Can Microsites Provide Good SEO?
You could call 2011 The Year of the Panda. Panda in this case is a reference to Google Panda, the algorithm update that killed hundreds or thousands of websites instantly, many of them big name websites. It also did in some microsites.
And that makes us ask the question, are microsites good for SEO?
My answer is, they can be if done right. The problem so often is that website designers do not often do them correctly.
So, What’s A Microsite?
A microsite is a small website that serves a specific purpose. It is usually defined as a site that consists of only 3-5 pages not counting the terms of service and privacy policy pages. The focus is very narrow and specific.
You can build a microsite that targets a narrower niche within your broad company website’s niche. But what has killed many SEOs trying to use microsites is they linked them all together in a massive link building scheme. Google caught on and all their sites were de-indexed. Rather quickly.
If you build microsites, build them as standalone webites, not as link satellites for your larger site.
The Real Benefit Of A Microsite
The real benefit to having multiple microsites is not that you can use them to build links to your major corporate website. The real benefit is that you can use them as separate websites that achieve search engine rankings on their own.
If you have three microsites that each target their own specific keywords, that’s 6 times the number of opportunities to rank well for the keywords that you are targeting. That’s in addition to the ranking opportunities of your main website. And that’s if you don’t link them together.
You have to make sure your microsites aren’t associated with each in any way. Treat them like separate businesses and promote them as such.
Is Custom Web Design Really ‘Custom’?
There are a lot of website design companies online that purport to build you a custom-designed website, then use an off-the-shelf web template. Sure, they modify the template, but that’s hardly “custom.”
A custom-designed website is one where the web design company takes your concept and builds you a website from scratch. The language used for the website is immaterial. It can be PHP, CSS, JavaScript, ASP, or a combination of the above. Or something else entirely. But they code the website from top to bottom. And they do it with sound search engine optimization strategies in mind.
Web design isn’t rocket science, but it’s not exactly Cracker Jack box thinking either. There is some creativity involved.
A good web design company can take your company image, your logo, your brand, and design a real website that captures the personality and essence of your brand. It is unique. It is custom designed in the truest sense of the word.
When you are in the market for a custom web design, take the time to interview companies first. Find out what their web design strategy is. Do they take an off-the-shelf template and modify it or do they truly build you a website from the ground up?
Are You Ready For Cyber Monday?
Last Christmas shopping season was a record-breaking season. In fact, Cyber Monday (November 29, 2010) was the biggest online shopping day in history topping $1 billion in sales. Are you ready for this year?
Whether or not we’ll surpass that landmark day in online sales this year is a big question, but it’s not out of the question. In fact, it’s quite possible.
Online sales have increased year over year for the past three or four years. The trend is developing. More and more people are getting comfortable shopping online and the Christmas season is the time when they are most likely to break down and whip out their credit cards. Online merchants should be ready. And if you’re not ready by now, you’re not likely to be ready.
What’s it take to succeed in online commerce? You have to have a website ready to take orders. That means you need an attractive web design with clear and easy navigation and a safe and secure payment system. The No. 1 factor in whether online shoppers are willing to buy from you or not is whether you build trust. If they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you.
Cyber Monday is just around the corner. Are you ready? Let the shopping begin.
Web Hosting And Web Design
Many small business owners spend so much time worried about web design concerns they often forget about the importance of web hosting. That’s a fatal mistake and it could cost you.
It’s not that web design isn’t important. It’s very important, but let’s draw an analogy. Should you design a nice big and beautiful house and start building it before you’ve bought the real estate to put it on? What if you design a house that requires a half acre lot, but you’ve bought a 1/4-acre lot instead? See the problem?
With web design, your problems can often be just as bad. Design your website and choose the wrong hosting for it and it can hurt you in the long run. You could have frequent service outings that take your website off line for periods of time and frustrate your customers. Or you could see your website getting hacked often because of lax security. All because you chose the wrong hosting company and the wrong hosting service.
When you are in the planning stage of your website, consult your web design company for their recommendations on web hosts. You could save yourself a lot of headache down the road by picking the right hosting company to begin with.
