I was reminded today as I received an email with ‘IMHO advice’ (In-My-Humble-Opinion) from a local designer of how much of a disconnect there can be between what a designer thinks is correct for a web site and what actually works. He voiced concerns about changes that, unknown to him, have resulted in a doubling of the goldandgems.com conversion rate and thousands of dollars in sales every month. His IMHO advice was that the site looked cheapened, less elegant and would result in less sales.

Like I ask my clients all the time, would you like someone’s opinion, or a verifiable strategy that will make money? The designer in question had something invested in the design to which he was referring, as he had in fact designed the first iteration. As is the case with most designs, they get modified slightly over time and it looks a bit different than originally planned. Yet…

There is a reason for the changes. His original design did not attempt to address the web site’s (and business’) credibility an any other way than beauty. But the truth is, and this is known and provable fact, customers validate a web site very rapidly. And the faster you answer the question “Why buy from me?”, the more likely you are to make a sale.

With that in mind, we suggested and implemented icons using a different designer at the client’s request, and pop ups that answered those questions (you can see them yourself at goldandgems.com).

The result: An instantaneous, measurable and substantial increase in conversion of traffic. If given the option between an IMHO designer and results, I know which I would choose.