The look isn’t as important as some may think. It should grab your audience’s attention, but it shouldn’t take away from your visitor’s ability to navigate with ease. According to Lisa Noble, owner of the website design company Vivid Visual Solutions,

1. Purpose

The first thing the designer determines is why the website is or graphic element is being created.  What is the main intention for the user’s experience while on the website?

 2. Audience

Who is the ideal user we want to reach?  What is their motivation for coming to the website?  Once the designer has answers to the questions below, a design can be created that speaks to a specific audience about their needs or wants.

• Is the ideal customer male for female?
• What city or country do they live in?
• What websites do they like? 
• What magazines do they read?
• Where are the users hanging out?
• Where are they shopping?
• How do they want to feel when they come to website? (happy?, moved? etc.)
• What is the message that we want to convey.
• What problem do they have that this website can solve?

3. Keep the layout simple!

The simplest way to start is by sketching out the layout before you open any tool such as Photoshop or Canva. Set pencil to paper or create a wireframe in software such as Omnigraffle or Balsalmiq.  

4. Choose a Color theme

How do we want the user to feel when they come to website? The designer should ask this question while researching the target audience.  Color is the first place we use this information. Color can help convey a mood or a feeling. The designer needs to be mindful of culture differences as well when creating international websites because colors that mean one thing in the United States can mean something totally different in another country. 

5. Choose Imagery that reflects the user or has context for the text on the page

“A picture is worth a thousand words” This holds true when building a website. Images create context for the text on the page or mirrors the user and the need they have. The right image will draw attention.  The wrong image will distract. It is a balance that a designer has to find when selecting an image.  

6. Choose Typography that compliments the mood of the website

If the site should feel modern use modern fonts; if the site should be masculine use a thick masculine font; if the site should be feminine use loopy fonts. There are a lot of great fonts that can be used and now that Google fonts are available we are not just limited to Arial and Times New Roman. Designers can be very creative with web fonts.

 The look and feel of your website is important, but if no one can find it on the internet, no one will know you exist. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an essential key ingredient to getting your website found by potential customers interested in ideas, products or services like yours.

We’ve seen it time and time again, people who spend weeks, months, or even years developing a website. Once it’s launched, they wait patiently … but the flood of new visitors and business never appears.

They’ve spent all this time and money on a website, and once it finally launches, they ask their designer “so, people are going to find us on Google, right?” Unfortunately, the answer to that is almost always: “no, not necessarily.” Not unless they’ve specifically undertaken a campaign to make it so. That’s where a good internet marketing company comes in!

For more information on "Look" and "Feel" of your website design in Ann Arbor, Michigan, read "Focus on These 6 Elements to Improve The Look and Feel of Your Website!"

 “My company has been working with Nick and the SEO Ann Arbor team for a little less than a year. The results have been excellent (not good, but excellent)! The owner, Nick, is willing to meet you face-to-face, listen to your concerns, and meet your needs. Our company, Mussio Painting, has skyrocketed to the top of Google and this result has created enough business that I had to turn down five to six calls a day this past season. In a digital world, finding the right SEO company is a must. Let Nick and his team at SEO Ann Arbor help you increase your business opportunities. They are experts in marketing and will take you to the top!”

Steve Mussio

Warp Drive Internet Marketing goes far beyond traditional SEO. Our work includes:

• Identifying your target audience.
• Getting you listed higher in the search engine for relevant terms.
• Getting more qualified visitors to your site (people who are actually interested in the products and services that you offer).
• Filling your site with original and truly useful and helpful content so that visitors to your site engage and stay longer.
• Enticing your visitors to either buy something or provide you with an email address so you can establish and grow your relationship.
• Testing and measuring your results – improving what’s there or removing what doesn’t work.

How do we accomplish these goals?

1. Keyword Research

Do you know what your customers are searching for when it comes to the good or services you provide? We use Google’s keyword planner and other tools to investigate the trends.

2. 4-in-1 Optimization

You should always add the keywords to four main places on a webpage: 1) the URL; 2) the Page Title; 3) the Header; and 4) the Body Text.

3. Quality Links

Seek quality links back from to other relevant, authoritative content on the subject matter of your webpage. This may require contacting businesses and organizations in similar fields and asking for backlinks.

4. Incentive

Are people visiting your website, but failing to take appropriate action to learn more? Learn based incentives are a great way for people to sign up for “Free Tips” or other incentives and give you an opportunity to gain their trust.