Media Kit Or About Us Page?
One question that often arises when a company decides to build a new website is, Should we include an online media kit or an About Us page? It’s a good question and a distinction should be made between the two.
The About Us page is typically a page that describes your business in such a way that potential customers can analyze and determine the benefit of doing business with you. It’s written for potential customers.
By contrast, an online media kit is written for journalists, reporters, and media organizations. Its purpose is to give the media professional some background on you and your company and to serve as a source of information for their initial background questioning. If you are on the lookout for publicity, then any media professional will be interested in calling you and asking specific questions about you, your background, and your qualifications. The purpose is to establish you as an expert in your niche.
Your online media kit should answer those questions so that you don’t spend too much time on the phone with media professionals answering questions that they should already know the answers to.
So, should you have a media kit or an About Us page? For many businesses, it would better serve your web design needs to have both.
CMS Or HTML?
Should you design your next website with HTML or a content management system (CMS)? To be sure, each has its pros and cons.
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HTML – We are on the dawn of a new age with HTML. HTML 5 is currently in development and some website development experts have already started using it, either in purity or in conjunction with a CMS. New developments in the Web’s basic language make it extremely attractive, especially for pure website designers who want to build a website from scratch.
There are many good reasons to design your website with HTML, but you’ll always be relegated to updating your website one page at a time. A CMS doesn’t have that disadvantage.
CMS – While a content management system has its flaws – decreased security, for instance (and even then they have come a long way to defeat breaches) – a good CMS can make your life a whole lot easier. Instead of focusing on design with every website update you undertake, you can focus on the implementation of your content and save yourself oodles of time in the process.
There are free open source CMSs available that can make your website look like a world class website. And there are systems that you can pay for that will do the trick as well. Either way, a good CMS can offer many of the same advantages as HTML.
So which is right for you, HTML or a CMS? That sounds like a question a web design consultant can answer for you.
How Important Is Page Load Speed?
One of the most important aspects of SEO is page load speed. It’s easy to overlook this if you are new to search engine optimization. If you do your own SEO, then you might overlook it completely. If you have an SEO firm, be sure to ask them to check page load speed.
Page load speed is important for one reason and one reason only: Your site visitors expect it.
It’s true that Google places emphasis on page load speed for search ranking purposes. The reason they do this is because page load speed is important to website visitors. If someone conducts a search and finds your website in Google’s rankings, then they visit your site, and the page loads slowly, they will likely place blame on Google for sending them to a sub-par web page. That’s why Google rewards pages that load fast and penalizes those that don’t.
The time to think about page load speed is when you design your website. It’s better to head it off at the pass than to wait until your rankings decline in the search engines.
Things that can affect page load speed are photos, videos, and multimedia presentations, CMS with heavy code, themes and skins, JavaScript and other extemporaneous code, and a number of other factors. You owe it to your site visitors to ensure that your pages load quickly. You also owe it to yourself.
Why WordPress Makes A Good CMS
When it comes to web design, not many people can do their own. It requires special skills such as knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and maybe even other Web languages. But many small business owners and community service organizations are beginning to design their own websites now with WordPress as a CMS. Is that a good idea?
Actually, it’s a great idea, but don’t think that using WordPress is going to absolve you from having to know any programming languages. You can build your own website using WordPress, but there are some functions for which you might need professional help.
For instance, if you want to include your Twitter stream in your blog, where’s the best place to put it so that it doesn’t get in the way of your reader’s enjoyment but still provides the content benefits that you are looking for? Do you know how to map an image inside of your header? A lot of people don’t.
Special knowledge aside, there are plenty of benefits to using WordPress as your web design CMS:
- It’s flexible
- It’s free
- You can tweak it and customize it to fit your needs
- Built in search engine optimization
- Cuts down on time when designing a website
While the benefits are there for using WordPress as a CMS, you can still get more out of it if you let a professional web designer build your site then teach you how to upload your own pages. You won’t have to pay for ongoing design and management, but you can get a good looking website right from the beginning. Then, when you want to add to it, all you have to do is log in and write your pages.
