In my two previous posts I have explained why I believe the web design industry (as we currently know it) is in for a major shake-up during the next few years.

No longer will it be good enough to build websites that look nice (essentially works of art). Web designers in the future will need to think like marketers, first and foremost. They will have to think less about being “creative” and more about selling.

Yes, selling. That’s what makes the world go round in business. One of the oldest adages in business is: “Nothing happens until someone sells something.” Yet this appears to have been forgotten by the “creative” experts in the web industry.

Nice-looking sites… hardly any sales!

Even the few web designers who do think like marketers (myself included) have tended to rely on making an educated guess about how to design a website that will sell effectively. We’ve used the experience gained from previous clients, in the expectation that the same principles will work for a different client in a different market.

Sometimes, we strike it lucky. Our client’s new website starts selling like gangbusters. They tell us how wonderful we are… and our ego grows bigger. These sites get added to our portfolio and we write case studies about how our websites have dramatically increased our clients’ businesses.

But equally often, the results of even the most experienced, marketing-driven web designer will be disappointing. The site will be slow to build up traffic and will not bring in as much new business and the client hoped for. These are the sites we want to quietly forget.

Sometimes, a plain web page outperforms a glitzy one

Often, extra effort put into prettying up a website’s graphics has no effect at all. I am continually amazed when I meet people who are quietly making a fortune from a crappy-looking website. The reason is, they’re smart marketers. They know how to make an offer their website visitors can’t refuse.

Could these people do even better with a prettier-looking website? Maybe. But more often than not I’ve seen conversion rates actually fall away when the website has been redesigned.

Creativity + analysis + success

I’ve become more and more convinced that web design should be a process that occurs over a period of months, rather than simply building a site, launching it and then leaving it to sink or swim.

We need a process of testing and tweaking, so improve the website’s conversion rate.

We need to begin with…

1. A clear goal in mind (a certain number of sales, enquiries or some other action we want our website visitors to take)
2. A way to measure that goal.

In other words, we need measurable results. Increasingly, clients will demand this of web design companies. Much as it strikes fear into our hearts, it’s a truth every web professional needs to face, sooner rather than later.

A strategy for optimising websites

I’ve recently begun testing some of my clients’ websites using Google Website Optimizer.

Basically, it works by designing two slightly different versions of the same web page – version A and version B. You might change the headline, or the placement of certain elements of the page, or other changes.

Then you “split test” version A against version B using Google Website Optimizer. This means you send 50% of the traffic to version A and 50% to version B. The whole process is trackable and measurable, so you can see which version of the web page produces better results.

But you don’t have to stop there. You can then come up with versions C, D, E etc and test them against the “winner” from the previous test.  As a result of this process, you come up with a web page that is the most effective.

It took me a long time to accept the need for testing

I first heard about the principle of split testing in 2004. Back then, a few of the top American Internet marketers were doing it. But I resisited the idea I could actually do any split testing for my clients.

Firstly, it would involve extra work. My clients would need to pay for my extra time, and they would complain, I reasoned. Furthermore, my clients expected me to know what would work, first time around, without having to test it. It would make me look incompetent if I admitted I didn’t always get it right first time.

So I shelved the idea of testing. I continued to build websites that pleased my clients. But the niggling doubts increased until I recently (late 2009) decided to take the plunge and embrace testing.

So, do we still need “creative” people in the web industry?

Yes, of course! A good creative process gives you strong alternatives to evaluate. If a web designer lacks creative skills, or is lazy, they will simply end up testing “bad version A” against “bad version B”, which will only give a bad result.

The way to build world-class websites is to start with the best you can find, and then to test them against other great alternatives.

No longer will it be good enough to design competitive websites simply as a “creative” – because creative ideas and graphic design are only a fraction of what a website needs to be great.

In the coming new world of web design, we will still use all our creativity to develop several great solutions. But that will be just the start. Then we’ll put those solutions to test… and find the winner!

As I noted in my previous post, web design is typically driven by graphic designers and IT geeks. Little (or no) thought is given to marketing.

The result is, most websites are designed to be aesthetically pleasing to the client and the designer. In other words, they are essentially works of art. Often, they are self-indulgent works of art, with the client paying a large sum of money.

In terms of how effective the website will be as a marketing tool, it’s pretty much hit and miss. If the client is lucky, the website will bring in some new business. More often than not, the site just sits there as a liability rather than an asset.

I am often appalled when clients tell me they have spent many thousands on a web site design that fundamentally doesn’t work – or, even worse, a redesign that I have no reason to expect will work better than the site it replaced.

