Web Site Design Basics

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Understanding The Steps For Success:

Good website design follows very simple and straight forward steps.  Web Sites should be created with a master plan and should have a target market in mind.  Thought should be given to both the user experience as well as the experience of search engines as they rank your site.  You should have a clear idea of:

• What your intention for the site is.
• What information you are trying to communicate.
• The feeling your site is going to create in your visitor.
• What key words people will be using to find your services.
• How you wish to brand your company identity into the website. 

The steps that we suggest you follow are:

• Develop a clear understanding of your goals.  Know your budget and either hire a web marketing company or perform a web market feasibility study in house. 
  • This research should include:
    • A detailed search engine key word research study to identify the volume of searches being used to find products such as yours, as well as the volume of specific key word phrases being searched per month that relate to your industry.
    • An analysis of competing web sites and a clear knowledge of how much work will be needed to out perform these web sites in the search engine ranks.
    • Study the Pay Per Click pricing for your targeted key words and every variation you can think of.  Know how much it will cost to generate instant traffic to your site.  Some search engines only provide visitors on a cost per click basis, and others judge your traffic flow to determine how many visitors they will send you.  Set aside a budget for building traffic from the beginning using a well thought out pay per click campaign.  This is a strategy that has paid off for us time and time again.
• If you do not yet have a corporate design or image, or if you will be updating your corporate image or modifying it during your transition to the web, you will want to get very clear on the feeling you are trying to create in your new website.  Is it going to be clean and corporate, or intimate and accessible.  Create a list of the top ten phrases that your company identity is, and ten phrases that you are not.  This will be an objective list of criteria that can be used when working with your designer.  We find that providing feedback like, “I don’t like that design” is not as useful as, “In our branding document I stated that we are not, “x”  When I look at this design I really feel that you are communicating that we are “x.”  Can we try a version of the website that is more “y” and less “x.”  This step might sound a little tedious, but after working with many designers it is our experience that it is better to communicate and have a clear intention then to not be clear and allow room for misinterpretations.
• Identify your intention for the website and map out the layout, imagining how the user will interact with the site.  Create a design that is simple, easy to navigate, and one that will inspire conversion (re: sales and/or joining your mailing list ).  Next, Identify the pages that will be needed and topics to be discussed.  If you have a good content writing on staff, have them create the content for the website, making sure to focus this content on both the user as well as the key words that describe clearly who you are and what services/products you are offering.  Make sure to have this document read by at least 5 people prior to the text being posted on your website. 
• Be prepared to be in the project for the long hall.  Most newly created websites we get involved in take between three months and a year for the website to create a positive cash flow and to be indexed completely by the search engines.  Many of the search engines update on an irregular basis, and achieving the proper page rank for any given key phrase can take a while.  Further more, many customers will not purchase until their third or fourth visit to your site.  Have patience and faith in your business plan. When in doubt, consult a reputable web marketing specialist to analyze your web site marketing strategy implementation as well as an expert in search engine optimization.

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Creating The Right Team

Don’t get stuck with a one brain website!

Once you have done the research you will need a master team of craftsmen. From what we have seen, many design companies are one man shows that lack the diversity of thought and experience necessary to accomplish all that is essential for success in the many levels of website development, web marketing, and sales.  You want to establish what your business goals are and put together a team that can make all of these goals come to life.  The roles that need to be occupied are:

• A General Architect that understands your business, your market, the intention of the website, and clearly knows your budget.  This person should have access to key word research, market projections, and should be an expert in search engine optimization.  He/She should also be group oriented leader that can rally a top notch team around your project.
• A Web Site Designer who is able to create templates that match your company’s desired brand while being open to group input from the web site architect as well as you, the company project manager / owner.
• A talented content writer that can move your customers to purchase, while incorporating specific key words into the content from your key word research.
• If you want flash, animation, and interactive graphical presentations, you will need a flash artist on the team who can match the website brand and take the template to the next level.
• If you will be needing shopping carts, database driven web applications, discussion forums, or blog software, you will need an individual that understands the language of these applications, and has the ability to freely adjust them to meet your required needs.  This individual must be able to make these predominantly search engine challenged applications, search engine optimized.
• Most web sites with goals of success will need a long term web site management company that can not only keep the site and content updated, but who are experts in web site promotion as well.  You will need a long term leader that can manage your link exchange programs, pay per click campaigns, search engine key word marketing, email marketing, link exchange management, affiliate marketing, lead generation, lead management, search engine monitoring and reporting, and provide you with up to date return on investment analysis (ROI).  Whether they coach you through the process, or act as a full service management company, you will need a web site marketing strategy implementation specialist that can guaranteed top search engine placement.