Should You Use Affiliate Links?
When building your small business website, the one you’re going to use for promoting your local service business, should you include affiliate links and promote products that aren’t yours?
There are two ways to think about this question. The first way is to consider those affiliate links exit holes. Anything that causes the site visitor to leave your website is an exit hole and it means you lose a sale. Does the commission you’ll make on that affiliate product make up for the income you’re going to lose by not acquiring that customer? If not, then you shouldn’t use the affiliate link.
Another way to look at this is that you’re going to lose some of your site visitors anyway. Not everyone is going to buy your product or use your service. They may not be in the market for your service right now or they might not be the right target for your service. Either way, you’re not going to make the sale anyway so why not offer them something else instead?
Both of these points are valid. You’ll have to decide which way of thinking appeals to you and decide to use affiliate product links based on your own goals and desires.
If you do decide to use affiliate links on your small business service site, do so with these things in mind:
- Use them sparingly.
- Don’t make the affiliate products the main focus on your site – that should be your services.
- Place affiliate links where they won’t draw undue attention to themselves, but will be attractive and get clicked on by people who aren’t interested in your service today.
- Think about your web design first. If affiliate links and widgets won’t look good with your website, then don’t use them.
5 Things To Consider Before Starting An Internet Business
Internet businesses have become their own entity. Even if your online presence is an extension of your real world business, it would be wise to consider a separate business plan for your website. Here are 5 key things to think about before starting your Internet business.
- Branding – There is a lot that goes into branding a business. Even an online business. Should your domain name be keyword-based? Many branded online businesses aren’t (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, just to name a few). Nevertheless, it is important to think about how you will brand yourself online.
- Search engine marketing – This includes search engine optimization as well as your paid search options. How will you ensure your website receives its just deserts at the search engine table?
- Social media – You’ll have to think about incorporating social media into any new business you start online. That includes which social media websites you’ll use and how you’ll use them.
- Traffic conversion – Traffic conversion is more than simply driving traffic to your website, though it does include that. You must think about how you will drive traffic, what methods and techniques you’ll use to perform that function, including possibly video marketing techniques, and how you will convert that traffic once you get it to your website.
- Web design – Central to any Web business is your website design. In truth, all of the above considerations will be integrated into your website design. You might as well consider how each of the above initiatives will be included in your web design right from Day One.
Every business is unique. By the same token, every Web business is unique. You must consider each of these five initiatives for your business right from the start. Don’t settle for any cookie-cutter plans because your business is not a cookie.
HTML 5 Web Page Sections
HTML 5 is in full development mode and I believe we’ll see the first iteration go public within the next year, maybe two. One of the most interesting changes from HTML 4 to HTML 5 is how page sections will be used during the design phase of website development. Here are 10 web page sections HTML 5 offers that will lead to better and more efficient website design.
- Body Element
- Section Element
- Nav Element
- Article Element
- Aside Element
- H-tag Elements
- Hgroup Element
- Header Element
- Footer Element
- Address Element
Most of these are new to HTML 5. A few, like Body, H tags, Header, and Footer are currently being used by HTML 4. While HTML 4 offers a way to include a navigation element on your web pages, HTML 5 changes the design process by including the Nav Element in the HTML and giving it its own code structure.
I’m particularly excited about the Section Element, Article and Aside Elements, and the Address Element. These HTML features will allow any website to be laid out in classic magazine style.
The Article Element will make it easier for web developers to add content to a web page that can be easily syndicated. The Aside Element will allow web designers to add sidebars to web pages easily and without fanfare. The Address Element will give content authors a way to provide contact information for each content element they produce.
HTML 5 is going to be a major new development in web design. I hope you’re looking as forward to it as I am.
Your Most Important Web Design Element
Is there such a thing as the most important web design element? Doesn’t it depend on your Web marketing and web design goals? Yes, it does. But it also depends on what you can use your website for and the current conventions. Right now, there is one Internet marketing channel that is considered the most effective channel of all.
