Posted by Cheyne Rood on June 9, 2008
What is your website’s function? When it comes to web design, this question should be at the front of your mind. You might be marketing a business or candidate, providing resources for your customers, creating a social gathering place, or selling directly online – and each of these different functions calls for a different approach to design.
Take a look at Google.com. Visitors will have no trouble understanding what Google is trying to accomplish with its website: Search. Now imagine for a moment what Google could have done with all that prime real estate on the homepage of Google.com? Imagine the millions of people who visit Google daily. Imagine the remarkable amount of revenue Google could make with just a single textual advertisement, barely noticeable, on that homepage. Why not capitalize?
One of the big reasons Google has broken away from its search engine competitors, in addition to its groundbreaking search technology, is its commitment to functional design. Although drastically different in design aesthetic, we see the same kind of commitment from Amazon.com. This online retailing giant has designed its website to pack a ton of information into a small amount of space, but all of the information is organized to facilitate the browsing and purchasing of products.
You do not need to be a leading web company to apply the same concept to your website’s design. Start by having a clear objective for your website. Test every element in your design to make sure you are working towards that objective. If you would like to generate online sales, make sure your layout and user interface are ideal for browsing products and placing orders. If you would like to build an online community, make sure your design includes gathering spaces where your members can socialize.
Of course, when it comes to design there are plenty of other factors to consider besides function. Who is your audience? How often will your website have fresh content? How can you grab a visitor’s attention and keep them engaged? These are very important questions to consider, but too often website owners do not realize the importance of function as the foundation of their website’s design.
Posted by Cheyne Rood on June 4, 2008
How do customers find you on the web? Well, what might a prospective customer type into Google? Maybe it is a manufacturer, a service, or a particular part number. Whatever the case, go type that into Google and take a look at the search results. Is your company there? If it is not, it could be. Based on the way the market is heading, it should be. So how does your company get to be among Google’s ‘chosen few’?
When you bring your business online, you should think about how customers are going to find your website. On the web in particular, your competitive pricing, services, and inventory are meaningless if nobody knows you exist. Now, there are a lot of online marketing strategies, but today I would like to focus on how the very foundation of your website can impact your customer traffic.
Let’s take a moment to talk about the importance of your website’s structure and contents. Search engine companies like Google and Yahoo! use automated computers to analyze millions and millions of websites every day. These crawling computers collect information and, over time, this information is used when creating and ranking search results.
The more information available on your website, and organized in a way for crawling computers to find it, the better the opportunity for your company to appear in a wider range of search results and with a better ranking. Appearing in more search results means more web traffic, which means more prospective customers.
For many of you, information that would help market your website is already available as part of your daily business. For product sales, your accounting software might contain thousands of rows of product information – from part numbers to manufacturers to descriptions. In the service industry, perhaps you have customer testimonials and staff biographies that would be valuable additions.
At Xonatek, we are ready to help make your business more visible to the online world. Contact us to learn more about structuring your website for search engine traffic.
Until next time, happy Googling.
