As in life, compromise is often required in search engine optimisation. Therefore it makes sense that there has to be a balance between the aesthetics of a site and its functional capacity as a tool of a firm. Sometimes what is easy on the eye is also ‘what works’, but that is by no means always the case. It is very important to look at a site through the perspective of a user to appreciate where it scores well and where it falls short. Often users first end up on a site at its homepage so it is vital to get these things right on this page.
Some SEO companies mistakenly think that their work is almost done when a user has found their way to a site. However, a site may have a high bounce rate and few conversions may be made if additional effort is not put in. Users may get to a site, be unimpressed by it and rapidly be off elsewhere to have their needs met. That is one of the reasons why at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk we never use or recommend black hat techniques. These unethical methods can sometimes temporarily boost the ranking of a site, but users are seldom impressed when they observe what is actually on a site which has had this kind of work done for it.
The homepage is crucial in displaying to users that they have gone to the right place. If the homepage is not inviting, users will not hang around for long. Users are like ‘real world’ travellers in that they have been on a journey and need a bit of reassurance. They need to be convinced that they have found a reputable establishment which will provide them with reliable information, goods and/or services at competitive prices. Some inexperienced people therefore conclude that the homepage should be the virtual equivalent of a shop window. It is wise to remember how many times you have gone ‘window shopping’ at this point. It is one thing to be impressed favourably by an attractive display, it is quite another to be enticed inside a shop and make a purchase.
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Posted by Jon.
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