Which Is More Important - Website Experience or Brand?

By Chris M Hunter

As most internet developers already know, there are many different elements involved in building an attractive, user-friendly website that can be used to attract consumers and build recognition of a company's brand. When it comes to optimization and user experience, functioning and usage of the one will certain affect the other every day of the week. So it would be rather difficult to pinpoint any single most important component of any company's' online presence.

Yet it is often heard and read about throughout the business world that brand ownership is more important than website experience. Well, that thought couldn't be further from the truth! Ask the people who use a company's website and they would strongly advise that a good user experience is much more beneficial to John Q. Consumer - and ironically such an action will certainly positively impact brand awareness as well.

Brand Ownership

In the online business world, brand recognition is important. Companies need to be quickly recognized in a crowd of peer competitors on search results pages, social media blogs, and many other internet locations; a company wants its symbol to be recognizable and in people's mind. Through trademark recognition - and the trust that comes with that - companies gain more traffic to their websites and social pages and optimization efforts are enhanced. Because of such recognition of a company trademark, many businesses believe that a company's marketing efforts should be focused on the brand alone - and that just is not necessarily the case.

User Experience

Any website experience creates an immediate impression about the company that is represented at a particular internet location - and it may be a positive or it may be a negative one, which is an important point that must be remembered when developing an internet presence. If a website is hard to navigate, does not load pages quickly enough, or for some other reason does not properly function, users will very easily click away. At the very least, there is the risk of leaving users frustrated enough to never return in the future. There will undoubtedly be a higher bounce rate if there is anything about the website frustrating users that visit it.

Which Is More Important?

When both of these approaches are compared, it should start to become clear that even if brand recognition has brought a visitor to a website, anything remotely close to a poor user experience is going to drive them, their purchase, and any future business with a company away. When viewed from the other side, websites that are the most user friendly, filled with well written and informative content, good products, and good customer service will see its brand spread through social media which is creating instant recognition on its own and will usually continue to build even further. Satisfied visitors will spread the word long before any type of brand recognition has evolved - all because of a functional, user-friendly website that started the whole process.

Websites that are attractive, easy to use, and well optimized, and ones that complete established goals - is the best way for any business to build a customer base and a recognized brand name. What this means is that rather than spending funds that only market a company name, financial effort should instead be concentrated first and foremost on making sure that the best website possible is developed that will provide a positive visitor experience. Such an investment in money and effort will add toward increasing brand awareness publicly and offer more value for the money, eventually accomplishing both goals at the same time. Good experience creates its own publicity, which in turn creates brand recognition and ownership!

Chris Hunter is an expert in Web Design and Search Engine Marketing. To find out more about Texas Web Design, go to the main website at:http://www.webunlimited.com.

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