I’m talking about e-mail marketing. Since it is the most efficient and most effective means of conducting online marketing, it makes sense to put an opt-in form on your website. I consider it the most important web design element.
Of course, you should put a lot of careful thought into the placement of your opt-in form on the page. Where do you want it to appear and what do you want it to look like?
Your e-mail marketing opt-in subscription form should be eye catching. You want the reader to notice it. But you don’t want it to be so noticeable that the site visitor fixates on it. It should be visible and inviting so that you increase your opt-in subscribers. But you don’t want it to take away from the information on your web pages.
Website design is a creative science. Nothing is absolute. However, if you consider that e-mail marketing is still the most effective means of marketing online, then an opt-in form for your e-mail marketing campaigns is an essential element for any website.
How Many Languages Do You Need For Web Design?
Web design has come a long way in the last 20 years. It used to be, if you wanted to build a web page, then you had one option – HTML. Hypertext Markup Language is the basic language of the Web. Today, if you are building a website of any kind, chances are you are going to incorporate HTML into your programming even if you use other languages.
But HTML is not the only language you need, by far. If you expect your web site to have some interactive features, then you’ll need more – much more – than HTML.
CSS, or cascading style sheets, is a language devised to help Web programmers build websites where design elements can be defined in a single document across multiple pages. Then you can use HTML for your content on each individual page.
PHP allows Web site designers the ability to add interactive design features into their web pages without jacking up the HTML.
JavaScript is another interactive and dynamic Web language with some useful features.
Microsoft has joined the web design game as well with its own programming languages and Web application framework. ASP is the basic Web language of Microsoft. ASP.NET allows you to build more dynamic web pages on a Windows server.
Other application frameworks have entered the market as well. One popular one in recent years is the open source Ruby on Rails, which is based on the Ruby programming language. Twitter, and a few other popular websites, was built on Ruby on Rails.
So, to answer the question, how many Web languages do you need for Web design? You really only need one. But if you want to build dynamic web pages that are interactive and keep visitors coming back for more, sometimes you need to incorporate several languages into a single web design.
Why Web Design Is More Than Important
Your first impression is a big deal. And you only get a chance to make one. That’s why your web design has to be top notch, not just good.
There are three types of web design companies:
- Search engine optimizers who also do web design
- Companies that only do web design
- Companies that design killer websites that are SEOd well
While web design is important, it’s not so important that you should forget about search engine marketing. In fact, a good web design actually takes into consideration the latest SEO techniques and tactics with search engine rankings in mind.
In truth, it’s a balancing act. You balance a beautiful image with great rankings. When you play this balancing act well, it will show in increased traffic to your website and your web pages ranking for the important content you want to rank for. It’s a two-tiered system where both parts are equal.
Web design firms that only do web design can make your site look good, but they won’t get you ranked. You’ll end up having to hire an SEO company to make it rank, and sometimes your SEO company has to make changes to the website.
If you hire an SEO to do web design, then you run the risk of a site that doesn’t leave a good impression. There’s no reason you can’t have both good SEO and awesome web design.
How An Online Presence Is Helping Offline Professionals
One of the biggest trends in recent years has been the adoption of online technology by offline professionals. Real estate, law, medicine, insurance, and education have really grasped the benefits of an online presence and they are using that presence to very good effect. The focus over the last eighteen months on local search by the search engines has taken their presence to a new level.
Internet users are increasingly looking to the Internet to provide information on offline services in their area. Professional services have a rather unique standing online today, because users are not only looking for a professional to perform some role in their lives; they are also looking for in-depth information related to specific services.
A good example is the legal profession. If someone is contemplating bankruptcy, for example, they will research as much as possible about this subject before deciding to proceed. Once that decision is made, they will then look for a professional in their area to complete the process. So rather than simply obtaining the details of a local professional, users are also looking for detailed information on their services.
The lesson for professionals is very clear – a single page with your business details won’t cut it. A user may well arrive on your site and see these details, but in many cases, that is not what they are looking for. An online presence for professionals must include facts and details related to the range of services you provide. They need to be written in plain English, and be written in a style that is easy to understand.
