Website Design in a Nutshell
What is web design? Wikipedia defines it as “a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of Markup language suitable for interpretation by Web browser and displayed as Graphical User Interface (GUI).” In other words, web design is the art and science of creating interactive, user-friendly interfaces to organize information and content (in the form of copy and images) for easy access by the visitor. These interfaces are also known as indexes or home pages, and the site is accessed, or navigated, through hyperlinks. Navigation is centered around a menu that organizes these links.
Most web design centers around website design, but also includes web banner design, animation, and any other internet based design. For the purposes of these articles, the term "web design" will refer to website design.
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Why Do I Need a Website?
ALL businesses need a website. What kind of website your business needs depends completely on the type of business you own, the services and/or products you offer, and your business plan and goals. There are 3 reasons important your business needs a website, no matter what your business is:
Reason #1: Some of your potential customers will look online for your business, products and services. If they can't find you, they can't contact you.
It's a fact that you will have to reckon with: Search engines like Google and Yahoo are used millions of times daily by consumers. Some use the search engines like an online white pages and are searching for the contact information of a particular business. They already know the name and may just need a phone number or address. Others use it like an online yellow pages; they do not have a specific name in mind and are looking for a particular product or service, and don't know who to call, which means their business needs, and their money, is up for grabs.
What results will your potential customers get if they look for your business name online? What will they get if they look for a product or service that you provide? Is your business even in the running?
Reason #2: Some of your potential customers need more information before they make a buying decision.
Many times your business' contact information will be one of the results returned by the search engines in the form of a 'listing' when a potential customer searches by your business' name. The problem with listings is that they give very little information, such as only your address and phone number. This may be enough for some, but many will want a little more information about your company and what it provides before they become actual customers.
What if your competition's listing has a link to their website? That means a customer that should be yours is one click away from your competitors' useful information. If you can't provide just as much, will they still be interested in doing business with you? Very doubtful!
What if that customer you just lost was a referral from another customer? Not only did you lose their business, you may have lost all future referrals they give. Referrals are valuable, so make sure your protect them.
Reason #3: Having a website improves your company's image and gives you more credibility.
What if you met someone who's services you might be interested in and asked them for a business card, but they didn't have one? Would you still be interested in doing business with them? Would you get the notion that they don't care about their business or invest back into it? That's what many potential customers will think if you don't have a website. Websites have become the new business card, and many people refuse to do business with companies they consider "still living in the Stone Age". When a potential customer notices that you have a website address listed on your business card, on your stationery, or in a print ad, they'll get the idea that you are competent and professional, even if they never actually visit your website.
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Now that you know you need a website...
What Kind of Website Do You Need?
1. Determine Your Needs
What kind of website your business needs also depends on what you want the website to do for you, so the first step is to evaluate how you want your website to serve your business. Websites can generate sales leads, inform visitors by communicating your ideas, facilitate online sales, act as an administrative tool, and much more. In fact, a properly developed website can be as important or more important than your brick and mortar office or showroom. For home-based businesses with no storefront, websites are an absolute necessity! As well, a website can turn a locally-scoped business into one with a national market for a very small investment. When compared to opening satellite offices nationally, the investment is infinitesimal.
Some websites are basically online brochures. Others can do everything but wash your dishes. Some websites are online catalogs and others can perform point of sale transactions. All websites, even the largest, most technical, feature-rich ones, were designed with clear goals in mind. Tools and features were developed and integrated in order to meet those goals more effectively and efficiently. Those who are considering having a website created would be wise to first assess their business needs and determine how a website can assist in facilitating reaching these objectives. A top -notch website design company will be able to extrapolate the needs of their clients, suggest tools and content that provide solutions, and ultimately design a website that integrates all of these elements into a user-friendly online resource.
Here are some popular tasks that a website can help accomplish:
• Disseminate information
• Communicate ideas
• Facilitate dialogue
• Generate sales leads
• Perform administrative tasks
• Organize contacts
• Sell products & services
• Collect information
• Showcase products
So what does all this mean to the business owner? A website that is done properly can:
• Educate potential customers
• Give your business credibility
• Make your business run more efficiently
• Keep current customers informed
• Help brand your business
• Act as a second office
• Act as a showroom
• Protect your investments
Which, in turn can:
• Increase contacts from customers
• Turn visitors into customers
• Increase sales from new customers
• Increase sales from current customers
Another very important consideration is whether you'll need to update your website on a regular basis. If so, you'll then need to decide if you want the ability to make those changes in-house, or whether you'll want your website designers to make them for you. Either way, make sure your web design company has the resources to accommodate you, either by having the ability to install an easy-to-use content management system, or by being available to make your needed changes.
