What’s the point of having a website if no one can find it? In order for a website to perform to its best you need to ensure it achieves maximum visibility by reaching as many people as possible. In order to do this you realistically need to get your website into the top 10 positions within the search engine results. One way in which you can help to ensure this is through the web design of a site. Your website needs to have the right design principles.

So how do you know if your website has the right design principles? To come to this decision you need to take a hard look at your site and think about whether your site has curb appeal. To do this effectively you should take a look at your website from your customer’s point of view. You should be able to decide whether your site conveys the essential message of your business within three to five seconds of being on your site. As well as this it is important to look at your site and ask yourself questions such as:

• Who is your targeted customer?
• What is the overall purpose of your website and your business as a whole?
• What action do you want from a visitor to your site?
• What are you selling?
• Where are you expecting to receive the major of your traffic from?

You need to be sure about aspects such as these so that you can ensure that your website gets designed in a way that reflects these. For example if you are targeting pensioners then a flashy website with music and videos isn’t really going to appeal to them to use your site or if you are trying to sell package holidays then you should have your website designed with this in mind and use images that reflect holidays as well as colours which are warm and welcoming. Its little things such as these which will help to optimise your site to perform better in the search engines.

If people find your site attractive, easy to use and informative they are much more likely to convert into a customer, return to your site and refer it on to others. So with over nine billion searches conducted each month in Google, Yahoo and MSN your website really needs to be featured in the top 10 search results otherwise you will be losing vital sales and marketing shares to your competitors. Search engine positioning is crucial; if your online business is out of sight then your website will be out of mind to hundreds or thousands of potential customers every day.

Many people don’t realise how much of an impact the design of your website has on your business. People will form an opinion of your website within seconds and this opinion is then extended to your business. Because of this it is highly important that you get your website design by professionals who will be able to create the perfect site for your business and a perfect site to get you ranked higher in the search engines.

Helen is the web master of Search Solutions, proving you with all of your SEO Web Design needs.