Updated February 1, 2012: Tragically, we’re a digital marketing agency, not a chocolate shop! If you’re looking for Valentine’s Day chocolate, visit our favorite local chocolate shop, Moonstruck. We send our clients chocolate from these guys — it’s delicious.
If you’re looking for help with your website or online strategy, give us a call and we can tell you the story of unintended search keywords, such as chocolate.
A good website redesign being compared to a box of chocolates? It might seem like a strange concept. However, a box of chocolates serves two purposes. First, it is pleasurable in and of itself. But it also tends to say something about what the giver of the box wants from the receiver. It might be a thank you, but a lot of the times, it’s a romance.
A website is part of how a company ‘romances’ their customers. If it isn’t a pleasant experience, they will move on. If all the chocolates are a flavor somebody doesn’t like…or worse, are allergic to, then the romance is going to fall flat right there. In most cases, it helps if they’re a new and different flavor.
Is your website the wrong flavor? If you’re using a standard template, then likely it is. Standard templates are like off the rack suits. They don’t really fit anyone quite right. A template designed for you and your company’s needs, however, is like choosing chocolate flavors you know the person likes. Certain color schemes work well for certain products. For example, if your website sells romantic gifts, you’re likely to want reds and pinks.
Are your customers going to be allergic to your website? More and more, these days, people access the web from mobile devices and low powered, cheap netbooks. Neither of these handle over-complicated sites well. Excessive and unnecessary use of Flash is particularly likely to result in an ‘allergic reaction’ that causes your potential customers to move right along. Mobile devices do not play well with Flash and Google doesn’t pick it up properly. A better website design is to keep things simple, and consider a separate layout just for smartphones.
Do you have a new and different flavor? Or is your site exactly the same as Bob’s down the road. Standard templates not only do not fit well, they carry a massive risk of being the same as the competition. A custom redesign, however, is like finding an entire new series of truffles in the chocolate boutique. It’s new, it’s different, and it stands out.
Just like a box of chocolates, your website should entice, lure, and also be a pleasant experience in its own right. A company whose website is not enticing and pleasant needs to think about a redesign. The effort is well spent when customers and their cash come your way. Also, a good designer will optimize a site for SEO purposes, bringing more traffic and hits.
Sometimes listening to someone in another industry can seem like listening to a conversation in a foreign language. There isn’t a place this is more true in than the world of web design. We have words, acronyms, and slang for just about everything. It gets pretty technical sometimes, and silly at others. This week we’re going to start you off with some basics; hang around at Synotac long enough and you’ll hear these more times than you can count.