2. Know Your Target Market
Once you've determined what you want your website to do, you then need to determine who exactly your website is for. Exactly who is it that you are trying to reach? Determine your target market so you can speak directly to them in their own language. Figuring out who your ideal visitor is is the basis for a successful website. If you've been in business for a while and have some experience in marketing, you already have a good idea of the demographic you should focus on, and the internet allows you to refine it even further. Another advantage of the internet is that it's accessible by pretty much the whole world, which means your website will be also. It's important not only to determine the scope of your potential visitors, but to determine who your ideal visitor is. (This concept is also very important when considering the ways you should market your website, but we'll cover that a bit later.) Knowing who you're trying to communicate to will help you to determine the copy content and writing style, the visual design, and the interactive features you need.
Important demographic information you should consider about your target audience:
• Age
• Gender
• Geographic location
• Education level
• Culture
• Average income
3. Static Website Content and Copy
Static content is the foundation and substance of your website, and includes all copy that doesn't change over time and has no interactive features. Through your copy content you spread your message and describe in detail to your visitors who you are, what you do, and allows you to communicate with them directly. Another important thing to consider is that great content, full of selected “key words”, plays a major role in determining how relevant your site is within your field or profession, and helps determine where you'll rank in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. For this reason, your copy content should speak not only to your target market but to search engines as well, which we'll cover in another section.
Content can take many forms, such as resource pages, blogs, “about us” pages, FAQs, and more. Most content appears in the static pages and is organized under content navigation through website menus.
Here are some of the most common menu items that organize static content:
• Bio (“About Us”)
• Services
• Products
• Contact
• Why choose us
• FAQ
• Gallery (portfolio)
• Disclaimer
4. Interactive Features and Kinetic Content
This includes website content that actively engages the visitor, allows for interaction, performs a task, or changes on a regular basis. The addition of such features takes a “brochure” website to the next level. Again, the interactive features your website should have will be ultimately determined by the desired functions of your website, as well as for search engine optimization. It's a proven fact that the longer you can keep a visitor on your site, the more likely they'll become a regular visitor or customer.
Some popular interactive or kinetic website features:
• Video & Audio
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Online forms
• Chat rooms
• Surveys
• Shopping carts
• Customer log-ins
• Newsletters
• News & Events
• Interactive portfolios
5. Visual Design & Navigation
The design of your website is not just about visual appearance and graphics, although these elements can play a large role in the overall success of your website. Website design also dictates the navigation of the website, which is also very important. It won't matter how much great content and features you have on your site if your visitor can't access it, or gets frustrated and leaves your site for one that is easier to use. The visual graphics and color scheme of your website are powerful tools that can actually change your visitor's mood, much like a song can, so these elements must be given due diligence and thought out properly to be most effective. A well designed website can guide a visitor, almost effortlessly, to the section of the website where you want to them to go, and the best websites can make it's visitors think that arriving at that section was their idea!
The way your website looks should be based around your business branding and identity, an assessment of what your visitors may want and expect from your website, and the utilization of key marketing techniques. Within the first few seconds on your website, a visitor should be able to recognize your brand, understand the function of your business, and be compelled to explore your website. To allow for easy exploration, it's important that all the information on your website, especially the most important to converting your visitors to customers, be readily available and no more than a click or two away. In fact, the really important stuff should be staring them in the face and accessible from your index or landing page!
Navigation of your website should feel intuitive and your visitor should almost have the feeling that your website is reading their mind. A good website design company will have a navigation specialist who knows exactly how to arrange the menus and organize the information on your website in an easily accessible and engaging manner that guides the customer through your website unhindered.
