who are you? If you can’t answer the question ‘why should I care?’ – no-one else will either.
Your information should be well organized, informative and easy to find. There is nothing to be gained by the old-style SEO link infiltrated nonsensical paragraphs other than to garner customer frustration. The first goal of your site should be your customer’s satisfaction – not Googles’.
If you are selling goods on your site, invest in a shopping cart and payment gateway system. Which means make buying online a simple and enjoyable experience for your customers. You will not convert many sales if you think people will call you to place an order, nor if you don’t have a way of accepting credit cards. The last tip I will provide is ‘price wisely’. The internet is the easiest place to compare pricing – so temper your desire for maximum profit by being reasonable and people will reward you by coming back for more.