One question you should ask yourself when putting your website together is, “Do my graphics compliment or compromise my content?” Compliment vs. Compromise in the world of web design will effect what Google Analytics describes as “Bounce Rate.” Your Bounce Rate is how long a visitor visits your website. If your graphics compliment your content and your content compliments your graphics, then most likely visitors are going to visit your website longer. Granted, if your graphics have nothing to do with your content, or they’re just not innovative or cutting edge, then most likely that potential customer that you worked to get to come to your website will, “Bounce!” I’m going to talk about these two very important roles that should co-exist in the life of your website.
1. Professional and Relevant Content Writing
The content on your website should be standardized by the leading specialist in your certain field. So suppose you owned a carpet cleaning company, your research for your content writing would be on companies such as Stanley Steemer and Chem-Dry. You want to study what your top competitor is doing in order to write your content. You don’t want to be totally out in left field while your top competitor is steadily gaining new clients. The reason why your top competitor is your top competitor is because they have a formula that works. So as you begin to write your content, you want to use the same buzz words that the competitor is using, and ultimately these buzz words should double as your keywords to help with your search engine optimization. There’s nothing new under the sun, and there’s no business that hasn’t already been done or thought of. Your services are probably going to be very similar to what your competitor is offering, so study their work.
2. Graphics That Adhere Your Content
When you’re communicating the look and feel of your website to your web developer, they should have enough common sense and knowledge in graphic design to find or create pictures that are relevant to your topics or services. Not only do you want relevant graphics, but you want your graphics to act as an adhesive, tying the two together to create a marriage between content and graphics. Without graphics on website, your content would look like one long run-on sentence. This would work, if people were information first. Unfortunately, people have short attention spans, and like dogs, we need to see the shiny object in order for us to run towards it. Instead of this being a problem, this is part of the solution, because it gives you and your web developer the opportunity to be creative. We were created to create, we have divine revelation, and creative integrity written into our DNA, so use it. Be as creative as possible, without being overwhelming. The same way that you study the competitors website for content, see how they are using their graphics to marry their content, so not only does the content tell the story, but the graphic speaks as well. There should be no reason why your website should look and feel like it stepped out of the 1990’s. With evolving software like Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, your web developer should be able to create some graphics that separate you from the competition. You and your competition should be running a leg to leg race. Don’t allow the competition to have the upper hand, study their work once again, and then be innovative and unique in your approach. As long as you have dreams and ambitions for the success of your business, then your ideas should come by the handful. Don’t think because you are not an artist or a graphic designer that you don’t know what you want. Sketch out some ideas, verbalize it, and a good graphic designer will be able to capture your vision, and supply you with a physical copy of your idea.
