Web Design: Learn by Seeing
Most of us learn best visually. You may understand how electricity works intellectually, but seeing a dramatization of a current working will give you that “aha” moment whereupon you truly comprehend. It’s the same with web design. You may intellectually understand what your web design company is telling you about your website, but the best way to learn about effective design is to see examples.
In fact, if you want to hire a great web design company and also get a great-looking website yourself, you should look at hundreds of sites yourself before you even think about designing your own site – or having someone design it for you. Here’s what you should be looking for:
1) Start by looking for your local competitors through a search engine. Do this by typing in your city and a keyword into a major search engine such as Yahoo or Google. For example, if you are a Florist in Boston, type in “Boston Florist” and “Florist Boston.” Open every website that appears in the first page of results. Bookmark all of these websites.
2) Now, look further by looking for national competitors. For example, if you are a Florist in Boston, type in just “Florist” into a search engine. Your results will show you the top-ranked results nationally and globally. Again, open every website that appears in the first page of results and bookmark all of these websites.
3) Use a website such as Alexa to evaluate the rankings of your own company and to compare the rankings of your competitors. If some of your competitors rank lower than you do, eliminate them from your bookmarked section.
4) Type in the URLs of well-performing web sites into search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Generally, you will find that the best-ranked sites are also the ones with the most incoming links. This is not a coincidence. Ask yourself: Which competitors are most talked about? Which ones get the most mentions on blogs and other sites? Are the references negative or positive? Are the references paid links or feeder sites or links from customers? Is there some way you can generate the same number of links or encourage the best sorts of responses you see?
5) Now, start to evaluate the websites that get the highest amounts of traffic. What are they doing right? How attractive are the sites? What design elements do they use/not use? How much content does each site have? Which keywords does each site use (and in what percentages)? What are the navigation systems like? What headlines are used and what graphics? Look for patterns and you will quickly notice that all the successful sites do a few things in a similar way. Use some of the same techniques and you will also enjoy great rankings. Also, do not forget to ask what the websites are not doing – what could you do better or more differently? Check with your visitors and conduct some market research to make sure that this innovation will be appreciated – there may be a good reason your competitors do not have that design element on their own sites.