| |
| |
|
Web Design |
|
|
|
All about Web design.Web Design: Use it to Showcase the Message
If you are designing a web site for which the achievement of high conversion rates is a priority, focus your design efforts on showcasing and highlighting the content and copy. For sites where conversion rates are a priority, the primary purpose of design should be to present the message in such a way that it delivers the maximum impact. >> So "good" design doesn't matter? That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that design serves a function. For an entertainment or arts site that primary function may be to present images in an attractive way. That's fine. But for a site that is created to generate sales, the text must come first. Everything...from the architecture of the site to its design must work towards supporting your message and delivering people to the final checkout page. >> Sounds obvious. Why make the point? I make the point because the presentation of the message is often the last thing on the minds of web groups. Web designers are higher on the food chain in these groups. All too often the writing of the message becomes a secondary consideration. "The site will look like this. We'll arrange the pages like this. And by the way, we need someone to write the words." This attitude of "text comes last" is nonsense and it has been from the day the internet first went commercial. Hundreds of millions of visitors have always known that their primary need on arriving at a site is to find the key messages. "Am I in the right place? Will I find what I want on this site?" Our visitors know that the words are the most important element on a web site. Google knows that the words are the most important element on a web site. (Unlikely aside from the Googlebot: "Cool design. Better rank this page higher.) The only people who haven't understood this so far are web group managers and web designers. Even marketing people insist on just dropping in for-print-approved text on their sites, without any thought as to the special needs of the medium. (Would they create a radio ad simply by using the sound track from their TV commercial? I don't think so. Every medium has its own demands when it comes to the words, the web included.) >> How to design to showcase the message The first step is to bring the writer in at the beginning. The designer will find that the writer has a number of priorities and needs in mind. He or she might say: "This is the page's primary message. We need people to really get this on the first screen." "We have three separate audience needs to address here. I need these three headings to have equal emphasis, preferably on the first screen." "This message is just the first step in converting a visitor to a buyer. We need a strong pathway of three levels before he or she is ready to buy." "This sales message is complex, it will take some space and longer copy. We need to format the text so that people will keep reading. We need strong subheads, some indented passages and emphasis at the following points." Once the writer has outlined the needs of the copy, the designer can then focus on showcasing the key points in the message, giving the correct emphasis to the various headings, subheads, body text and links. The designer's job here isn't to make the page "pretty", it is to deliver the message with the right emphasis, and with each point in the correct sequence. >> How does a designer know what to do? In some senses, this is new ground for designers online. Until now, too much emphasis has been places on design for its own sake, instead of using it to support the copy on a site's pages. If a designer wants to know how this works, he or she should go sit next to a direct marketing designer/copywriter team while they work. See how the team communicates. See how the designer listens to the writer and places a great deal of emphasis on the type. Watch how the designer spends a lot of time selecting the right font, the right type size and color. See how a conversion-focused designer pays massive attention to the placement and appearance of every element of text. Why? Because in direct marketing the response rates are intimately connected with the presentation of the copy. It matters where on the page each text element is placed. The font and its size and emphasis matters. The final formatting of the text matters. Online? When you are building pages with a view to maximizing conversion rates, you become a direct marketer. That means thinking like a direct marketer, writing like a direct marketer and designing like a direct marketer. >> Concluding points... As it stands on the web right now, we have a couple of groups of designers. There are the general web designers who create beautiful sites, without regard to how the copy should and can work harder. And there are the online direct marketing designers who design single page sales sites that are created to maximize sales. At some time in the future it would be good to see these two groups learn more from each other. It would be good to see the general web designers learn more about increasing conversion rates by learning some of the skills of the online direct marketing designers. It would be good to see the online direct marketing designers expand their skills beyond the scope of single, scrolling sales page. And it is essential that every online designer pays a great deal more attention to the writers and the showcasing of every page's message. Nick Usborne is a freelance copywriter, author and speaker. For more articles and resources on writing for the web, visit his site, http://www.excessvoice.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Dallas SEO Web Design Company Signs Strategic Partnership With SEO ... - BigNews.biz (press release)
