Thursday, January 29, 2009

If Your Website Was a Bridge, Would it Be the Golden Gate Bridge, Or Would People Fear to Cross?

I had the great pleasure the other day to undertake the Storey Bridge Climb in Brisbane, Australia with my father and a son. Whilst on the climb, and hearing about the tales of the bridge construction and maintenance, it occurred to me that building a website is alot like building a bridge. A bridge requires strong foundations, must be easily found, should give clear directions for travel, and must be clearly taking people to their intended destination. So, if your website was a bridge would it be a masterful construction like the Golden gate Bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge?

A bridge requires strong foundations. So does a website. What are the foundations of your website and how strong are they? The foundations of your website are the content that it is based around and the keywords that you build the content around. Do your keywords generate strong volumes of targeted traffic? Does your content support the keywords? Does your content tell your traffic that they are in the right location.

A bridge requires a strong network of roads that direct people onto the bridge. The road network should also be related to the intended travel destination of the people using the bridge. This road network also requires regular maintenance to ensure that the traffic will flow smoothly. These are the links to your website. Strong links that relate to the content and goals of your site will bring targeted traffic to your website. The links should be maintained on a regular basis. The aim of the links should be to bring targeted traffic to your website, not search engine rankings.

A bridge requires good signage to tell people where they are going to and what they are going to find when they get there. this is your on-site linking strategy and navigation. Does your on-site linking and navigation give people clear directions around your site. If your directions are poor you will lose people from your site who are unsure where to go or what they will find when they get there.

Finally a bridge has to go somewhere. There is a clear destination which is usually the other end of the bridge! And so must your website have a clear destination. What are people supposed to do when they are on your website. Are you building a list of contacts, do you want them to leave their details, are you selling a product, or are you just sharing information. When your website has a clear goal you will be able to track how effectively it performs and you will be able to test and improve the performance over time.

Finally a bridge needs ongoing maintenance and so does a website. You must maintain and build your content. Keep your site relevant to the changing marketplace. Grow your content. Grow your keyword list. Build more relevant links to your website. Test different onsite linking and navigation strategies. Measure how well your website achieves the goals you have for it. And then repeat the process.

If you build your website with strong foundations, give people clear directions and measure and maintain it on a regular basis your website will have a long and profitable lifetime. If you build your website and you neglect these essential elements or fail to maintain them your website will be a bridge to nowhere!

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