Remember, not everyone is ready to buy right now. There are three types of internet users:

1. Learners

2. Shoppers

3. Buyers

“Learners” are people who aren’t necessarily in the market to buy, at least not right now. But they’re interested in learning more, and if you do a good job of engaging with them, they’re good candidates to become customers down the road.

“Shoppers” are people who are interested in buying, but are doing research to find the best solution for their particular needs. Sometimes it’s about price, but just as often it is about finding the best solution. Remember, price is what you pay, but value is what you get. Today, the best marketing is education, so do a good job of letting people know about the solutions that you offer (notice we said “solutions” and not “products and services”), how you can help them, and what makes you unique.

And of course if someone is interested in buying something now, you want to make it obvious and easy for them!

5. Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram are the most important platforms that you should be posting on. You might be asking yourself, “What do I share?”

Posting interesting content is the heart of social media! You have to make sure that you are providing people with something useful and engaging, and not just begging for “Likes.” Post interesting, helpful and shareable content, and you’ll get noticed. 

6. Photos with Alt Text

Pictures are worth a thousand words. If you can get some on your webpage, great! However, to ensure that they provide SEO benefits: 1) save the file with one of your highly targeted keywords in the name; and 2) fill in the Alt Text with the keyword you’re focusing on.

7. Press Releases

Is something new and exciting happening at your company? Press releases are a great way to promote it and get your name out there! Make this a “must” rather than a “should” – if you have nothing to tell people about, it may be time to rethink some of your business practices.

8. Pay-Per-Click

Pay-Per-Click marketing is pretty much what it sounds like - you pay a marketing service each time a visitor clicks on a link to your website such as Facebook or Google AdWords.

Content is King! Google pays attention to whether the content you’re adding to your website is relevant to potential customers who visit. Are they staying for a long time? Do they leave right away?

You want to include actual content that inspires people to visit your site and share it with others. If you aren’t a great writer, find someone who is. In the larger context of your advertising budget, freelance web writers are often very affordable. One way to learn more about shareable content is to visit one of the free sites that allows you to search for most shared articles. Study those articles and you’ll figure out some of the things they do that make them so shareable.

Here are some of the qualities of good online content:

• Originality - Does your piece stay true to who you are as a writer?
• Usefulness - Will this content help someone with a problem?
• Worth sharing - Is it noteworthy? Is it trending?
• Accuracy - Is it true and informative content?
• Detail – Do you provide examples? Do you provide valuable resources to the reader?
• Excitement – Will your content excite the reader or make them snore?

If you want help improving your writing technique, there are a few gurus when it comes to learning how to produce better, more engaging content, including:

1. Marie Forleo
2. Neil Patel
3. Jeff Bullas

One thing that you can do right now to get the perfect website for your business is to evaluate your website on each of the previous points discussed above. Is your website inviting or is it obtrusive? Do you continually post content? Do you share interesting things on your company’s social media channels? Are you capturing potential customer’s interests with an incentive?

If you answered “No” to any of these questions, then it’s probably time you have a professional evaluate your website design. At SEO Ann Arbor, we can help walk you through the entire process, help you identify your goals, and help you develop content.  

Your roadmap to success:

• Identify your goals
• Develop a plan
• Use the Seven Fundamentals of Online Success
• Develop a clean and attractive professional website design
• Program clean, functional, hand written, standards-compliant code
• Develop original, compelling content that adds value to people’s lives or to their businesses
• Employ fast and reliable business class web and email hosting
• Sign up for our Warp Drive Internet Marketing Campaign to promote your site

If you want the perfect website for your business, or the closest thing to it, it’s attainable, but you must hire the best people in the industry to work with you to make your dream a reality. We can do that for you!

If you have more questions about how to optimize, our SEO experts are willing to chat with you to help you better understand the process. Feel free to browse our site. We’re sure you’ll find plenty of great information. Also, make sure you sign up to receive our FREE GUIDE – Seven Essential SEO Tasks You Can Do Right Now!

We’re certainly not experts in your field. We’ll need your input because you’re the expert!

But from day one we’ll work with you on a strategy and a way to execute a plan going forward. If you want to get started or if you just have questions, please shoot us an email or give us a call.

Co-founder Nick Suino says, “we love to meet ambitious business people who are trying to make a difference in the world! The tools we’ve developed after a decade of helping people can fundamentally change how much reach you can get. The people who really care about success and are willing to put in the time and effort to accomplish it are crushing it online. The people who are struggling are those who don’t allocate enough time, effort and, yes, enough money, to take advantage of the history opportunities available. Success, however you measure it, is a fantastic bonding experience. We’d love to have that experience with you!”