My brother was a bull rider. He had a lot of fun, even created some of his own bull riding events and raised bulls. It’s the source of a lot of joy for him still. It was also the source of a lot of pain; he had broken bones, blood clots and had every bone on the left side of his face smashed by the horns of a bull as he lay unconscious at a rodeo in Austin, Texas (he’s still a gorgeous young man thanks to the miracle of a Texas plastic surgeon who does nothing but fix broken bull riders).

He said the best advice he ever got about bull riding was to be consistent (the riders who consistently got 73’s won more money than the rider who occasionally threw up an 85) and to pretend like you have to stay on the bull for 9 seconds instead of 8. The theory goes that it’s, in part, a psychological game. If you think you have to stay on for 9 seconds, it makes it easier to stay on for 8. This theory can be applied to web design. Websites have 8 seconds to capture a visitor’s attention and cue them to continued time on site, pretend like you have only 7 seconds. As web marketers we like to cover our bases. Did we talk about our products? Did we establish our value proposition? Did we share our philosophy? There are many questions to be answered from a single page, but make certain you establish the important ones on a cursory glance of your web site.

Today’s more sophisticated algorithms deliver traffic deeper into a site, not just to the home page. That means we need to be even more vigilant when we’re assessing the purpose of a page. Here’s a great exercise for your team. Pick the top 20 landing pages on your site and review them one at a time (get customers to help with a mini focus group if possible) and ask these questions:

*What does this company do?

*Is it clear what I should do next?

If they’re able to assess these questions and act in 8 seconds you’re doing your job. If not, spend time discussing how you can improve your landing pages. Remember that, at the end of the day, your visitors have the final say. Review your analytics and assess how well you’re accomplishing these goals based on visitor action.

Another element of web design is acknowledging different personas on each page. Some visitors may be ready to buy, others may want to get to know you (lead generation) and others may just be looking for information to help them make a decision. Some personas are browsers, some search with pinpoint accuracy. Delivering the design, content and site elements your visitors need to make decisions is a daunting, but not impossible task.

Just as you wouldn’t have a house built without an architect, so should you not build a website without a designer. Designers understand these elements in a way the marketer and web programmer do not. They understand white space, how colors and fonts evoke emotion, spatial elements that trigger eye tracking and other design principles. You can avoid some of the pain of web design by engaging with a professional.

It’s also important to understand the principles of usability. Shari Thurow has been a mentor since I first began web marketing as a career. Her constant pleas to give as much focus to website usability as we do to SEO are finally being heeded (especially now that site performance is becoming more important and relevant to Google’s algorithm). She reminded us that, as search professionals, we have two customers, the search engines and our visitors. You can make a lot of design mistakes and the engines won’t punish you, but your visitors will. At the end of the day your visitors buy your product or service. Engage a web designer at the beginning of your plans for development. Allow your visitors to find what THEY want, and they’ll do what YOU want.

In bull riding the rider is given two scores, one for the rider and one for the bull, a potential of 50 points for each for a total of 100 points. If only one is performing, the score will reflect that lack of performance. As a search marketing professional, your web designer is a foundational part of your web score, don’t leave them out of the mix. (Also remember that, just as in bull riding, it’s nearly impossible to get a score of 100;)

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