The Art and Science of Customer Conversion 

The problem with most approaches to "SEO" or Search Engine Optimisation is that they are one dimensional. They are focused not on customers and their needs, but on making sure that your website is ranked well in the search engines.

On the other hand, web design tends to be one-dimensional too. It is concerned with making a site 'feel good', but defines this narrowly in terms of touchy-feely concepts such as colour palettes and font types.

Both of these aspects are important. Your website needs to rank well in the search engines, because that is one important way in which you can attract 'qualified' visitors - those who want to purchase your products or services - to your site. And once they get there, they should feel that your site is well designed and welcoming. But these two aspects on their own are not enough to convince your prospective customer to buy.

In a previous post, we discussed online reputation and how to make a customer feel that they are in safe hands. But there is a still more basic aspect of your website's functionality that needs to be expertly managed and executed. And it is an aspect that sadly, too many web designer's still don't pay attention to - and that is 'usability'.

'Usability' is still an uncool subject. It's not flashy, it's not about about Web 2.0 or WEb 3.0 or semantic search techniques. It's about how your customer experiences your website. It asks some borong old questions that still, amazingly, many web designers don't ask. Such as...

On every single web page, can I tell what this site is about?

What am I supposed to do on this page?
What could I do on this page?
Where can I find the product I want to buy?
I'm lost. How can I re-orientate myself on this site?
How do I get help?
Can I give some feedback?

And best of all...

How do I buy?

A couple of weeks ago a 'graphic web designer' tried to convince me that Home pages were dead - unfashionable, unnecessary and unwanted. His argument was that most web users are far too sophisticated to need a home page by which to get their bearings. Everyone knows, he said, that if you click on the logo you can go to the home page - you don't need to have 'home' on the menu. People are more sophisticated than that these days.

I beg to differ. The world wide web has been designed by technicians and engineers. They have been aided and abetted by designers. As is natural, these two sets of people have tended to arrange things as though they were having a private conversation. But most Ecommerce web users - that's customers to you and me - are not that sophisticated.

Why should they be? Customers want easy navigation, the ability to find what they want and get good information about it, and to feel safe and appreciated when they they buy. These should be the basic aims of every Ecommerce website.