Great website design balances usability, SEO, and business results. It considers the needs of different audiences like customers, search engines, and devices. For customers, design conveys your brand and message in a way that educates and motivates them. Design must also be optimized for search engine visibility and compatibility across devices like smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Achieving this balance is key to driving leads and sales through an effective online customer experience.

1. Insights Web Design, Development & Internet Marketing
Great design = leads & sales
How to achieve the critical balance of website usability, design, SEO and results
B
eauty may often be in the eye of the dates the best practices basics as well as
beholder, but for business website the format and content flexibility need-
design, beauty is as beauty does. ed for ongoing SEO competitiveness is
Kevin Hourigan, president and CEO of crucial to your website’s ability to be
Bayshore Solutions, a Web design, Web found by the right people (your targets)
development and Internet marketing using search to initiate, research and
agency, cautions business leaders that fulfill their products and services needs.
design itself is just a portion of today’s The entire practice of SEO is always
website requirements. evolving. What once was a most effec-
“Great Web design blends both art and tive method in one time period may be
science to powerfully balance all of the saturated and even a detriment in the
elements vital to the success of your next. If your website is not designed to
website,” says Hourigan. keep up, your SEO results won’t. How-
Smart Business spoke with Hourigan ever, it is quite possible to ‘SEO to death’
about how to ensure your website has a your Web content. This is where the bal-
great design. ance with design for business results is
needed.
Why does great Web design = leads and n People: Your Web visitors are not
sales? Kevin Hourigan just your target prospective customers.
President and CEO They can be existing customers, pro-
This equation describes the cause and Bayshore Solutions spective employees or influencers. Each
effect of a successful business website. needs to receive a favorable experience.
‘Design’ incorporates and balances all The look and feel of your site, its con-
of the things that are important to your tent and the delivery of your corporate
website’s success. canvas, in ‘design.’ message needs to resonate meaningfully
Different aspects of design address n Devices: If you are not currently ad- with your primary targets and to your
distinct purposes, channels and end- dressing the multiple ways the Internet secondary and other online audiences.
users. There are specific requirements is accessed, and how your website looks Achieving this is a hallmark of truly art-
when designing for: on each of them, then you are behind the ful Web design.
n Look and feel: communication of competition and losing more ground dai- Then you need to connect the navi-
corporate brand and message. ly. There is no uniform technical proto- gation and usability of your website
n SEO: competitive visibility and col or standard among today’s spectrum to address these audiences and create
‘friendliness’ to the various search engine of devices. iPhones, Androids, other momentum toward your desired end re-
crawlers. smartphones, iPads, laptop computers, sult (the lead or sale). I call this aspect,
n Devices: consistent experiences traditional desktop stations, web TVs, ‘design for the directed path,’ which is
for users of computers, smart phones, varying screen resolutions and brows- orchestrating website elements and con-
iPads, etc. ers used will all impact the experience tent that facilitates the journey of the
n Results: navigation and usability to of your website’s quality and effective- educational process to the sale. Great
accelerate lead or sales conversions. ness. Ignoring one or some could be a Web design educates people through
Great Web design produces an attrac- fatal business decision now or in the content that eliminates barriers and mo-
tive, consistent approach for all audi- near future. tivates them to call you, submit a lead
ences of your website: people, engines Knowing your audiences and their form or purchase online.
and devices. typical device use can help prioritize When you have addressed the needs,
your design for device strategy, but be expectations and optimized the experi-
What is the key to Web design for each of aware that this dynamic is a moving tar- ence for each of these audiences in your
these audiences? get. A case in point is the Web browser website design, your business is primed
Internet Explorer, which held nearly 70 to reap online results and best your
The prerequisite to effective design is percent of global usage market share competition. Thus, great business Web
to fully understand all of your site’s visi- two years ago. Now, CNN reports that design = leads and sales. <<
tors. Who and what will look at it? What in early October 2010 it holds 49 percent
are their expectations? What is the end — less than half of all users. How does
result you want them to get out of the your website render on browsers other
visit? than IE?
Simply put, knowing your target audi- n Search Engines: This audience isn’t
ence is Marketing 101. Beyond this re- even human, but is critical to your web-
quirement, let’s take a look at website site’s success. Design that accommo-
audiences and the related dynamics you
need to include in your strategy before For a snapshot of Bayshore Solutions Web marketing methodology, click to: www.BayshoreSolutions.com/method.
you set fingers to keyboard, or stylus to KEVIN HOURIGAN is the president and CEO of Bayshore Solutions. Reach him at (877) 535-4578 or www.BayshoreSolutions.com.
Insights Web Design, Development & Internet Marketing is brought to you by Bayshore Solutions
18 Smart Business South Florida | November 2010