Anatomy of a Business Website

Laura Donovan

Most businesses want a website that can be found by potential customers and that will convince them that what the company is offering will solve their problems or fulfill their wants and needs.

We have been designing and writing websites for over 20 years. We have seen a lot of changes in technology and in consumer expectations over the years.  Today, both Google and website viewers seem to be interested in how a website looks and what it says.  Here are the things we have discovered that make websites attractive and useful to both viewers and Google in 2015:

1. Appropriate.  When someone is looking for a plumber, they want the website to look like it belongs to a plumber.  That may be an over-simplification, but the color, images, fonts and even the layout of a website must match the company’s overall branding and be consistent with industry standards.
   
2. Uncluttered.  Trying to tell people too much may confuse and annoy them.  Think of the website like a newspaper. The important information is “above the fold” and tells the “top story.”  Whether you use a traditional layout or one of the new “one page” or “parallax” designs, keep it simple and to the point.  Adding more pages is always better than trying to cram everything on the home page.
   
3. Informative.  What do you do?  It amazes me how many websites I look at that forget to tell me – in simple, easy to understand words – what it is that they do, and what they want me to do. This is also important to Google, as key words are no longer as important as key phrases and overall content.
   
4. Call-to-Action.  What do you want your viewers to do?  Whether you want to capture their email so you can tell them more about your company, entice them to sign up for a free booklet or even place an order, a carefully crafted “Call to Action” is important and the “landing page” should also be simple, only ask for the information you need, and conform to the overall design of the website.
   
5. Navigation.  Once a viewer gets to your home page, they may want to read more about you, your company, your products and your services.  You may need just a few pages, or many pages. A good navigation system will help your viewers find what they are looking for.  And since Google indexes each page, the more useful pages, the better.
   
6. Mobile Friendly.   More people view websites on mobile devices than on computers.  Google warns that it may not include websites that are not mobile friendly in their search results. But a mobile friendly design is just the beginning.  Make sure the site is easy to read, easy to navigate and attractive on all screen sizes.

In the past, websites were often just places to hold as many key words as possible. Today, Search Engine Optimization is about more than simple key words.  Google and other search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms to help people find what they are looking for.  That means that your website must conform to the latest Webmaster Guidelines.  And for or now, at least, it is all about good design, good navigation, and a constant supply of “fresh” well-written and appropriate content – all packaged in a mobile-friendly website.  And this is not only what Google wants – it is what your customers want.

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