When you want to sell blogging, social media or SEO services you have to explain and prove ROI (Return On Investment).

Yet when we talk about website design nobody asks us upfront what the ROI of it is.

Thus some create websites that look pretty but serve no purpose.

They don’t convert visitors to

• supporters
• subscribers
• or buyers.

Yet the actual user experience and conversion optimization can be right there from the start.

Here are some ideas what to do as early as possible!

Web design is taken for granted

We rarely witness debates about the ROI of Web design.

Web design is taken for granted.

Just like Web hosting. There it’s probably because it’s not really labor intensive and thus pretty cheap by now.

You can even get free Web hosting with one or two small ads for example over at

• Weebly
• Wix
• WordPress.com

You can also find a lot of good looking standard templates already on those free website builders.

In contrast professional Web design is still a considerable investment.

Sure, you can use ready-made themes and templates. Nowadays they work well usually.

Yet when you want to stand out and have a unique website you have to pay accordingly.

What is the ROI of Web design? Nobody seems to know

One day I wanted to read about the ROI of Web design.

I was tired of the endless debates about blogging, social media and search engine optimization ROI.

Thing is I hardly found anything to read with one exception.

Everything else that I found were a few vague old blog posts.

It seems that Web design has no ROI.

That’s why there were no articles explaining as late as 2011.

By now there a few and I’ve read them partly.

Yet they often refer to website redesigns or other specific use cases.

Thus I’d like to pique your interest a bit.

And I want to show you where the ROI can be found on a website.

It’s not just linkbait or a rant.

I want you to understand this. As

• business blogging
• social media engagement
• and search engine optimization

have to justify their ROI. Why does Web design get a free pass?

Website looking good? It may be a SEO horror story despite that.

There is an enormous pressure to justify the spending on SEO.

Yet website designs get away with “looking good” most of the time to this day.

Sure, best practices make them readable and usable by now.

Yet they don’t always work like a charm despite the aesthetics.

You can have a neat website with fancy effects using an advanced JavaScript framework like React and fail miserably.

Why? On React (no pun here connected with onreact.com) sites you can’t see the content in the code on the client side.

That means the website content gets infused from the server on the fly.

Google can’t see the content in others words.

So-called SPA or single page applications kill your business that way.

Web Design for ROI

There is a fantastic book I reviewed once almost 20 years ago: it’s called Web Design for ROI. I think they published it in 2007.

That’s the exception I talk above.

The book was not a huge bestseller back then yet it heavily influenced me early on.

I read it diligently and assumed it would become common sense soon.

What you can see ever since is the emergence of two new disciplines: UX and CRO.

Those two btw. are practiced by different people.

So you end up with different teams stepping on each others’ toes.

You have the UX, the CRO and SEO people in the worst case fighting each for influence.

Ideally you combine all three to increase findability and ensure online viability that works for sales as well.

Let’s see how that could work below!

UX vs CRO: WTH?

UX as in User Experience is mostly done by designers who have evolved to create more usable websites and apps.

CRO as in Conversion (Rate) Optimization is done by marketers turned scientific to ensure visitors stay and buy.

In the worst case you have a three or more people struggling for influence as additional stakeholders.

• Website designer
• UX specialist
• conversion optimizer

Ideally they work together or in one team. When you have someone who does all of it you’re lucky!

Don’t forget about SEO though haha!

These three are involved in the design of a website.

Yet you still have to ask the SEO, social media and blogging experts for their input.

Sadly in most cases the client will approach the web design and UX professionals first and the other guys later if at all.

I find it still incredibly hard to sell CRO services.

Even when asking existing clients to do it. It doesn’t matter who the vendor is, whether it’s me or someone else.

It’s not just that they don’t trust me to optimize their site for conversions.

They just want a website and traffic at best.

Who cares about less sexy things like

• value prepositions
• CTAs (Calls to Action)
• online forms?

They should. That’s where the ROI sits in website design.

You have to declare a clear value proposition from the start.

As a blogger the headline is the value proposition for each post.

I had a slogan on my old theme that was shown above as well.

It said: “helping people with blogs, social media and search”.

It was not ideal and took away the attention from the actual content so I don’t show it by now.

Yet for actual businesses selling a product a slogan summarizing their value in one sentence is crucial.

You have to be ultra-specific at what you do and how you compare to everybody else.

The same applies to CTA buttons and contact or check out forms.

It’s both a craft and a science to get colors and wording right on CTAs e.g.

And online forums need a real streamlined process of several steps or they will overwhelm.

People bounce then!

Yes, without

• helpful content on a blog
• social media activity across various platforms where your audiences convene
• and search presence on organic and AI search

you won’t get a return on your website investment.

Web design itself does not make money

OK, let’s take a step back.

We still haven’t justified the expenses for a new custom website.

Show me the money! I said up there already:

You can also get also a great looking and even pretty usable as well as search engine optimized site for free.

Why pay then? What’s the actual value of creating a custom Web design for thousands or more?

There is none unless you integrate all of the other disciplines from the start.

The “build it and they will come” strategy does not work.

It hasn’t btw. in 1997 either when I started in online publishing.

Without things like content and links you’ll have a hard time to popularize your shiny new website.

By now we know and we have plenty of techniques to deal with it.

So don’t act like the Web is still new and all you need is an expensive relaunch of your site.

Don’t call me after the redesign when your site is online and nobody visits it or the few visitors do not buy anything.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Web design. UX and CRO are fantastic industries.

I was a Web designer myself back in the days when the roles in agencies weren’t as diverse as today.

I moved on to where the money and value is:

• SEO
• social media
• blogging.

That’s the place the real ROI comes from. A good looking website by itself does not sell.

So don’t be stingy when it comes to SEO, social media and blogging.

One day a potential client came up to me and wanted a link building campaign for Germany. Awesome, isn’t it?

The problem was the monthly budget.

It was a bit more than the equivalent of one item sold of their main product: 600 Euro. Do you think that’s enough?

Here are some third party resources that elaborate on website design ROI and how to measure it actually:

How Much Does a Website Cost? Evaluating Website ROI and Value – Orbit Media

How to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for a new website – articulate

Website ROI From a Web Development Agency: What To Expect – Designrush