Recently, an Auckland company asked me for advice on why they weren’t making any sales from their e-commerce site, after spending $40,000 to have it redesigned! Looking at the site, it was easy to see why. Although it had some nice fancy effects, it was a nightmare for prospective buyers to find their way around. The home page was so busy, you didn’t know where to look first.

What’s wrong with the current way of building websites?

Tyically, a web design company will present their client with a couple of mockups, and let the client choose the one they like best. Then they build the site to that design. The problem is, from a marketing viewpoint, no one really has any idea how well the site will perform.

Even if the web designer is one of the rare few who have some marketing nous, at best they are only making an educated guess about what will produce the best response.

That’s why we need a radical change in the way websites are designed

One of the great advantages of the Internet, compared with any other advertising medium, is that everything you do is measurable. Unilke other forms of advertising where 50% is wasted (you just don’t know which 50%) with web advertising you can see exactly how your site is performing to convert visitors into customers.

The new aproach to building websites, which clients will increasingly demand, will be to regard website design as a process, during which the site tweaked until it achieves a strong conversion rate.

Testing, testing, testing!

It’s hard for a web designer to break away from the natural compulsion to go with our own personal instincts and tastes, and instead be willing to put our designs to the test… and be willing to tweak things until we get the best possible results.

But the rewards of doing this are immense.

Which of these two websites is better?

For example, take a look at the two websites below. Which of these two sites do you think performed better in terms of getting visitors to take action?

These sites are both owned by one of my clients. We both agreed the one on the right “looks nicer” … more modern etc. But over a few weeks of driving traffic to the sites by per per click advertising, the site on the left out-performed the one on the right by about four to one!

In other words, four times as many people submitted the survey form (which is the desired response) for the site on the left. This site, when you look at it, seems more “old fashioned” with no fancy effects. Conversely, the “modern looking”  site, which has some nice effects when you hover over the images, proved to be a flop.

The moral is… you don’t know until you test!

As we enter a new decade, I want to make a prediction about where I see the web industry going in the next few years.

During the past 10 years, website design has largely been driven by graphic designers and IT geeks. These combined skills have produced some nice-looking websites that function well technically. And for most businesses, that’s pretty much all they’ve expected from their website.

But times are changing. More and more businesses are starting to realise that their websites are simply sitting out there in cyberspace looking pretty. They are failing to bring in any new enquiries and sales.

Business owners are starting to ask the question: “How can I actually SELL more from my website?”

And the graphic designers and IT geeks look at them blankly. You see, they’ve never actually had to sell anything in their lives. They don’t know how to do it. Nor should they be expected to.

So what’s the solution?

A small (but growing) number of web design companies in the United States and the UK are grasping the idea that a radical shift is needed in the way websites are designed.

New Zealand is lagging behind a little but in the next few years, we’re going to see more and more businesses demand that their websites be built primarily with a MARKETING focus.

What part will graphic design play in websites during the coming decade?

Certainly, graphic design will always be important in terms of a presenting a sharp, professional image. But fancy graphic effects are on the way out. More importance will be given to the layout and structure of the site (so people can easily find their way around) and, above all, the WORDS on the site.

Ever since I started in the web industry in 2003, I have believed that writing is the number one skill required by anyone who is serious about selling on the Internet. But most businesses think about the words on their websites as an after-thought. They pay through the nose for fancy design and then cobble together some words to fill the space.

It’s a recipe for failure… as 95% of New Zealand businesses with websites are now discovering.

What will be the most critical skills for web designers in the 2010’s?

I believe the web industry will need to look beyond just building nice-looking sites that work well. Web companies will need to know how to write persuasive headlines that draw visitors into the site and entice them to actually read what is on the page. They will need to understand the art of writing to keep people engaged. They will need to grasp the fundamental marketing principles of having a ‘unique selling proposition’ and making an ‘irresistible offer’.

They will also have to appreciate search engine optimisation (SEO) and know how to read traffic Analytics.

Any web company not designing with SEO in mind is already off the pace

There are two fundamental things a website needs in order to succeed. The first is traffic. If your site isn’t getting seen by the right number of the right people, it can’t succeed, no matter how nice it looks.

The other major factor is website “conversion”, which is the hottest topic today in the web industry in the US and UK. You see, however much traffic your site gets, it needs to convert those visitors to take some action. The proportion of visitors who take action (either by buying something, contacting you or whatever other action you want them to take) is called the Conversion Rate.

Hardly any New Zealand web companies are giving much thought to conversion rate optimisation. But that’s going to change in the next few years as clients demand it.

And for good reason. If you can double your conversion rate, you can double your sales, without having to increase traffic. Once your site is converting well, you can confidently spend more on advertising to drive traffic to it, and know you’ll get results!