The visuals on your website, from highlighted text to web graphics to animation, must be integrated in a balanced and effective manner. If under-utilized, the website is unappealing and therefore less effective. If there are too many visuals, the website becomes too busy and also can negatively affect navigation, resulting in your visitors leaving your website for a better one. This is especially true with Flash animation. Almost no one sits through a 30 second animation introduction that was so popular a few years ago. Most people want information from a website, not just entertainment, so it's crucial to serve up the information in a visual appealing way, without overdoing the graphics. Flash animation should be used sparingly, and utilized to put emphasis on a particularly important area of your website.
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Custom Design Versus Templates
One of the decisions you'll need to make before undertaking your website design project is whether to hire a professional web design company to custom build your website or to purchase a website template. This one's a no brainer. Go custom! Templates are a cookie-cutter quick fix, and generally don't allow you to showcase your company identity or allow your website to grow in the way it needs to. As well, they are considered to be cheap and unprofessional, not the image your business needs. The most successful web designs are created by professional web designers. However, because of the popularity of the internet, pre-designed websites, called "templates", have become available for use by both professionals and non-professionals alike.
Templates are basically pre-fabbed websites that can be filled with your copy and images. The introduction of templates has allowed just about anyone to have a website. While templates may be sufficient for non-business related ideas, they are generally not enough for the serious business owner. Most businesses are unique enough so that forcing their needs into a cookie cutter solution is inadequate, which is something many business owners find out the hard way. Because many people seek to save money and cut corners, templates have become quite popular. This has created a problem: the vast majority of templated websites have major issues in one or more areas.
Like most specialization, good web design requires professionals. And professionals cost money. However, the investment of hiring a professional web designer to design your website is the obvious choice for a business owner, and the initial investment is easily recouped. In fact, a professionally designed website pays for itself many times over. Don’t find out the hard way; hire a professional design firm and get it done right the first time.
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Web Designer vs. Web Design Firm
As a business owner, it’s wise to choose a full-service firm that can provide all the elements and skill sets necessary to create an effective website. It would be impossible to find one individual with all these skill sets, especially since the web design industry is always evolving. That said, you’d be far better off hiring a reputable web design company to design your website. Why?
The reasons are simple: A quality website needs to accomplish many tasks all at once, and do so with efficiency. In a nutshell, your website must have all the qualities of a perfect partner: Good looking, smart, educated, functional, hard working, interesting, cultured, desirable, dependable, and knows what you want before you even ask. If you think having all those traits is rare in humans, start looking at the websites you visit with them in mind. Hiring one person to create your website is like having one person build your house. When it comes to installing the electric, wouldn’t you want an electrician for the job? Exactly!
• A great looking website needs a talented designer.
• A smart website needs a copywriter.
• An educated website needs a marketing professional.
• A functional, hard-working website needs at least one programmer.
• An interesting website needs all the above.
• A cultured website needs input from the owner.
• A desirable website needs a sales professional.
• A dependable website needs a reputable hosting service.
• An intuitive website needs a navigational guru.
Why does your website design firm need all these skill sets? Because it takes each and everyone of them to complete the business cycle, and you do want your website to help grow your business, right? It takes several steps to convert a potential visitor, who has never heard of you or your business, into a customer. WIn the following scenerio, we’ll call him “Bob”.
1) Bob seeks a business who provides your products and services by searching through Google (or Yahoo, or Yellowbook.com, or phone book, etc,). He’s ready to buy and needs to find the right company.
2) Bob finds your URL or a link to it, and clicks on it. Bob is now on your website.
3) The first thing Bob notices is how good your website looks. Bob now thinks your business has credibility and decides to explore.
4) Bob notices a menu item on your site that may contain the information he seeks. He clicks.
5) Bob reads the copy content on that page and is delighted that he found just the information he was looking for. In fact, the information was so good, Bob decides to read more.
6) Bob is surprised how your website seems to know just what he’s searching for. He’s impressed and decides to read on. Bob really digs your website!
7) Bob finds something on your website that convinces him that you’re the right company for him. Maybe it was the videomonial from Mrs. Johnson. Perhaps it was the before and after examples. Could it have been your Better Business Bureau logo?
8) He looks for your contact information. Alas, Bob is at Starbuck’s and his cell phone battery is dead. No problem! Bob finds your online contact form and fills it out.
9) You reply to Bob's contacting you and he buys your biggest package ever. Bob tells 3 friends about his delightful experience.
