Good web design is not just about creating a good looking website.

Of course the look of a website is very important, but it is only one of three factors that are all equally important.

Being seduced by the glamour of a good looking website is a trap many small business owners fall into. They do this at the hands of well-meaning, but simply uninformed web designers.

If you want a website that really performs for your small business by automatically generating new traffic, new leads and ultimately new sales, you need a website that has all three important factors:

1. A Good Looking Website
2. A Well-Written Website
3. A Well Constructed Website

A Good Looking Website

It almost goes without saying that good looks (or image) do matter in business and this is very true when it comes to web design. A shoddy, tacky, cheap, or amateur-looking website will have your visitors leaving within seconds of arriving.

It is always worth spending that bit extra on good design.

A Well-Written Website

For a website to be an effective marketing tool for your business it needs to contain well-written copy. Copy is simply the text on the page. Far too many small business websites have copy that drones on about things that will either bore the visitors into leaving, or just totally lacks focus.

Good copywriting overcomes this problem. copywriting is the art of written persuasion. Just like a good novel, the copywriter uses words to draw the reader in and capture their imagination. Then, once they have the reader’s full attention, they persuade them to do something – perhaps click on a hyperlink, complete an enquiry form, pick of the telephone, etc.

Make sure that all the copy on your website is well-written.

A Well-Constructed Website

A well constructed website is one that does three things:

1. Makes it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for
2. Makes it easy for search engines to understand
3. Encourages visitors to use social networking and social bookmarking sites to list your pages

Whilst most small business websites make a reasonable job of the first point, huge numbers of them fail totally at the second, and have no idea what the third is or why it is so important.

Search engine spiders will crawl your web pages sooner or later whether you want them to or not, so make sure your website is constructed in a way they will understand. This is called “on page search engine optimisation” and it is a must if you want your website to be an effective marketing tool for your business.

Search engines place a huge amount of importance on high quality inbound links. The correct use of social bookmarking and social networking sites in conjunction with your own website can create these important inbound links for you, virtually automatically.

If your web designer doesn’t know how to do these things – get one that does!

Conclusion

Get any one of these three “good web design” factors wrong and your website will be as useful to you as a chocolate fireguard. Conversely, if your small business website has all three of these factors covered it will soon start to pay for itself – and continue doing so for a long time to come.