Web Design News

So you’re designing a killer website for a client and they ask you recommend an analytics programme for their website. What do you suggest?

Would you recommend Google Analytics or something that’s going to set the client back a thousand bucks?

Of course, free is good isn’t it? And something as wonderful as Google Analytics can’t be beat can it?

Well be careful what you recommend because $165k in Adwords + Broken Google Analytics = Pissed Off Client

I had to laugh the other day when I saw one of our local competitors announce on their website that all the sites they constructed for clients were optimised and submitted to all the major search engines. What’s really sad is that they’re not the only major web design business here in town who thinks that’s all that search engine optimisation involves.

At the end of July I was compiling a search engine report for one of our clients and was pleased to see that all the work we had put in to real search engine optimisation was paying off with top positions in Google and Yahoo for all but one of the important keyword phrases that they wanted us to target for them. I was also very surprised to see that, without any attempt to target a particular phrase, our client’s site was on page one in Google for a term that’s very important to another business here in town.

I was even more surprised to see that the business wasn’t anywhere to be seen on any of the first five pages for that term. But then I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised because the website designers they use subscribe to the idea that search engine optimisation is all about submitting sites to major search engines.

If you think that’s all that search engine optimisation entails and you design sites for paying customers then you really should get in touch with reality because, if you don’t, sooner or later you’re going to be trying to explain to an irate customer why they paid you heaps of money to be so far back in the major search engines that people never find their sites.

Meanwhile our clients go on getting a real return on their investment in search engine optimisation.

When you’re designing a website for a client what voice do you speak in? Who are you talking to when you’re writing the text for the site  and does the design combine with the text to speak with one voice?

It seems to be a problem for many web designers and one that many web designers don’t even seem to recognise and it’s certainly that our clients don’t understand either. But it’s a very real problem that can have a very negative effect on a website’s ability to communicate effectively with its target audience.

For example if the website you’re working on has other businesses as its target audience are you using language and design that is appropriate for those businesses or are you talking to them as if they were ordinary web surfers? If the website is supposed to sell a product does it actually sell the product or is it merely entertaining?

On Monday I was asked to take a look at a new website that a large design business here in town had just built for a local industry. This industry has a very specialised product that can be used by governments and businesses all around the world. It’s really very innovative and arousing the interest of those who would buy it would be so easy.

But, instead of targeting those who would buy this product the website set out to entertain. The language used was weak and almost apologetic. Important aspects of the product and testamonials from high ranking users were either overlooked or hidden so deep in the site that most people wouldn’t see them.

It’s a website that definitely speaks in the wrong voice despite the fact that it obviously cost the client a lot of money.

Kim Krause Berg, a usability expert, has written a piece that every web designer should read and apply to all their designs. You’ll find it here.

We may have never experienced the product or service that the website we’re building is promoting but that’s no excuse for not getting it right.