For professionals developing an online presence, your online marketing starts with the quality of your content and the ease with which it is found while being supported with details about how you can help the user. Do it well and the user will stay on your site, probably bookmark it for a return visit, then call upon your services to complete the task.
If you’re a professional looking to develop and online presence, then talk to another group of professionals who have a clear track record in helping others develop an online presence. We can help you develop a quality website, claim your business through local search, develop content related to your profession, then complete the process with a quality Internet marketing campaign. Our aim is to make you the authority in your profession for your region.
Running A Successful Business On Pay Per Click Alone
There are many businesses that have foregone organic search and social media marketing so they can concentrate on pay per click advertising on its own. And they are doing it successfully. There are pluses and minuses to this approach, and one of the biggest minuses is cost. However, well managed, it is possible. Let’s look at some of the advantages.
Content – you don’t have to continuously generate content to stay on top of organic search results. You can create a website that is very tight and that is designed purely to produce results.
Targeted Traffic – the traffic that is arriving on your site is there because they are looking for what you have to offer. Targeted traffic is everyone’s goal; pay per click is one of the best sources.
Costs - while pay per click can be expensive, those costs are tightly controllable. You can set tight budgets, put limits on your costs per click and even control how much traffic is arriving on your website each day.
Control – you have more control over your business. You will have a reasonable idea how much traffic is coming in each day, what the conversion rate is, and in some cases, how much stock you need in reserve. Organic search can be all over the place when it comes to traffic numbers and conversion rates.
While some businesses are highly successful using pay per click advertising alone, it’s not for everyone. To be successful you need a well designed website, good landing pages that convert well, and a good selection of converting keywords. Most importantly, you need good products or services that have profit margins that make pay per click a profitable option. What many of these businesses do have in common is a team of pay per click experts helping them achieve their goals.
Stale Content – Are You Destroying Your Own Reputation
There are two things that visitors are going to notice when they first land on one of your pages – how it looks and what it says. Let’s assume you have hired a professional website designer to create attractive easy-to-negotiate pages, so your website looks great. What about the content?
One of the problems with search engines is that they generally rank old pages above new pages. Google, for example, may talk a lot about ‘fresh content’, but for most searches the pages listed are fairly old. If your site has been around for awhile then those old pages are going to rank fairly well, even if the information on them is a little outdated.
This is where your reputation could take a real hammering. If visitors feel the information is too old, too out of date, or no longer relevant, there is a good chance they’ll hit the back button rather than seeking fresher content on your site. Flagging the fact that the information is outdated and linking to fresher content may not attract them either.
You have several options. You could redirect to fresher content as long as the new page is about the same subject. You could also rewrite the content to bring it up to date. It seems to be pointless having a redirect to new content when you could simply update the content on that page.
Reputation management starts at home – that is, it starts with what you say and do on your own website. While search engine marketing and social media marketing are all the rage at present, taking time to review those old pages on your website is equally important. Is the content still relevant, accurate, and able to answer the needs of your visitors? If not, give it a lick of polish and bring it up to date.
How Web Design Relates To SEO
Most website design elements do not help you with search engine marketing, but that doesn’t mean that some elements of web design can’t help you. There is evidence that paying attention to website design elements can improve your chances of ranking in the search engines.
The most talked about example of web design and SEO is the use of Flash presentations. While Flash is beginning to be a crawlable element now, this is still a brand new development where search engines are concerned. That means the crawlability of Flash is still limited. I would not build a website that is created entirely with Flash elements.
Other things to consider with web design and SEO are:
- Placement of excessive links in your footer
- The use of excessive code
- Navigation elements
- Using alt tags with graphic and photo elements
- Hidden links and redirects can hurt you in the rankings
- Use an inverted pyramid style for information and presentation elements
- Use external files as much as possible for extraneous code like JavaScript
There are many more ways that web design can affect SEO. You would be doing yourself a favor to learn and study SEO and web design to some reasonable degree before you build your website.
