Notes from the field 1996 – 2010 David Quaid - Consultant SEO - Search Engine Optimisation 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