Your website must have immediate visitor appeal (see website usability guidelines) but there is a balance between sufficient information for the visitor to make a decision and too much that they won’t read. Getting that balance right is the hard bit.

Authoring takes into consideration your business marketing (see Business First), website structure (the information architecture) and SEO requirements (see SEO).

Services Websites

Services websites require sufficient and engaging information to persuade visitors that making contact with you is worthwhile. Think of it as your business CV, and like any good CV it won’t get you a job offer but it will get you an interview.

eCommerce Websites

eCommerce websites have different information criteria covering products, descriptions, pricing, availability, reputation, and security. It is important that your website covers all these in sufficient depth to encourage visitors to undertake transactions.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process by which a website’s words and structure are polished so that when a potential visitor issues a search request via (say) Google, your site is displayed high up on the search results page.

There are 2 aspects to search engine optimisation:

• On-site optimisation (or organic search engine optimisation). This is attending to such items as page titles, meta tags, text placement, relative font sizes, link text, keyword density and content relevance. This is to ensure your web page link appears in the highest possible position on the search engine search results page, and that the text displayed is sufficiently inviting that the visitor clicks through to your website.
• Off-site optimisation. This is the building of quality inbound links to your website. One of many criteria search engines like Google use to rate websites, is the number of quality inbound links. They work on the principle that if other people reckon your site is good, they will link to you. Quality links can enhance your search result position and vice versa.

Of course, it is possible for even the smallest of businesses to be somewhere on the first page of Google without any inbound links, providing your website is optimised and you have a unique offering. It depends on what you want to be famous for and then reviewing your website content and structure to ensure that they reflect this.

It’s worth remembering that the wider your business offering, the harder it is to be number 1 for everything.

As an ethical SEO company, we are unable to guarantee getting your site to page 1 position 1.

Building a successful website requires an understanding of website usability blending website structure and content together.

Website Structure

Structure should follow established conventions to prevent visitors having to learn new ways of interacting.

Website structure covers for example, ‘look and feel’, search engine optimisation, accessibility and font styles and sizes.

Website Content

Content sentence complexity should be aimed at the target audience.

Web content covers writing style, language complexity, sentence and paragraph construction and information presentation.

Positive visitor experience

• Interaction. Visitors want to interact with your site at their own speed.
• Site navigation. Ensure the site layout and navigation are intuitive and follow established conventions.

Negative visitor experience

• Distractions. Heavy use of advertisements or moving text and images.
• Registration. Asking your visitor to register before providing basic information.
• Incomplete site. ‘Under construction’. If there is nothing to say, don’t say anything.