For ecommerce websites especially, once the Christmas and New Year rush fades into the distance, it’s usually time to take a fresh look at the web design and navigation.

And it’s a good habit to adopt. Too many people see the design of their website as a one-off job; something to get out the way at the beginning of a site’s life and then forget.

What they don’t realise is that fashion, trends and looks change rapidly, and if you’re not careful, a website can look dated, and therefore jaded, within a matter of months.

But there is a word of caution here. It is not necessary to throw the baby out with the bath water. Don’t change for change sake and don’t make radical, clean sweep changes which often antagonise your users to the extreme.

Think about the aggro Facebook and Google get when they make dramatic changes to their sites. Okay, they have the power and user base to pull it off, but it’s not really worth antagonising too many of your users with radical design changes.

The trick is to see design changes as an evolutionary process – one that involves a series of tweaks and refinements over the year which makes it a more enjoyable experience for the user.

And that’s the key, always think, will my user base get what I’m trying to do. Remember that you’ve worked hard to get people to your site, don’t throw it away on design changes for change sake.

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Any SEO agency executive will tell you that the mobile website can reap dividends when it comes to making a website work for their clients, but companies are still reluctant to embrace what is a superb opportunity for the future.

Smartphones now dominate mobile sales and soon most of the adult population will be comparing their Apple’s with their BlackBerry’s, and this is the way they will surf the internet in the future.

The problem is if course, that smartphones, no matter how clever they are, do not (yet) have the power of a laptop, or tablet, so are limited in their ability to handle complex websites. Nor do their screens allow for a good viewing experience.

So it’s almost a quite large step back in terms of the technology involved and that upsets many webmasters and website owners who are continually looking for ever more complicated websites. Which means that effectively two strategies have to be run side by side; the main website, together with the mobile website. One complicated and forever expanding; the other simplified and set within certain parameters.

But, the advantage is, that one can learn from other. And most importantly, the main website designers and builders can take lessons from the mobile sites, in that complexity should not get in the way of the message.

Attribute to: Neil Martin, Cayenne Red.

Neil Martin is a digital marketing consultant with Reading-based Cayenne Red and is a regular contributor to the media on how companies market themselves in the digital age.

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Basic things to think about are colour schemes, for example, what stands out but is not too vivid, and can text be easily read on the background colour?

Using templates is a great way to go, because they are already structured and provide you with the basics, you just have to pic colour schemes fonts and rename links.

Simple is more effective, it doesn’t have to be all singing and all dancing, just make sure that when designing a website it reflects your brand. If you’re a high end company, go for classy, chic and modern, if you provide a service, chose something that says I’m a professional. Don’t forget to think about your audience, if you’re trying to catch a teenager’s imagination, you’ve got to go with cool fonts, and possibly music and videos.

Most importantly content is key, users need to be able to find what they are looking for when they arrive at your site, so make sure your content is precise, and doesn’t waffle on too much. If you’re thinking about designing a website do some research, look at other companies in your market place and see what they have created, also look at the big players and analyse their sites to get some influence and ideas.

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The website design is crucially important to ecommerce operations, but it is just one element of the equation which makes a successful formula.

The other elements have to be in place as well, coming together to create a successful platform that will generate interest and sales.

First and foremost is strong onsite SEO which works hand in hand with the website design. And this means getting the metadata right, working together with the content, plus an effective keyword strategy.

Then you can move onto thinking about the offsite SEO strategy and how the outside world sees the website.

But all too often it is the website design which gets blamed for a poor performance whereas in reality, it’s more often the other elements not working properly that should get the critical attention.

If you think of the website as the shop window, it can only be used to sell so much product, or services, so don’t rely on it to be the sole revenue prop.

A lot of people new to ecommerce make the mistake in thinking that once the pretty website design and structure is complete, then it’s just a question of sitting back and raking in the money. It’s almost as though they think that everyone out there, through some form of osmosis, will suddenly realise that a new website has been designed and is worthy of attention.

It couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Apart from some new disciplines as SEO and PPC, website marketing is not that much different from say marketing decades ago.

The same principles apply to a website, as to say creating a product brochure. It all comes down to marketing a product, or a service, to an audience of customers. In this, it’s not rocket science, but common sense, and all too often, webmasters and website owners forget this.

So, the same marketing principles that held good years ago remain viable today.

Firstly, understood your potential customer. Market research is vital if you are to sell profitably and consistently. Why someone buys goods, or services from you, shouldn’t be a surprise (albeit a pleasant one)! Understanding your audience is crucial for success.

Secondly, make the offering clear and unambiguous. In today’s lightening fast world of ecommerce, customers can have moved onto a competitor’s website within nano seconds. So don’t give a potential customer the excuse to give up on you and move away. That’s not to say that no customer will move on – comparison is the name of the game and no matter how well you construct your point of sale window, you’ll still find people finding a different place to buy.

Thirdly, be honest, available and upfront. Don’t think anonymity is clever, or that playing smoke and mirror games with the prices, or terms and conditions, is going to impress anyone. Give people a simple message and make it obvious to everyone just what the deal is.

So, remember, website marketing comes down to common sense, not rocket science.

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If you take a quick look at the most popular websites, you’ll see some very good designs, but if you look beyond the fancy logos, or clever graphics, they all follow a similar template. And it’s this template you have to bear in mind when thinking about deigning websites.

If you think about it sensibly, the internet in its present form hasn’t been around for that long, indeed, the internet powered by fast speed broadband is comparatively young, maybe at most five years. And in that period of time, conventions have almost subconsciously drawn up which dictate how a website can look and be built.

Technology is one key factor; human nature the next. Technology dictates what you can do with a website in terms of download and upload speeds, and how it can be structured. In other words, build a website which is too complex, with too many individual items being loaded, and few people might have the connection speed able (or indeed patience), to stay long enough to read. You can already see this happening with some major newspaper sites where so much is packed into a single page, that download times can be slow on old computers, or low speed links.

Then there’s human nature. People think in a certain way and if the website is built counter to human logic, then it will fail. Pages and information thus have to be ordered in such a way, that people can use them with ease.

So, when designing websites, don’t just think about the looks; think about the functionality.

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