Reassessing the effectiveness of websites - Is design as important as it seems?

By James Saunders, Managing Director 4mat.com, a specialist recruitment industry web designer

That a website is well designed matters, but should a well designed website be all that matters? Many websites are the cyber equivalent of a highbrow glossy magazine, whilst others are so complex that all but the truly dedicated turn away within a few seconds. Internet awards which attempt to bring international standards to the industry seem to reward either great design or great technical innovation. None measures a websites effectiveness and contribution to the business.

Examining the criteria of the most lauded awards quickly reveals that the majority are focussed on recognising a websiteís design, originality, usability, visual appeal, technical achievement, clever visual elements and so on. None addresses the fundamental commercial purpose of a website; does it deliver cash to the bottom line?

There are dozens of website awards currently vying for the attentions of design agencies and corporates across the UK. The range is bewildering. It seems that every sector, every local authority and every industry wants to recognise its very own web darlings. Travel & Tourism seem to have the lions share, with upwards of 20 awards, whilst Financial Services, the Public Sector, Healthcare and the Legal sectors also pitch in with dozens of their own industry awards specifically designed to give themselves a virtual pat on the back. The breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and last year's Live 8 concerts have been voted among the most influential internet moments in the Internet Awards earlier this year.

The best known awards, the Webbys for example are interesting because of the wildly divergent list of winners - everything from Google Earth to the Katrina Help Center to the Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer. What this demonstrates is that the web as a medium is still figuring out its standards. And yet, for business leaders there should surely be one overriding concern. How much money does my website generate?

Yet all too often, we find that website and commercial strategies are disjointed and that the CEO has given over full responsibility to the marketing department. In these instances, it may often be the case that a design-led agency will get the brief to create the site. It will need to look great; it is after all ìour window on the world.î

The Recruitment industry is typical of the range, diversity and quality of websites available to users across the internet, ranging from the visually high impact to more technical sites where function prevails over the form., (such as Jobserve.). Recruitment agencies, corporates and jobs boards in the industry must radically reappraise their websites and audit their effectiveness to generate revenue. For the recruitment industry, a few simple measures should be enough to reveal a websiteís worth:

ï How much traffic does my website generate?
ï How many visitors register?
ï How many upload their CVs?
ï How many CVs are translated into placements?
ï What is the cost of each candidate acquisition and placement? Is it more cost effective than traditional means?
ï What is the quality of the CVs received?
ï Does my website appear in the top 5 search results for the major search engines?
ï Do my end users find the website useful? Do they return regularly to search for jobs?
ï How much does my website cost to maintain and keep up to date?

It is important to noted here that ìIs my target audience reassured by my corporate brandî is an important factor for corporate and agency recruiters, but not really for the jobs sites who rely on conventional advertising to establish a brand, leaving their web sites for the most part un desiged.

Using these and other criteria on one of the websites designed by 4mat ñ www.edenbrown.com we have been able to give precise figures to the client about the effectiveness of the site. We know for example that their website accounts for the majority of client registrations and placements. Indeed 500,000 of revenue in the past 12 months can be attributed to successful candidate placements through the site. But thatís not all because of the successful implementation of their search engine optimisation strategy, traffic to the site is increasing month on month. 19,000 new candidates have registered since keyword search put the website on the first page of Googleís search results.

ìI have the total support of the Board, who can see clearly that our commitment to our web strategy and business goals are working together to grow revenues, promote our brand and build relationships with our candidate base,î comments Katt Grigg, Marketing and Communications Manager at Eden Brown.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the integration of Eden Brown,s commercial, marketing and web strategies, have led to the creation of what is now considered one of the finest examples of a recruitment website in the UK. So successful in fact that it features prominently in a number of prestigious industry awards, including the Recruitment Excellence Awards, Recruiter (Best online Service & Public Sector), NORA (Best innovator).