7 Useful Internet Marketing Services
When it comes to Internet marketing there are services that are worth pursuing and services that you can afford to put on the back burner for awhile. In other words, not all services are created equal. The following 7 services are services that I’d say are worth considering today and that will likely be necessary services five and ten years from now.
- Pay Per Click Management – PPC has become a staple of online advertising. You pay for traffic and if you do it right then your traffic will be targeted and conversion ready.
- Search Engine Optimization – The original search engine marketing. There is no reason not to pursue a search engine optimization strategy. It’s the perfect search engine marketing.
- Online Reputation Management – Don’t wait until you need it. Incorporate reputation management into everything you do.
- Social Media Optimization – Social media is here to stay. This is evidenced by Facebook becoming the No. 1 trafficked website online. Develop a strategy and make it work for you.
- Competitive Intelligence – Learn everything you can about your competition, then use it against them.
- Web Design & Development – It all starts with your hub on the Web. Web design is one of the most important things to do in your total marketing strategy. Give it some thought.
- Video Marketing & Production - Video marketing is the Internet sleeper. It’s taken awhile to catch on, but it is catching on. This is where the money will be in the future. Count on it.
If you’re serious about Internet marketing, these 7 strategies should be a part of your plan – starting today.
Why Simplicity In Design Is Preferred
If you look at some of the most popular websites online you’ll find that a lot of them have some things in common. Let’s take a look:
- Google – Long known for its simplicity, Google’s home page is a search box with a couple of links on a white page. Nothing fancy. And Google is a top tier website with one of the highest usage rates in history.
- Twitter – Twitter started off with a very simple design. Just a few months ago they upgraded their web design, but it didn’t change much. It is still simple with its two-column approach.
- Facebook – Facebook might look complicated, but it’s not. There’s a news feed and two sidebars – a right and a left. That’s pretty common these days. The design gives Facebook a familiar look and most users can find what they want with no problem.
- YouTube - YouTube’s design has been simple from the beginning. The current design, while not the original, still employs simple design elements while showcasing some of the best videos in a variety of categories. When you move to channel pages, the design becomes even simpler.
When it comes to web design, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Often, the best designs are simple. Simplicity works.
3 Web Design Mistakes To Avoid
Web design is not as easy as it looks. There are specific mistakes and pitfalls to avoid and specific web design elements that will almost always be preferred over others. Here are 3 bona fide mistakes to avoid when designing your next website.
- Irrelevant information, or information overload – This is a fairly common mistake. You design your website and it looks pretty, but you have put too much information in your site. As a result, it is difficult to read and visitors do not want to spend the time it takes to read every word. Sometimes, less is more. Only say what is absolutely necessary to get the business. Get in, close the sale.
- Lack of visual elements – A web page with nothing but text is boring. Break up the text with images, videos, and other multimedia graphics. Make your pages look interesting and people will stick around longer.
- Complicated navigation structures – Navigation is one of the most important aspects of web design. Make your site easy to navigate and the information easy to find. Otherwise, you’ll lose your visitors.
If you avoid these 3 web design mistakes then you’ll go a long way to improving your website and increasing your chances of closing the sale.
Is CSS Important In Web Design?
One of the best developments in web design over the years is the technology called CSS. CSS stands for cascading style sheet. With a CSS file you can make updates to your websites in minutes, updates that used to take hours prior to the development of style sheets.
CSS allows you to make changes to your website across an entire section or your entire site. Rather than go page by page to make changes that affect each page of your website, with CSS you can change the element one time and it changes across your entire website. Isn’t that cool?
There are still some web developers who design pages entirely by HTML using tables. This is a very primitive way to design websites, but it can be done. However, I’d recommend using CSS when practical and possible.
With CSS you can influence the following types of changes sitewide with a single update:
- Navigation menus
- Page background colors
- Font styles and types
- Link attributes
- Page layout
- Column width
- Header and footer details
- Mouseover and hover effects
- Special effects like drop shadows and rounded corners
There’s plenty more you can do with CSS. In fact, you can get quite creative with it. If you are designing web pages today then you must consider CSS in your design strategy. Pages built strictly with HTML are quickly going by the wayside.