At any step in the process, Bob could have become frustrated, disinterested, bored, or lost. Each step was necessary in the process in order to convert Bob from seeker to referrer. Now you can see why you shouldn’t hire your IT guy ( or your cousin, or a one-man shop, or a student, etc.) to design your website, as you can be assured that at least one of the elements you need for visitor conversion will be missing.
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OK, you know you need a website, and you know not to call Cousin Willie to design it. So, where to begin?
How to Pick a Web Design Firm
Undertaking a website design project can be frustrating, but it shouldn't be. As well, websites are not cheap, and a good one can be quite an investment, so it’s important to choose a web design firm wisely. Any experienced website designer will This is unfortunate on many levels, as the client has now had to pay for a website at least twice, and has lost untold business due to a bad website. Like most things in life, if it's important, the best way to begin is to hire a professional. The trick is to distinguish the true professionals from the one's just claiming to be, and to find one that offers value and a solid return on your investment. Easy, right? Yes, if you know what to look for, and what to avoid.
AVOID: Web design firms that are not local.
Why: Your website will be a direct extension of your business, so it's important that the design firm that creates it knows your business first-hand. They need to know your products and services, your long- and short-term goals, as well as be able to recommend features and content that will help you achieve these goals. If you do business locally or regionally, it's important that your web design firm be familiar with the specifics of your local market and target demographic. Also, your relationship with your web design firm will ideally last the lifetime of your business, so you'll want to maintain that it's a relationship built on face-to-face contact rather than just phone calls and emails. As well, you want to make sure that your design firm is accessible, accountable, and trustworthy before you give them any money. Plus, don't you want to make sure your money stays in your city or state, at the very least in the United States?
AVOID: Web designers that farm out programming to other countries.
Why: Many website design companies that do business in the US are actually owned by foreign nationals, and many are located in Mumbai, India. While you may have an American sales rep, the design work and/or programming will be done overseas because they are willing to do it for pennies on the dollar. While initially cheaper, this may end up costing you much more in the long term. Moreover, foreign designers and programmers have absolutely no idea of your local market or demographics, and are unaccountable as they are literally a world away. What happens when your site suddenlygoes down or you want to make quick changes? Make sure your web design firm is accountable and local, not just a voice at the end of a phone line.
AVOID: One-man shops that "do it all".
Why: The vast majority of existing websites on the Internet right now could use some improvement, and most could use an overhaul in more than one category. This is the direct result of designers who are incompetent in one or more required fields in designing a website that has all the elements it needs to reach maximum performance. Your project, regardless of size, requires several skill sets to accomplish the needed goals. You need a Graphic Designer, a Content Manager, and a Programmer at the very least. To get a better idea, it's important to be at least a bit familiar with these different elements.
Below is a list of the necessary elements for a well-designed website:
1) Navigation: The site should be easy to navigate and the menu items should be easily accessible from every page. The viewer should always know exactly where he or she is on the site and have easy access to where he or she would like to be. A Site Map is a great tool for this purpose and will be used if available. This sounds elementary, but most websites could be improved upon in this area. Remember, there is a fine line between an interactive menu and an annoying one, so functionality should be the idea.
2) Design: People are visually-oriented creatures, and utilizing great graphics is a good way to make your site more appealing. However, it's important not to go overboard with too much. Scrolling text, animation, special effects, and Flash intros should be used sparingly and only to emphasize a point for maximum effect.
3) Content: This is the backbone of your website. Not only does your content play a major role in your search engine placement, it is the reason most visitors access your site. Your text should be informative, easy to read, and concise. Well thought out content will do more than anything else to make your site engaging, effective and popular.
4) Web-Friendly: No matter how informative, beautiful, and easy to use your website is, it's useless unless it's web-friendly. It is important that your web designer know the keys to making your website work on all the major browsers, utilizing meta tags, alt tags, and the many other factors that effect your search engine placement and the visual appearance of your site.
5) Interaction: A truly effective website engages your visitors immediately and continues to hold their attention through EVERY page, as well as influences them to contact you. Again, there is a fine line between "interaction" and "annoyance", so the level of interaction should never outweigh the benefit.
