Website Design Case Study

Great Web Design is Not About Looking Pretty …

… well, Not ONLY About Looking Pretty

Great website design meets the needs of its visitors and the goals of the business. Your website is your digital first impression. What message do you want visitors to take away?

How Important Are Aesthetics?

Aesthetics are important, but they need to meet the needs of the business AND its visitors. You would expect a graphic design company or an interior designer to have a beautiful website. After all, you’re buying their sense of style. How important is it to you that your accountant’s website is “pretty”. Is that important to you? Or is it more important that the company lets you know how it can manage your finances?

Design can get in the way of meeting your needs. If you are visiting a divorce attorney’s website, you probably have a lot of questions and need answers quickly. If you can’t find the information for which you are looking because the site is “too pretty” you’ll go elsewhere and the design has failed.

A great website design must balance aesthetics with functionality.

In the case study below, we had to help visitors find the information for which they were looking in a package that was aesthetically pleasing, but functional.

Local Professional Services Company Website ReDesign

CLIENT BUSINESS: Local Brand in Highly Competitive Professional Services Industry

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Redesign Website to Improve Lead Generation

TACTICS: Conversion Optimization, Responsive Web Design, WebScan, Eye-Tracking Studies, Google Analytics

RESULTS: 200% Improvement in Conversion Rate. Client has doubled office staff and moved offices.

Balancing Form with Function

When were first approached by this client, he was a sole practitioner operating in a highly competitive industry comprised of very large multi-provider “service factories”; mid-sized firms with a number of senior and junior associates; established smaller firms; and multi-practice firms, all of which were spending significant budgets in online marketing. It was immediately apparent that it would be a challenge to cut through the clutter of providers competing for the market in the client’s geographic territory.

A search for divorce attorneys in the client’s market returned more than 3 million results. That’s a lot of competition!

The Site Would Not Convert Visitors Into Prospects

When the client contacted WSI Integrated Web Marketing to take over its online marketing, we discovered that, while we were confident we could drive more traffic to the website, a website redesign was necessary to convert that traffic into leads and sales for the business. We advised the client that a website redesign would be a prerequisite to taking him on as a client for his digital marketing business.

What was Wrong With the Design

While the site “looked OK”, it did not represent our client nor his prospect base. The first thing that was glaringly apparent was that the background of the site showed a city skyline, while the client’s office and prospect base was firmly located in suburbia.

The site also lacked:

Strong differentiators that would be necessary to separate the client from the glut of other divorce attorneys in the area.
A Unique Selling Proposition to set the business apart from its competitors.
A Unique Value Proposition to give visitors a reason to contact the business
Calls to Action to encourage conversions (calls and web forms).

Analysis & Results

We ran the client’s site through our proprietary WSI WebScan tool to get an objective view of where the site stood in terms of design, functionality and compliance to current web design standards. The site scored an overall 3.5 (out of 10). This became our benchmark to beat.

After our latest redesign, the site scored 7.4 – more than a 100% improvement. Note: WSI WebScan runs multiple tests in over 25 different disciplines, some of which are not applicable for this site, so a perfect score of 10 is impossible.

3-5 Seconds to Capture a Visitor’s Attention

A website has about 3-5 seconds to capture a visitor’s attention before they hit the “Back” button and move on to the next site. Thus, it is critical that visitors can quickly scan a page and find the exact information for which they’re searching.

Eye-Tracking Studies Reveal User Interaction

To ensure we meet this goal, we use a tool that allows us to analyze how a visitor will scan a page design before we launch it “live”. This ensures that we design a page so that visitors will see the most important elements that will lead to conversions for the client first.

Looking at the “Before” and “After” Eye-Tracking Studies below we can tell that visitors to the former site did not see any important conversion elements. What do you see below that’s going to make you want to learn more about this company.

How is an image of a happy family against a city skyline is going to make a suburban couple looking for a divorce lawyer feel that they have come to the right place?

When we look at the same studies for our redesigned site (below), we see that a lot of important information is now capturing their attention.

RESULTS: How Did/Does the Site Perform?

Conversions (phone calls for a consultation) from visitors to the site more than doubled. In fact, combined with our other digital marketing efforts for this client, we have helped him grow from a single man operation to a multi-attorney firm that outgrew its offices once and is looking to expand again.

Objectives Achieved

Conversion Optimized Website
Design that reflects the business and its prospects
Improve organic SEO search results and boost overall conversion
Provide greater device accessibility through Responsive Web Design
Create an easy and flexible blogging platform to help connect with their customers
Design an easy way for users to find the information they need to choose a divorce attorney
Create opportunities for social referrals

Are You Ready for Results Like This?