- January 13, 2021
Ewan Duthie: “SEO when done right can bring a stream of qualified and relevant traffic to your website”
Reading Time: 4 minutesEwan Duthie is the managing director at Web Integrations Ltd, a website design company based in Aberdeen, Scotland. In conversation with Neolo, he gave us tips about website design, web development, SEO and digital marketing.
Which is your specific job at Web Integrations?
I’m the Managing Director. I’m responsible for developing the business and our team. In a previous life I was a web developer but that seems like a long time ago now!
What could you say about website design? Why would you recommend having a website?
In this day and age it’s unheard of for a business not to have a website. But every so often we come across a business that has been around for a while that still doesn’t have a website, typically because they’ve been successful without one. To those businesses I’d say they’re missing out on a huge opportunity. The internet is the first place any potential customers will go to find out more about you.
If you don’t have a website these days then you’re as good as invisible.
Which tools do you use for website design? and for web development?
We use a range of tools and every member of the team has their own preference. On the design front though we primarily use Figma, Adobe XD, Photoshop and InDesign. For development we’re big fans of PhpStorm as our IDE of choice, but we’ve also been known to use Visual Studio Code, Sublime text and various other development tools and editors.
What would you say is the most important thing to take into consideration when web designing?
Consider what your customers want from your website, rather than simply what you think looks nice. It’s all very well having full-screen hero images on every page for a nice looking visual effect, but if your customers are primarily coming to your website to make a purchase or enquiry, then those calls-to-action need to be front and centre.
What can you say about responsive design?
Responsive design is crucial and importantly so if you’re a B2C brand. An increasing majority of us use phones and tablet devices to browse the internet, so you need to ensure you offer a positive user experience across all devices. From a development perspective, responsive design has helped us to speed up the development process. I remember the days when creating a mobile version of your website meant designing an entirely separate mobile site – responsive design solves that challenge.
And about SEO?
As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t have a website these days then you’re as good as invisible. The same is true to an extent if you don’t optimise your site for search engines. If you can’t be found on Google for keywords and phrases related to your product or service offering then you’re going to rely heavily on paid media and marketing to drive traffic to your site.
Search engine optimization (SEO) when done right can bring a stream of qualified and relevant traffic to your website.
Which do you think are the advantages of digital marketing? And about e-commerce?
For us and our clients, the biggest advantage of digital marketing is the ability to finely target and reach audiences. That’s been a game changer – it means companies with smaller budgets can compete against bigger players in their industry. The ability to view data about how visitors engage with our marketing means we can fine tune things to improve conversion rates and ultimately the bottom line.
Which tip could you give to an entrepreneur?
The internet has made validating a business idea remarkably easier. If you’re thinking of starting a business then first run some tests; set up some landing pages with a form and copy targeted at your audience using the same language they would use, spend a little on some paid ads, and see what the response is. You can do much of this before you even have your own dedicated website, so you don’t need to spend a lot of time or money to see if there’s demand. When you’re ready you can take it one step further and develop an MVP (minimal viable product) before going all in.
What would you say is the future of web design?
Companies are spending a lot more time and money on platforms like Facebook and Google than they did even 5 years ago. Ultimately that spend needs to bring visitors back to a central place, which is your website. It’s the only place you have total control.
The future of web design is bright and I believe we’ve still got a long way to go. Companies are starting to realise they need to invest in their online presence and squeeze as much performance out of it as possible which positively affects their bottom line.
I think we’re going to start seeing a change from companies simply requesting another redesign of their website, to companies starting to think more seriously about the bigger picture and how their website can play a key role in their growth – how they position themselves, how they improve visibility and traffic, how they increase enquiries and sales.
What are you waiting for to optimize your website?
