OK, so on to working backwards.

In web design, you main aim is that we want the sales made from all the sites we build to be as effortless as possible, and we will work hard for that target.

One of the things we do to acheive this is SEO: Sales Effort Optimization.

A lot of web design companies focus on Search Enging Optimization. That is, trying to setup your site so that it appears on the first page or the first listing on major search engines.

Now, while appearing on the first page of search engine results is a good step, if your website sales process is confusing, then what’s the point?

So what’s the answer?

Sales Effort Optimization. Some people call this precondition planning. A lot of big companies use this method of goal setting and task planning.

Now, we understand that this post might be long, so we are going to indent and highlight key points in bold, but we highly recommend reading the entire page.

The first step to Sales Effort Optimization is:

 

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1. Define the final desired result.

 

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Before anything is done, before the design, before the programming, decide what you want your website (or web application/program/project/meeting etc.) to accomplish.

 

As Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat says “If you dont know where you are going, any road will do!”

Write down the goals / desired actions for your website. You might have a few of these, or you might have just one - ‘Make Me Money!’ but try to be a little more specific. For instance, this site has two main goals.

1. Provide enough free and valuable information for prospective clients to get them to where they want to fill out our More Information form for us to contact them about a possible website project.
2. Provide an online portal for registering domains and hosting websites.

Now that these goals are set, we introduce:

 

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2. Precondition Planning.

 

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This is where you work backwords to the simplest task possible listing as the next item what is stopping the current item from being completed.

 

For example, for our first goal, we would list our precondition plan as such (starting with the end goal):

1. We need to receive the visitors details because we dont want them paying to call us.
2. In order to do that, our website needs to email us those details.
3. In order to do that, our website needs to collect those details.
4. In order to do that, the website visitor needs to be able to enter their details.
5. In order to do that, the website visitor should follow a call to action to fill in the form.
6. In order to do that, the website visitor should first have read some useful information.
7. In order to do that, the website visitor needs to be able to find the useful information.
8. In order to do that, our website needs to be ranking highly on search engines.
9. In order to do that, our website needs to be validly/properly programmed/designed.
10. In order to do that, we need to have internal best practice documents.
11. In order to do that, we need to hire knowledgeable programmers.
12. In order to do that, we need to promote our company as a fun workplace.
13. In order to do that, we need to have an all you can eat ice cream policy.

OK, so maybe we have gone a bit far here, but you get the idea, right?

Now, sometimes you will have two preconditions for the current step. But that’s not something to worry about. Just branch off into multiple lines and keep going down each line. (You might find that they will join up again further down the track)

Once you have done this for all of your goals, we start step 3:

 

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3. Task Assignment.

 

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This is where the fun begins.

 

Now we take our Precondition plan, reverse the list and assign out the tasks required to reach the goal.

Task (What?)	Who?	When?	Done?
Establish Ice Cream Policy	CEO	Day 1
Hire competent programmers	HR	Day 3
Establish best practice guidelines	Programmers	Day 5
Build valid website	Programmers/Designers	Day 8
Write useful content	Copywriter	Day 9
Program contact form	Programmer	Day 10

OK - so we are not going to fill this one out completely, but you can see how it works.

One more import step in Sales Effort Optimization is:

 

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4. Process checker.

 

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Assign one person to follow the precondition plan through at each step.

 

This persons role is to make sure that each step leads on to the next as you have outlined in your plan. If this person isnt quite sure what happens next, or they are hesitant about whether the step is fully covered, then they need to bring the team together for further clarification on that step before the team can move forward.

So you see, when you follow the rules of SEO then everything is focused towards improving the sales process - because it is this that is more important than your search engine rank.

OK - so the first poll that we have up now is just a really quick and simple question - if you havent voted yet, make your choice right now (you wont leave this page, I promise).

So, what I am really trying to discover is:

1. Do/Should designers mostly develop a layout first and then tweak it to fit the content provided?

   or

2. Do/Should designers look at the content that needs to be displayed and produce an appropriate layout?

This leads on to whether or not an average web user can tell the difference between a layout that has content stuffed into it and a layout designed specifically for the content.

So… now that you have offered your opinion, here’s mine.

Through my years as a web developer, the overwhelming issue I run into is a client who comes to me with a design of what their website has to look like, and then a page of goals and the reasons for their website.

So far, I dont think anyone has provided a design that matches their desired results. Over the years I have taken both roads when presented with this quandary and have built the site that was given or designing a site that produced the results… which client do you think was happiest?

Looks vs $$$$$$ - not a hard decision for most business owners!

I feel that as web designers we need to take the information that the client is providing us with: their goals, corporate colors, existing site statistics, and all other analytical information available for their existing website and then design the layout that merges all of these together into something that looks good, fits in with the corporate image but gets the wanted results.

It’s no good having the best looking site in the world if the people who visit the site are too busy drooling at the layout to notice that you are giving them each $1,000 if they would just click on a the magic rotating button.

I was recently having a discussion with someone about some corporate business cards and the comment was made that ‘The CEO liks them ’cause he designed them!’

Dont get me wrong, I think it’s great that the CEO designed them, but if they dont work - if your average Joe doesnt want to look at it, or cant read it, or chucks it out cause it’s ugly - then the design was done because the CEO thought they looked cool, not to produce the desired action from the business card recipient.

Business cards, websites, flyers, letters, and anything else you will put out as a company has to have a measurable purpose - and if the design detracts from this purpose, then its time to make a change.

Look at the goals, and work backwards to the design… more on this tomorrow!