This may sound like a foolish question, but it should be the first one you ask when starting every new web project, especially when building your own site. Judging from the many design firm sites I see, most designers do not ask themselves this question, or, if they do, they do not seem to take the time to really think about the answer.
Many designers believe that their site’s central function is to show their visitors how creative they are. I disagree. Certainly, a portion of the site should serve this purpose, but this is not the primary purpose of the site. The site’s key role is to generate business, and demonstrating creativity is only part of what converts a visitor into a prospect. Designing a website with the primary goal of demonstrating creativity is akin to an architect designing a demo house with the sole intent of showing how many different styles she can design. The result would be an interesting house but not one anyone would ever choose to live in or buy.
The same is true of your website. The site, first and foremost, needs to be a highly usable site. You will not lose a site visitor because the home page is not splashy enough, but you will lose plenty if the site is so “creative” that the visitor cannot figure out how to get to your portfolio section within the first five seconds of landing on the site, for example. The site is the vehicle that attracts the right prospects to your company. It should intuitively guide them to the pages that interest them the most and entice them to engage with you on a more meaningful level at some point during that first visit. Your site is a tour visitors can take of your firm, but it is a self-guided tour, and visitors will probably not follow the path that you expect.
There are three performance indicators that you can use to evaluate your site's ability to generate business.
No comments:
Post a Comment