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Great websites that sell

I was recently asked by a prospective client how he “might go about achieving a beautifully simple and effective web presentation for hi s business” that he had tried multiple designers and still been unable to communicate his vision. It’s ironic to me as design professional how successful business owners run their businesses well by essentially communicating their business principals and vision to their clients. However, when it comes translating their ideas to the web they have difficulty achieving their online goals.

Here’s the Secret

Successfully, developing a compelling web design and running an online business is really about communication. Great websites are designed to communicate a concept or vision to prospective users of a web site and not about web design.

You see, as a professional web designer I am really not supposed to be interested in myself or showing you my prospective clients how much I know about elegant or flashy graphic presentations.

The truth is the only way to successfully craft a visual presentation that engages user-participation is to sit down with a client and listen, listen as they describe their business, goals and why their clients value their product or service. Elegant web design is a combination of a valuable product or service and a well prepared design professional who truly seeks to understand his clients business and vision.

I have a website that just doesn’t sell…

As I began articulating this article I couldn’t help but sense that some might be hoping I’d reveal some magic formula for growing website traffic exponentially or perhaps I might hint at an ingredient or two that would make the difference for their site moving from mediocrity to stardom online.

After all, how did the big guys get big? It’s good to be interested that question, as it can mean that you’re searching for answers. But ask yourself, Just why I am interested? Is it because you truly believe your product or service is the best thing since chocolate cake? For a website to be successful online it must have a solid foundation. This requires not a flashy or elegant design but a properly written website and all that that includes, properly written HTML markup that is unique to each page to appropriate utilization of webmaster tools. You see I’ve seen many nicely designed web sites that employ the proper design principals of psychology, physiology, and sociology …that have little or no traffic. When someone truly believes their product or service is the best thing since chocolate cake. They’re invested in their business, or in this case their site.

The following are fundamentals each site owner should periodically consider with regard to their web site. If your websites is not selling these are some important areas to review:

1) Is my design outdated or has my designer not understood the principals of user interaction?
2) Do I have a unique page for each of my products or services?
3) Do I thoroughly describe my product or service on each of those pages?
4) Does each of my product pages have appropriate marketing copy?
5) Do potential or existing clients have difficulty finding how to reach me? Is my business location or phone number clearly visible on each page of my site?
6) Do I clearly spell out the benefits of buying or using my product or service?
7) Have I ignored the basics of Search Engine Optimization?
Have I had an annual review of my websites fundamentals by search engine professional?

Which platform is best for me?

Today there are many emerging technologies and many existing eCommerce standards that can be considered when designing an eCommerce site. Some existing technologies are free and others require a provider to design and configure the engine. However there are some basics things that should not be discounted when selecting an eCommerce engine. For example;

1) Does the engine am I considering have an easily manageable product page environment?
2) Does the standard I am choosing allow for live updates to the existing site?
3) Is the engine am considering flexible enough for me add html pages where needed?
4) Will the standard I am considering be easily crawled by search engine spiders? Can the product provider demonstrate this easily? (If it is he should be able to demonstrate that right in front of you, if he can’t move on.)
5) Can the engine I am considering be easily manipulated by a professional web designer? Including all sub pages?
6) How many products will the database hold? Can I easily manage the database without the help of a developer on staff?
7) How well does the site FTP update the search engines? Can I custom program those settings?

These are just a few of the important questions to consider whether evaluating your current site or considering a new one.

User interaction – the most critical element

User interaction refers to how we perceive the information presented on a given web page or how we react and thereby interact with design presented. You see the success of the design is measured not by how cool it looks, or by how slick the design tools used display graphics or images. Actually the success of a properly done design equates to how well the website sells your product or service. Ask yourself does my website clearly communicate my business ideas and principals? Does it make it easy for new or existing clients to learn about and find information about my products or service? If you have an eCommerce site, you can ask how simple is my checkout process? Does my checkout process involve more than two pages? At the product page level, is it easy for my users to see how to quickly purchase their products and checkout. At the product page level, is the design simple, clear and compelling? Does my checkout process engage a user with a call to action?

To Sum it up

I could go on and try to explain many of the concepts and services we provide to clients. However in the end there are just some basics I’d like for you to remember. A well designed website that clearly communicates your vision is what every business owner needs. Your eCommerce engine is critical scaling your online store. Lastly you’ll find improved success with your existing site by simply hiring a search engine professional to evaluate your existing site and recommend areas that need attention. Remember search engine give priority to sites that provide useful and beneficial sites for their users.