Web-Design - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Design vs Content: Who is KING? Well it is not Elvis, that's for sure.I am a firm advocate of good design but most of the time people tend to interpret design as amazing graphics and astounding visuals they tend to forget that design is the culmination of every aspect of good and effective presentation into one. How to Choose a Website Design Company The internet is full of web design companies pleading for your business. They all look great! Not sure which company to select? By following these simple steps, you'll be able to select the perfect designer for your business. Web Copy - What You Should Know First Just what is web copy? Some people think that web copy is anything that is written on a web page. But that is "content" and it is decidedly different than web copy. 5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin. 6 Reasons Why Web Templates Are Todays Trend As the Internet blooms at an alarming rate, so as the numberof websites out there. Appearance, layout, presentation andloading times are just a few of the main essentialcharacteristics of a successful website. Save Thousands of Dollars by Creating Your Own Web Site With the advent of the Internet a whole new vista of business has opened up. Many erstwhile opportunities otherwise not available to us, many markets which were previously inaccessible are accessible to us now. 7 Benefits of HTML Validation You may not bother with html validation or writing simpleand clean code when designing your web site. Later you mayfind your site is slow loading, appears incorrectly in themain browsers and does not rank well for the major searchengines. 15 Website Elements That Attract Visitors Here is a quick list of components that make a websiteattractive. They are listed in layers of attractivenessbeginning with the "must" haves, to "nice to haves. Is A Picture Really Worth a Thousand Words? The great debate: how much copy you should have on your site, particularly on the home page?Do you subscribe to the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words--and therefore images, not a lot of text, should be the main thrust of your home page? Or do words have more power to capture a visitor's attention and compel them to buy--meaning you should aim for powerful copy?As a graphic designer, my natural inclination is to create graphically-rich, light text websites. Since I'm focused on what a site looks like visually, I like using impressive images, bold splashes of color all over the page, and not very much copy. What Does Your Website Say About Your Business? QUESTION: My business is very small, just me and two employees, and our product really can't be sold online. Do I really need a website? -- Robin C. Website Creativity: Why It Matters Now More than Ever If one more business owner tells me their website sucks because they're just "too darn busy to deal with it", I'm gonna hurl. That's like saying, "I'm doing business in my dirty underwear because I'm too busy to get dressed. So You're Hiring a Web Designer-You Have the Right to Demand these 7 Perks Whether you're hiring a designer who has created 10 sites or 1000 sites for other businesses, there are 10 things every website should do for you.1. One-Product Sales Sites: Avoid These Top Blunders One product, one long web page: this kind of web site is sometimes called a sales letter site or mini-site, and it focuses on one and only one goal, as many sales of that oneproduct as possible. With a one-product sales site, no distractions, no subsidiary goals, such as newsletter signups, are allowed to interfere with that goal. Simplify Your Web Site for Clarity and Ease of Use There are plenty of web sites out there in which basic elements of design are ignored. The viewer may experience overkill and frustration, instead of gently receiving the message or information. How To Choose A Website Designer When you're self-employed, choosing a website designer is a crucial decision, as a good website can bring you more business and a bad one can drive away prospective customers. Below are some important things to consider when selecting a website designer for your new site or site redesign. Web Page Building for Beginners 4 Page ranking by search engines such as Google are not only overrated but unusually explained by "experts" in the SEO field. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is needed to get your website placed at the top of a web search. Top 10 Web Design Mistakes As a webmaster, you want to keep your visitors content so they'll come back again. Below you will find ten common mistakes made by webmasters that may deter people from returning. You Need RSS, Atom, and ROR/RDF Codes on Your Website--Now You Need Google Sitemap as Well! Do you have a website? If so, you need an ROR XMLNS code button which leads to a full ROR/RDF code page for your website. This code tells search engines all about the special details you input into the code about your website. Some Useful Common Site Ideas In my web surfing adventures, I've found a few site elements which make surfing easier and more enjoyable. There are no concrete, hard- and-fast rules to follow - these are just observations of some things which I virtually always look for in a site. How Important is Content to a Successful Website Content is the most important part of any website.The Internet was created in the first place as an information source.
|
|
Web Design Articles Home Page | Web Design Articles Site Map | 1AFMhosting.com Trafficfish | EZmatic | GetSonic |
| © 2006 |