<\/p>\n

Construction websites are a lot like spring. Lot’s of beauty with some craziness baked in. And since spring is in full bloom, you can see some awesome instances of serious beauty provided by Mother Nature. But beauty comes in many shapes and sizes; from a perfect cut (the first time) to a flower in bloom to your website…yes, your website.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a saying that form follows function, coined by some architect in the 1800\u2019s, his name I forget, but his point I do not.<\/p>\n

The form of your website has to provide functionality to your reader. Here\u2019s an example. I am house hunting, and this week I looked at a house that had a door off of a hallway. You open the door and are immediately presented with a 20-foot drop to the ground. Seems there was supposed to be a deck built but it never happened, but they installed the door first.<\/p>\n

That is a bad case of form following function<\/strong><\/p>\n

A website that is over-designed to simply \u201clook\u201d good, many times loses its purpose and function while focusing on just being beautiful.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t bake into the design how users are going to use the site, and instead just opt for making it pretty, you\u2019ve created a white elephant for yourself.<\/p>\n

If you designed the site for form and appearance, hoping that functionality will take care of itself, then you are probably seeing the results in a drop in your conversion rate.<\/p>\n

Why does this happen?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because beauty distracts, it dos it in nature and it does it in web design. If a user comes to your site but doesn\u2019t know what to do or how to do it, it is harming your business, not helping it.<\/p>\n

You see, a visually overloaded site or sites with a lot of \u201cflash\u201d lack the simplicity needed to keep from confusing visitors.<\/p>\n

We see websites that are needlessly complex all the time and I understand how it happens. It is so much easier to add things to a site than it is to take things away. People often see a white space and think, \u201cwe\u2019ve got to fill that with something\u201d when the white space is just fine.<\/p>\n

Focus on a constituency of one<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to you avoid site bloat? Keep this one thing in mind; focus all of your website\u2019s features on the user. The person using the site is the most important ingredient in this stew. The best ways to do that are:<\/p>\n

\n
• Plan the purpose of your site BEFORE you decide on the look<\/li>\n
• Simple is always, always, always better<\/li>\n
• Make the purpose of your site crystal clear the minute they hit your site<\/li>\n
• Make the next step on each page crystal clear as well<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  \nThe point<\/strong><\/p>\n

  You want to make a great-looking site that works. Don\u2019t ever sacrifice your reader for design aesthetics…if you want your site to deliver leads. If you don\u2019t care about generating leads with your website, then do whatever you want. But if your website is supposed to help you generate new business, pay attention to these tips.<\/p>\n

  If you think your site has gotten away from you, you can always let me take a look at it and give you a solid critique.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

  So that\u2019s it…just like your day job where making things useful comes first, do the same with your web presence and I promise, your lead generation will improve a lot!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Construction websites are a lot like spring. Lot’s of beauty with some craziness baked in. And since spring is in full bloom, you can see some awesome instances of serious beauty provided by Mother Nature. But beauty comes in many shapes and sizes; from a perfect cut (the first time) to a flower in bloom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-articles","7":"category-contractor-websites","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n