Neither will putting keywords and PPC marketing, or SEO, before persuasive web design. The challenge every website faces is a return on investment (ROI). Funnily, and annoyingly enough, paying for usability design help is considered after first paying for banners, text ads, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, search engine submission and pay per click campaigns. When a keyword fails to pull its weight, it’s tossed out and another keyword is bet on instead.

Who thinks to ask the website visitor what went wrong? Who gets the brilliant idea to re-evaluate the website design to make sure it’s not scaring away potential customers that just found it?

Frederick Marckini writes, in Ass-Backwards SEM
     “But if the Web site had a more persuasive architecture, if it spoke to more segments of the audience in their language and led them through the buying cycle, the site’s overall conversion rate would increase.”

In the past week, two people wrote to me asking if their sites should be redesigned. A third website did undergo a major redesign, only to learn that visitors hate it, and is now seeking urgent help. It’s rare that I would suggest a total redesign. What I do instead is find failure points in the present overall structure of the site and focus on repairing them. There are two major areas that nearly everyone falters on. The first is the primary objective of the website. The second is navigation. They’re intimately connected. I don’t ask clients “What keyword did you build your website for?” I ask them, “Why did you build it?”, “Whom did you build it for?”, “What do you want them do on your website?”, “Where do you want them to do this?” and “How?”

What’s surprising is how many times they don’t really know the answer to those basic questions, and yet have spent loads of money marketing the site and buying up keywords.

Persuasion architecture takes it a step further by asking “Are you conveying your message?” or “How are you going to create a “call to action” website that dances all over the competition?” You want to convince the first-time visitor that you know your stuff, you offer the best deal for the money, you know your product inside and out or you have a passion for your topic that’s so incredibly intoxicating that people bookmark your site to learn more or recommend it. And that’s really just the tip of the desirability part of usability oriented design.

I don’t expect that a complete makeover is your answer. I do suggest enhancements to the information architecture and user interface (or in simple terms, the design and foundation.) Sometimes I refer a content writer who can work magic with words that sell and convince. I suggest a serious look and evaluation of all goals. I advise practical thinking when it comes to determining who your website users are. There are usually several types of visitors coming to your website. Have you found a way for each of them to stick around, once they found the site? Have you found a ways to make their visit productive, which in turn turns into a higher conversion rate for you?

Ah well…sometimes I think people would rather waste their money bidding on keywords or consider sending their visitors a link to the song “Stay” to see if that helps them.

“…oh won’t you stay, ay ayy…just a little bit longer? Please, please stay, ay ayy…”