Website Design & SEO Blog | Tips for Online Success

Then they give you lists.

1. Right people
2. Fantastic branding
3. THE seductive freebies
4. Imaginative content
5. Engage, engage, engage

Or

1. Age
2. Sex
3. Location
4. Profession
5. And all that other demographic stuff

Worn out treads don’t make for good traction in great website design.

While the gurus’ lists are important, maybe you’re focusing on the wrong information.

Clients know THEIR goals for a website. They want to educate, inform, outreach, engage, sway opinion-makers, and ultimately make a sale.

That isn’t visitor centricity.

Clients most likely have all the information they need to put their audience center stage in their web design. The problem is that many are not using the information. They are looking to the lists first.

Where is all the information gained from stalking the comments in industry, support, and competitors’ forums, from online and offline surveys, from social media, or word trends going?

Many clients don’t understand that this information should be used to answer their design questions. They usually focus on what is going wrong in face-to-face service or online customer support interactions.

Answer 4 questions for great website design with visitor centricity.

In reality, there are only 4 basic questions to starting a website design that will keep visitors clicking. The questions are based on close study of audience habits gleaned from social media, surveys, and forums.

1. Is your audience first time browsers or current customers?
2. What is your visitor trying to find?
3. How did the visitor find your site?

And finally,

1. How are your goals different and similar to those of your visitors?

The truth is one website can’t be everything to everyone who drops by. When sites do this, the audience ends up very confused.

The last thing a website should do is baffle a visitor.

Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, create a single visitor profile based on what 70% or more of the audience wants based on the research. Then compare the single visitor profile to your goals for the website.

There are bound to be variations. Can your goals for the website be modified to satisfy the visitor’s goals?

Once commonalities are found and chosen, SEM clients must clearly communicate all the audience idiosyncrasies to the web designer. Website visitor centricity automatically leads to great website design that satisfies the client and their audience.

The post Finding Visitor Centricity in Great Website Design appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.

Clients often start the initial meeting with their search engine marketing (SEM) company with this statement, or at least something similar.

Houston, we have a problem.

The client only knows that their site is not driving business. They want a new website or a redesign, but are clueless to what they want or actually need. They try to express their ideas, but something is lost in translation.

“That’s not what I want/had in mind/will work.”

Little do the clients know they understand more than what is told to their new SEM company. There’s valuable industry and customer awareness the client must clearly communicate to the web designer. The client holds the key to site design that will work for them, the visitor, and ultimately drive their business.

So just what is great website design?

Have you visited a website, but were gone in 10 seconds? You thought why waste your time trying to find what you wanted or the information you needed.

The truth is, there are as many definitions of “great website design” as there are clients. Sites should engage the visitor, enticing exploration. They should pique interest.

Outstanding sites keep you hanging around awhile, sometimes for hours, exploring what the company has to offer. You’ve probably noticed these sites contain the same elements.

That’s not to say that they are clones. Rather, the really good websites use identical design elements with an original twist, a bold attitude of the company they represent.

Great website design starts with visitor centricity

Sites that keep visitors ecstatically clicking away, generating the most leads (and sales), focus on the end user. The client might have a vision of what is logical and appealing to him or her, but the design end result does not have the same effect on the visitor.

The 3 common elements of great website designs are

1. Visitor centricity
2. Visualization
3. Adherence SEO standards

If the audience is in the middle of things (visitor centricity), the site’s design flows freely into the other elements. Getting the site to easily move from the visitor to the way the site looks and feels, and ultimately to the words used on each page requires a deep understanding of the people that will be looking for the site.

Great website design is easily accomplished if you start with the visitor and go from there. You may not need a whole new website, just a few tweaks here and there to get customers and potential customers loving your site and buying your products.

The post Great website design starts with knowing what you want – and exactly what you need appeared first on Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Blog.