The Importance Of Opt-In Placement
Simply placing your opt-in box on your website and hoping you get sign ups isn’t a very effective plan. Lots of website owners have found out the hard way. Instead, why not take the time to learn the optimal place for your opt-in box so that you can increase your subscribers and increase your revenue?
Is there an optimal place?
To be sure, it is relative, but that doesn’t mean inconsequential. There have been eye studies that show where most website visitors view a web page and where the human eye is more likely to go. In essence, the two hottest spots on any web page are on the top left and on the bottom right.
So does that mean that is where you should place your opt-in box? Not necessarily.
The general rule of thumb is to put your most important content in the hot spots and fill everything else around them. You want your web pages to “breathe”. That is, you don’t want them cluttered. So make sure there is some white space.
However, you want to make maximum use of the space that you do have. And that means putting your most important content items in the hot spots and placing other items around them ensuring that your overall design is attractive, uncluttered and puts your visitors’ eyes right where you want them most.
Web design is about more than just making your site pretty. It’s also about making it functional – and profitable.
Content Or Web Design? Which Is More Important?
When it comes to online marketing and web design there are certain things that every marketer considers to be absolutely true, then there are certain things that are debatable. One of the things that often comes up for debate is the relationship between design and content. Which do you favor?
Before you answer, consider some of these points:
- An ugly website can still make money
- If you do not capture your visitor’s attention in 3 seconds then they will go elswhere
- No one buys anything online until they read something that makes them click the Buy button
- Pictures tell a thousand words
- You don’t need a thousand words to sell
- All other things being equal, people will spend more time on a pretty website than on an ugly one
Some of these statements may seem contradictory, but each step on its own is worth a goldmine of wisdom. But what do you make of “an ugly website can still make money” and “people will spend more time on a pretty website than an ugly one?”
Can both be true?
Yes, actually, they can. You need to keep in mind that content is what sells, not design. However, a beautiful web design can enhance a user’s experience. If your site visitors are turned off by the design of your website then they may not stick around to read the content. But if they do read the content and it doesn’t sell them on your products or services then your design won’t either.
Bottom line, web design and content go hand in hand. Make them work together.
Why Web Design Is A Top Priority
I’ve seen small business owners try to do online marketing with nothing more than a MySpace page or Facebook account. It’s good to have those things and you can probably make money with them, but you’d be better off with a website. I can promise you that.
Sure, your Blogger blog is cool and you probably get some readers, maybe even some business, but your well-designed website would likely get you more.
I firmly believe that a small business website, well designed with well-written content that is optimized for the search engines is the best Internet marketing tool you have. It costs a little bit of money to get one, of course, but it’s a great investment. Think of it this way:
- Nowhere on earth can you start a business for less than $1,000 and have it profitable in just a few months or, in some cases, a few weeks.
- You can still use your Blogger blog, Facebook account or MySpace page to promote your website. Tap into the traffic you’re already getting and drive it to your website where you’ll close the sale.
- Your website is a one-time investment. After the initial outlay, your ongoing costs are minimal – $10/year for a domain name and less than $10 per month for hosting. What kind of business can you run off line for that?
Web design is a small investment compared to the income you can earn from a website. Don’t look at it as a cost you can’t earn back; think of it as an investment that pays off.
Yes, Web Design Can Make Your Website More Profitable
There’s an old saying in Web development circles:
An ugly website that makes money is more attractive than a pretty website that doesn’t.
A web developer friend of mine has a knack for saying:
An ugly website that makes money gets prettier by the dollar.
These are both true statements, but let me add a third one:
A pretty website that makes money is more attractive than an ugly website that makes the same amount of money.
Bottom line, you’re in the business of making money. Anything you can do to be more profitable is a good business decision. And you’d better expect that your website visitors are judging your business by their first impressions of your website. Some people will just not buy anything from a business with an ugly website.
If you ensure that your web design is attractive without sacrificing functionality and practical usefulness then you’ll increase your website’s value to your visitors. There’s no need to settle for ugly.
