Search Engine Optimization Blog and other cool stuff!

It is rare to find a designer of anything who favors function over form. When you do, the “designer” may be downgraded by their peers into “engineer” status. Most designers prioritize form over function, and to their credit they probably know full well that by the time the engineers get their hands on their design, some of the form/ style will be shaved off to save money or to appease the market research crowd. In most industries there is a natural tension between design and function. Call it tension or a difference in priority — it is easy to see in a few industries (the auto and fashion industries for starters). The gestation process is clear in the auto industry as we see the aggressively new-age prototypes referred to as “concept cars” at auto-shows in London and Chicago morph into slightly improved (on a design level) if noticeable at all models by the time the cars actually go into mass production and hit the showroom. A similar process, thankfully occurs in the fashion industry. Famous designers create aggressively edgy fashion “couture” (a word I recently learned when my wife used it while shopping for ridiculously over-priced jeans) that only 1% of 1% of the world’s population would ever wear in public or fit into for that matter. And so between the runways in Milan where they showcase these designs and the actual display rack at Nordstrom most of the edgy design is lost in favor of more salable merchandise.

I guess with cars and fashion most people are just a bit too conservative to wear or drive prototypes.

What does this have to do with websites you ask?

Quite a bit actually.

The conflict between designers and engineers is very clear in the realm of websites. Web designers are aesthetically literate. They build “beautiful” looking websites. Web designers see in terms of lines, negative space, color, font, spacing, size, etc.

Where as web engineers (SEO guys) are functionally literate. They see in terms of performance, page rank, outcome, practicality, usefulness and efficiencies.

When it comes to websites: the conflict at first glance is not as obvious as the design of a car. Automakers must wrestle with far more compromise. Mainly because of most people cannot afford to spend $85,000 on a car, or $85 at the pump. So auto makers choose fuel efficiency over horsepower, and give up voice guided navigation and hand stitched Italian leather for a compass and cloth seats (and 45 other factors) to deliver a car in a more reasonable price points. Of course this analogy is not comprehensive, luxury auto brands sacrifice precious little and favor high price-point low volume production over lower margin mass-production — and from the looks of it, theirs no-shortage of people who are willing to ante up.

Back to web-design.

At The Search Engine Guys, we have a very simple agenda. We favor performance and function over design. We are pragmatists on this issue.

What is the point of having a website if prospective clients don’t view it?

What is the point of having a beautiful website if prospective clients don’t view it?

That said, we believe you can have both. We just prioritize performance ahead of design. Once a website has achieved rank, which in our book is first page placement on Google. Then let’s focus on tweaking the look, the lines, the color, the photos etc.

We are quite happy to work with web designers and commonly work on re-designs for clients.

Unlike other industries — a website is a digitally-organic thing. It can be revised continually. It never comes off the production line. So the conflict is not a natural either or.

If you have spent any time on the web, you have seen both extremes.

On a regular basis, we come across beautiful looking websites that very well could be framed and hung on the wall in the Tate Modern in London. Sites that with well balanced negative space, visually interesting hi-res photos and lines that observe all the religiously precise 1/3rd rules that they preach in art school.

The point is, that often these sites are buried on the 132nd page of Google.

The other extreme, is one you inevitably see more often. I call this extreme the “flee market approach.” A website so packed full of links, ads, content that it emits that intense vibe you get when standing in a flee-market. It’s overwhelming. Difficult to look at. It may be SEO friendly but not easy on the eyes.

Clearly there is a balance.

At The Search Engine Guys we recognize that our clients have different priorities, different personalities, and work within different industries. We strive to understand the nuances of our individual clients and implement our proven SEO processes to achieve optimal rank. Once we achieve rank, we are able to study the performance of the site in terms of how long people are spending on various pages, etc., from there we are able to test and refine both the content and the look and feel to maximize performance.

The challenge when it comes to content vs. beauty is to not “let the tyranny of either / or ruin the possibility of both / and” how’s that for a parting cliche’ for you?