When preparing to start a new online store, or improve an existing one, there are several things to consider. All of which, if done properly, can play a big role in increasing your conversions. There are three central elements to focus on: Your branding and design, your SEO, and the usability of your site. Both the design and SEO can be improved by utilizing the services offered by most web developers. Usability can as well, but you should know that not all developers consider usability when designing a site.

Before shopping for a developer you should determine which of these three is most important to you. If your answer is all three are equal, don’t panic, that is fine. This is what developers need to know, and you need to know if your developer can even offer what you need.

If usability is very important to you, avoid developers that don’t consider the usability of a site during the design process. Ask to see some examples of sites they have worked on the usability of. This approach is best because some of the stores in their portfolio may not have wanted to touch their usability, and because some developers may promise to improve usability without having any real experience in that field.

You can go straight to a developer’s portfolio to look at their design work. Any developer, will put their best work in their portfolio. If the portfolio seems somewhat limited, the developer may not have much work, or may not do good work consistently. Even if the work you see is impressive, be weary if you just see a few sites. Know that the live sites may change over time and no longer match up with what you see in the portfolio. A general rule to go by is, if the site looks worse, the store owner most likely took it upon themselves to change the design. This could be a sign that clients don’t have good long lasting relationships with this developer. If the site looks better, the store owner most likely took it upon himself to have another developer redesign it. If this happens to be the case, find out who the new developer is and check them out. They may be a better match for you, they obviously were for that particular store owner.

SEO and design are often offered by different companies. You may find one that does everything, and they may be very good at it, but maybe not. It is often better to find a company that focuses on one particular skill set and does them very well. It’s like buying electronics, do you want a cell phone that is a really great phone, but only a phone, or do you want one that has several functions that are so so. You may get the best of both worlds if you find a great developer who does outstanding design work, and that fosters a great relationship not only with you but with other niche developers that specialize in different areas.

EYStudios works closely with Exclusive concepts, an SEO provider. All our designs are created with SEO friendly practices. Clients that contract services from both Exclusive Concepts and EYStudios, receive the benefits of specialized developers and without the back and forth you may get between two unaffiliated developers. In order to provide the best SEO designs may need to be changed and vice versa, unless these are taken into consideration early on.
Design, usability, and SEO can all increase your conversions especially if they all work together properly. The only way to achieve this is to consider all three at the same time. Even if you don’t plan of pay for SEO services for several months, make sure you have a developer that knows enough about all three to plan ahead. If you’re hiring multiple developers, find out if they get along or are familiar with each other’s processes. This can prove to be a priceless benefit that won’t cost you an extra dime.