Happy New Year!

Yes, I’m working today - for some reason over the years I seem to usually be working on New Year’s Day.  I’m not a football fan, so often times will trade a day off earlier in the week to lengthen the Christmas holiday, then work on New Years.  This week I took some family time in the middle of the week so am making up for it today.

I’m in the middle of a benchmarking exercise for a client, where we look at the websites for both their competitors and similar companies in different markets.  The goal is mainly to get a feel for how the market presents itself on the web, so we can aim to make our site a standout.  It’s also a good way to get a feel for the experience a potential customer would have if doing their research on the web. 

Viewing these sites raises an interesting (if relatively unimportant) question - should the company that developed the site leave their mark on it in the form of a “This Site Designed By” link in the design?

On the one hand, in the “site research” mode I’m in, links are interesting and I have been following them to see what kind of web development firm did the site, and what their sites look like.

On the other hand, I’m not in the same mode as the typical visitor to these sites, and my visit certainly isn’t going to lead to more projects for the site’s developer.  I’d guess that the typical visitor doesn’t really care who did the site, only that the site solves their problem or answers their question.  When it comes to other media (print ads / TV spots, etc.) I’m not aware that the creative agencies behind those efforts ever “sign” them in this fashion.

From a branding perspective, I’ve always avoided leaving a visual mark on my client sites.  I’ve put my name in the metatags on a couple, but not with a whole lot of thought or expectation - it was easy to do but if you’re savvy enough to find it you probably don’t need my services.  Most of the time I don’t leave any mark, assuming that if someone was impressed enough to inquire about the site that I’d eventually hear about it somehow.  Most of my work seems to come through the “relationship channels” like this anyway.

So, what do you think?  Are web development company “signatures” on client sites useful or just visual clutter?