What I've learned about web design in the last 12 months

(or - why websites are kind of like human beings)

• There is no one design that works for everyone
• Your website should be as unique as you are
• The only way to find out what that looks like is to change and measure the results
• It costs less to change your website today than it ever has

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Think about it, we've evolved over millions of years - sure we're pretty recognizable as humans instead of say gorillas, or fish, or sofas even, and yet we're all unique!  We're different shapes and sizes, colors and creeds, we have different languages and behaviors and we dress in a myriad of ways to help us get what we want.

But this didn't happen overnight - there had to be change, there had be a selection process in order for the most "successful" traits to win out.

The Takeaway For Your Website

There is a utopian design for your business' website, one that turns all those visitors into paying customers or clients.  The only way to get there is to try different versions - hell, call them generations,  of how it looks and functions.  So do this:

• Decide how long each generation will have to develop useable data - say two to three months
• Choose which metric you want to improve
•  Make changes to your site and / or strategy
• Measure the results
• Discard what didn't work
• Rinse and repeat

 God With a Fast Forward Button?

The only question you need to ask yourself right now is how quickly do you want to evolve?

Big Caveat

This isn't just about the design of your website, it's about your content too.  What you put out into the world has a huge impact on who visits you and whether they choose to engage.  When it comes to SEO, website design is inextricably tied to content strategy so to evolve successfully, you need to be looking at both.

Let's Talk

This isn't complicated, it just requires a little strategy, planning and execution.  If you'd like some help setting it up, call me on 310 980 2499 or email me and let's talk.

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Written while listening to: Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Image Credit: Dog Reads Newspaper by Steve Eng on Flickr

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Who Are You? Who Who, Who Who…

We’ve just started working with a new client, taking their site from an old blog style layout to a more modern look and feel. Towards the end of the initial consultation, I asked the owner the question: “Who are you?” This flummoxed him for a minute – “Good question” he says, “No-one’s asked me that for a while!” [flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarchi/567321168/[/flickr]

Now we’re not talking about some existential ego trip here, what we’re talking about is your brand. When a customer comes to your website, they will form a view of your business within the first couple of seconds – even before they read a word of your text. The layout of your front page, the colors used, your logo and where it is, any images on the page and the navigation – all of these will be taken on board and evaluated against the thousands of other websites that the customer has seen.

Your website is a reflection of you, of your business. So, what kind of a business are you, and we’re not talking: “I am a Plumber” or “I own a series of Laundromats” – we want to know what kind of a plumber you are – are you efficient, are you always on time, do you use the latest gadgets to get things done quicker and cheaper than your competition? Are your Laundromats clean, do you invest in the latest technology, do you offer extra services, and are you running a current deal for students?

When you work with Kilted Chaos we will listen to you and incorporate who you are into how your website looks and functions. That way, when a potential visitor arrives at your website, they will see you for the dedicated, passionate and outstanding business that you are. Well you are, aren’t you?

Photo Credit: Sarchi on Flickr

Small Business Owners – It’s easy to be found

So you run a small business – maybe it’s a restaurant or a store, maybe you offer a service like an accountant or a plumber. You know a little about online marketing, you might even have a website that hasn’t been updated since you paid an SEO consultant to get you on the “front page of Google!” You’re good at running your business but think you don’t have the time or budget to market yourself properly online.

HELLO – It’s 2009 – things have changed.

It is easier now for people to find your business than it has ever been – the development of tools such as blogs, texting, smart phones and yes, Twitter have resulted in a stream of information that is constantly being updated and accessed by your competitors and your customers. If your business competition is within 20 miles and you don’t have an updated dynamic website, then you are going to lose to the business owner who does.

Click here to read more on how small business owners can effectively use Twitter – this post is less about what it does and more about how you can do it. We know as small business owners ourselves that incorporating a new system into daily business operations is a challenge. If it isn’t easy to do then it gets put on the sidelines like many other things.

Kilted Chaos’ approach to social media and online marketing is to make it as easy as possible. We deliver budget conscious yet professional websites that integrate with your social media marketing. We then show you how easy it is to create a business oriented Twitter stream and encourage you to write occasionally about your business – and that’s it. That’s all you need to start with.

If you get hooked and find that investing more time in social media marketing is improving your bottom line (and we think it will) then we’ll show you how to take it further. Contact us.