some truths about website design

Notes from the field1996 – 2010

David Quaid - ConsultantSEO - Search Engine Optimisation

Some truths about Website design

BackgroundExperience from selling a range of products

– healthcare, hotel nights, travel, water filters, gifts, software, consulting, websites,...

12 years working in website, web store and web app design, development and marketing

400+ projects completed from small to 32 country projects

About this presentationThis is a tongue-in-cheek generalisation of

a view formed on working on some projectsI’ve put this together to help website

designers and customers alike to put more research and planning into their ideas

Avoid mistakes. Avoidable Mistakes = waste. Repeated Mistakes = stupidity.

Notes...• “Customer is always right” theory means

access to a huge range of infallible ideas on website design and marketing

• Very few publicly available facts/scientific about website design and marketing and consumer shopping habits

• Tons of home truths and entrenched ideas, snake oil and just plain nonsense

• Concepts about domain names, content, colours, branding vary hugely

“You have to put this there...”• People try to improve/influence the web

based on their own peeves and pet hates • People want to make everybody happy and

suit every possible visitor• Even though they’ve never connected with

any of these people, the assumptions made are enormous

• It’s hard to believe that choosing/moving element A over B in an already set design can only serve to please someone versus alienating people either way

Low No Barrier to entry• Perceived low cost of website design – High availability of low cost design

• Assume that a website = a web business• No training required• Technical training courses only means no

training available• Huge assumptions about market demand,

needs, supply, costs, marketing = EPIC FAIL in too many cases....

Huge emphasis on branding• Branding is clearly important• Companies like Microsoft, Mercedes, Coca-

Cola are brand experts• Most SOHO web businesses are not selling

a brand – they are competing on price, service, availability, uniquiness, niche – essentially fighting other brands

• Sales of these are seldom enriched or served by a brand

Brands: Back to basics• Unique brands serve to act as reminders• The brand is added to the target customers

perceptions when they think of a product/service

• Brands are pre-loaded – you often know about them before you need them

• Look at cars, cigarettes, clothes, luxury brands – people who don’t buy them are aware of them

Web Marketing is different• The argument “your business is your

brand” may be true• But Marketing 101: build your brand is only

50% of the battle on the web – just the battle got bigger

• Most people are actually looking for your service not your brand

• You can’t build a brand in reverse – you can’t market a brand in a technology that doesn’t broadcast

Learning from the best• People often copy elements from successful

websites

This is enormously dangerous

• Often elements picked make no difference• Identifying why a successful website does X or

Y assumes that you are educated enough from the outside looking in what those elements are

Its going to be great• Automatic assumption that because other

websites are doing it that there is sufficient demand for another

• “Build it they will come” – say no more• People assume that when visitors see their

lovely design and layout and clever writing that the site will go viral

• Built in expectation/automatic right to get free traffic from Google

My website is my marketing toolMy website will bring people in. They will

favourite it – probably even set it as their home page and share it with their friends

All I need to do is put it on facebook so more people can find it

Why would I want to spend outrageous figures on AdWords ?

The worst...Estimated Website design bill = company

startup budgetEstimates based on €399 website ads on

GoogleNo User eXperience testingNo allowance for redevelopmentNo allowance for market testingNo allowance for market research

Fixing itResearch with other web-based businesses

– even similar/potential competitorsHow? Google, twitter, LinkedIn

Read about the people BEHIND Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Google

Try before you buy: Build a blog and try to get more than 50 people a day.

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Thank you• All feedback, criticisms and pub/forum

based discussions and arguments welcome• Resources:– Irish Webmasters Forum– TalkShop.ie– My SEO Site– My SEO Blog– Connect on LinkedIn– Tweet me