Why Web Design IS E-Commerce
A few years ago it was common to hear someone say something like, “An ugly website gets prettier by the dollar” or “A ugly website that makes money is more valuable than a pretty website that doesn’t.”
While these anecdotes are pithy (and, we admit, true), we also can’t help but quip in return, “I’d rather have a pretty website that makes me money than an ugly one that makes me the same amount of money.” Wouldn’t you?
All things being equal, I’d rather have a pretty website than an ugly one. And that’s why I can say with confidence that web design IS e-commerce. There’s no sense pretending you have a choice. It’s not like you have to choose between a pretty website or one that makes money. You can have a pretty website that makes money. In fact, if your website is attractive then you stand a better chance today of turning it into cash.
Google would rather send searchers to a pretty website that is relevant to their needs than an ugly one that isn’t. Visitors to your site today will leave if they show up and are offended by your colors or the odd shape of your background. So attractiveness does count.
Instead of defending old Web 1.0 websites that did well because they were ugly enough to stand out, take some time to examine what it takes to make money online today. One part of the equation is web design and website attractiveness. Don’t discount it. Your visitors won’t.
Is Web Design Different From Web Development?
Is there a difference between web design and web development? Actually, there is. But sadly, most small business owners don’t really know what it is.
Web Design is about one thing – making your website appealing and attractive to your target market.
Web Development, on the other hand, is about making your website functional and helping your visitors find more easily the information they are looking for. There are a variety of strategies for accomplishing that task.
While web design is concerned about elements such as logo design, sidebar widths, header and footer appearance and photo/video presentations, web development is more concerned with elements such as navigation menu protocols, conversion funnels and usability studies. Of course, copywriting and SEO are also very important.
I won’t say that one is more important than the other, but it does help to know the difference. Your web development team should include a good web designer. But it shouldn’t consist only of a web designer. At any rate, if you are setting up a website that you hope will make you money then you should think about web design within the framework of your web development strategy – not the other way around.
Will HTML5 Improve Web Design?
Members of the W3C are muddling their way through an update to HTML, the principle language of the Web. The new version, HTML5, is said to be an improvement over HTML4, the current version of HTML. But is it?
Some of the code elements that are being tested as we speak include:
- <header>
- <footer>
- <audio>
- <video>
- <article>
- <embed>
- <nav>
- <section>
The above HTML tags are currently not included in HTML4. I will say this much. These tags will certainly streamline the code in HTML and make some parts of web design much easier. The big issue will be in the implementation of the new version of hypertext markup language and whether or not HTML4 will still be acceptable to modern browsers.
My guess is that HTML4 will still be acceptable and readable, but I do see a point afar off in the future where HTML4 will be phased out completely and replaced entirely by HTML5. Of course, HTML6 could be in development by then.
What do you think. Will HTML5 make web design easier?
Incorporating Video Into Your Web Design
One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is whether or not to incorporate video into your web design. If you do then you’ll need to think carefully about placement of your video. Will you have one on every page of your website or just the home page? And where exactly on the page will you put your video?
To make that decision you’ll need to think about eye tracking studies. The famous graph of Google’s eye tracking study shows that most visitors to a web site will have eyes on the top left corner of your web page. In fact, the eyes scan from left to right and top to bottom in a Z pattern. That should make it easy, right?
No. Not really. What’s the purpose of your video? Furthermore, what’s the purpose of the page on which your video is presented?
These are two very important questions. Some people use the video as a sales tool to get people to opt in to their list or become customers. In that case, a paragraph of text followed by your video on center page might do the trick. But I’ve also seen videos – informational videos primarily – on the right top side of the page next to the main content column. And I’ve seen on the top left of the page as well.
The key to video placement on the page is to think about your visitor. Will the video be the most important element on the page? If so then premium placement should be the order. If something else is more important then place the video where it will enhance the page but not be center of attention.
Video marketing has arrived and webmasters who decide to use video on their web pages will need to experiment to come up with the best placement.