There are two major problems inherent in most graphic design for the Internet. One of is ‘too much’ and the other is ‘no connection’. Designers tend to put ‘too much’ emphasis on the graphic elements which can take away from the actual site content, and they tend to have images and graphics which don’t really connect to their website’s purpose or theme. Remember that there is no magic formula for a successful website or even for good graphic design. This article is designed to clarify and answer the questions a potential audience will ask themselves when looking at your graphic design.

 

There are VERY successful websites that use the “bad” techniques labeled here, but generally and for a large number of websites it will be to their great benefit to at least consider the following critique of graphic design for the Internet. Too many designers put the visual elements above the actual content of site. For most purposes this is a bad design trait. Although it’s repeated over and over again, it can result in frustrated customers and more important a lot lower percentage of people who actually read your site. Although graphics and visual elements are important, the core to any website is its content or information it wishes to extend to its audience. On most websites this comes in the form of text with hyperlinks to other areas of interest. This is slowly changing as more dynamic content becomes more popular online as broad band and high speed internet access change the way we surf.

 

There are two major problems inherent in most graphic design for the Internet. One of is ‘too much’ and the other is ‘no connection’. Designers tend to put ‘too much’ emphasis on the graphic elements which can take away from the actual site content, and they tend to have images and graphics which don’t really connect to their website’s purpose or theme. Remember that there is no magic formula for a successful website or even for good graphic design. This article is designed to clarify and answer the questions a potential audience will ask themselves when looking at your graphic design.

 

There are VERY successful websites that use the “bad” techniques labeled here, but generally and for a large number of websites it will be to their great benefit to at least consider the following critique of graphic design for the Internet. Too many designers put the visual elements above the actual content of site. For most purposes this is a bad design trait.

 

Although it’s repeated over and over again, it can result in frustrated customers and more important a lot lower percentage of people who actually read your site. Although graphics and visual elements are important, the core to any website is its content or information it wishes to extend to its audience. On most websites this comes in the form of text with hyperlinks to other areas of interest. This is slowly changing as more dynamic content becomes more popular online as broad band and high speed internet access change the way we surf.

 

In the future the main content might come from a mix of audio, video, and slideshow formats, but for now it’s mainly simple text. So your audience has to read those tiny black characters. Overly complex or continued animation, harsh contrasting edges and color combinations can give too much to the graphic elements and make actually reading your pages difficult. If you’re over using the graphics, your audience will read a lot less and that means they’ll take away a lot less of the information.

 

Some major signs that a graphic designer is of the “too much” camp include:

 

Little text boxes with scroll bars: Don’t you hate that? Nobody likes text all scrunched up in a little box like that. It’s hard to read and involves lots of scrolling, so why do it?

 

Overly busy backgrounds: keep it simple or at least a lower contrast so you spare you audiences’ eyes and allow them to focus on the content of your site.

 

LONG animated intros or animation sequences: Remember attention span, attention span attention span. Online surfers do not have the attention span to wait for a long overly done intro or animation.

 

The second major shortcoming that most graphic design for the Internet is the lack of cohesion or a clear connection of the graphic elements to the purpose of the website. The web is absolutely stuffed with sites that you can’t even tell what they do or are about by their first page. The images, logos, and visual design does not connect to the company’s theme or purpose. Your online audience has a VERY limited attention span. They may have stumbled onto your site on accident. This isn’t TV, on most sites there is no audio directing your visitors as to what they’re seeing.

 

People aren’t necessarily going to read the text of your website just because a girl in a bikini is on it. You also see this concept in sites that are too simple. Simplicity is good, but when taken to the extreme, it can make it very difficult to figure out the sites purpose and extract the basic information that your audience needs, before they commit to reading through large areas of text.

 

Some major signs that a graphic designer is of the “lack of cohesion” camp include:

 

Lots of different style graphics: If a website seems to jump time periods, color schemes, and image themes that is not a good sign.

 

LARGE text areas without any graphics: The web is about a mixing of graphic, text, and other elements. Too much text and it becomes difficult to gather meaning quickly.

 

Hard to see connection to product/service: Logo, tagline, and text on beginning pages do not describe what the website is actually about. The graphic design should key people in both emotionally and intellectually to the purpose of the website.