Search engines don't care about web design. People do. While



search engines will not index a website for its great layout,

but for the content, people will forget the website that has

nothing distinctive about it. No visual impact, no interest!

Now, if you are a serious online entrepreneur and want to

have a website that sends the right message to the visitors,

you must know that there are some web design techniques simply

inappropriate for a business website.

Many web design companies promise websites that respect the

web standards, are usable and search engine friendly. Yes,

that's how any website should be. But these are simple tools.

A professional company will mention them, but it will also

let you know how a website will increase revenue, reduce

expenses, bring more customers and so on. A professional web

design firm will not fashion a website "out of the blue", but

conceive a design after understanding your corporate values,

after analyzing the target market and respecting your brand

image. That's what you should care about when you choose a web

design company.

There are many elements of web design that screw up a business

website. Many are simple bad practices, other purely ugly and

useless. For an unknown reason business websites with really

bad web design are still fashioned every day.

One of the worst web design techniques is to use Flash instead

of text. Web designers have fallen in love with Flash, but that

will do a website no good: it increases the size of the page

and it is not search engine friendly. Flash is great for music

bands, movie sites and other sites that need to make a "cool"

impression. Business websites need to send other messages:

reliability, customer support, experience and so on. There are

some astonishing Flash creations on the web, but the most are

simply annoying, useless and visitors just hate them. Flash is

exceptionally bad when the designer forgets to put a "Skip

Intro" button. On a second thought, a "Skip Intro" button will

suggest that the content on that page is insignificant. So far

is clear: Flash pages send out mixed messages. However, if you

are really in love with flash and simply must have it on your

website, create a non-Flash version.

Small text could also be really annoying. If people can't see

your message, they'll just go away, eventually to your

competitors. Another bad web design practice is using too many

images and animated buttons. There's nothing worse than a

website that twinkles and gets you dizzy while you try to find

your way to the information through a bunch of flashy banners,

buttons and useless pictures. Many web designers still use

background images.

Seriously, have you ever see a global business website that

has employed such a web design technique? Most of them have

a standard, classic design, with simple navigation and plain

text on a white background. The graphics are in perfect

harmony with the content, they are not misleading and do have

proper ALT attributes. There is a reason for simplicity in web

design: creating websites that are simple, logical and easy to

use, creating websites that sell.

It takes a real web designer to develop simple web pages that

are both appealing and simple. Simplicity in web design should

not by synonym with ugliness. Simple websites could be

well-designed, elegant and bring other important benefits: they

load faster, they are easier to scan and easier to navigate,

they are quicker to design, build, redesign, maintain and they

require less server space and bandwidth. Best of all: a simple

web design will cost less and bring more!

Article written by Scott Lindsay.