6) Information Accessibility: Not all visitors to your site are interested in, or have the time to peruse, the entire site. They may need to access only a phone number or address, or just a certain bit of information. For this reason, it’s important to place key information in plain site, in areas that are easily accessible. We’ve all had the experience of not being able to locate some needed information on a website. The experience is frustrating at best, and a frustrated visitor won’t stay on your site very long and is unlikely to return.
7) Intuitiveness: A great website knows what your visitor is thinking and caters directly to his or her needs, and its elements are arranged in a way that makes sense.
8) Branding: Your website should be a reflection of your business. Your visitor should immediately make a visual/mental connection between your logo, print material, and brick-and-mortar location with your website. A website that does this not only contributes to the familiarity of your branding, but adds a level of credibility and enhanced image to your business.
9) Turnaround Time: The number one complaint of website design customers is the time it takes to get a site up and running. Unfortunately, a web design firm that takes unusually long to complete your site is par for the course. The longer it takes to complete the site, the more value lost. A website that isn’t on the web isn’t a website at all!
10) Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Your website needs to contain content that not only makes sense to your visitors, but contains key words that are highly relevant to potential searches on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Furthermore, there is a long list of constantly changing rules and that need to be regularly observed in order for your website to continuously rank high on these search engines. For this reason it's important that your web design firm is well-versed in SEO, as many of these optimizations must be done as the website is being created, not after it's completed. It's your money, so make sure the website is designed right the first time.
AVOID: Doing it yourself.
Why? Because you are a specialist in a different field and with different skill sets. As stated above, it takes several people to develop a site that has all the elements for success, each of which needs years of training and experience. You are in business because you do what you do better than 99% of the population, right? And you know that you can accomplish your job more efficiently and more professionally than someone not in your field. And so it goes with web design! It's also important to remember that a great graphic artist is indeed an artist, and an art talent, while it can be refined, cannot be taught. Even most self-described “Web Designers” should be in another field. If you want a website done right, leave it to the experts.
AVOID: Design firms that only offer web design.
Why? Odds are you'll need more design work at some point for your business. You'll need business cards, stationery, publication advertisements, brochures, etc., and it's important to be able to get these things from one source if at all possible. Not only is it convenient and efficient, it allows for consistency, a very important element in corporate branding. What often happens after a business gets a new and spectacular website, it injects a refreshing surge into the business image, and the owner often takes their business image to the next level, so it's important to retain a design firm that can handle your needs as your business grows.
AVOID: Templates and Instant Websites.
Why? A template is a prefabricated website design “frame” into which your own content is placed. Because a template is a one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter solution, odds are your business' needs won't be adequately addressed. Your business is unique, and therefore needs a website that is created specifically to deliver the results you need. Plus, how many other businesses have the same template? This is the online equivalent of walking into a party where someone is wearing the exact same outfit as you. Again, most web design firms don't FULLY satisfy a business' needs with a custom design anyway, so using a templated website will prove even worse!
AVOID: Amateurs, your cousin, students, the IT guy, etc.
Why? The same reason you don't hire your neighbor, a medical student, or veterinarian to operate on you. Unfortunately, in this business, we don't have a Bar exam to pass before we're considered “Web Designers” and we don't get a cute little 'WD' next to our name. Basically, any hack with a computer and a design program can pass themselves off as a web designer, and the Internet is full of their [un]handy work. Also, many people lump all computer-related professions into one, and therefore assume that the guys that installed their network can also design a good website. The trick to avoiding those self-described web designers is simple: Look at their portfolio. Are the websites contemporary without being trendy? Do they look like every other website of their kind? Are they easy to navigate? Are they attractive? And the ultimate test: Are they still online? Don't be afraid to ask for references. Remember that most web designers are right-brained, and are therefore probably not the most responsible people in the world. Did they complete their projects quickly and efficiently, or did it take a year of pulling teeth? Finally, look at the price. If it seems too cheap, there's a reason. If you are trading your website design for a gift certificate to Applebees, how good is it going to be [the design, not the food]? In web design, like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Usually...
AVOID: Large, high-profile firms.
Why? They demand large, high-profile rates. And the people getting the bulk of those rates are sitting in a boardroom, not in front of a computer screen designing your website. The person actually designing your site is making $12.00 an hour churning out your site and 20 others. We call then Code Monkeys. You'll never actually talk to this person, as he gets his or her orders from their Project Manager. Our bet: Neither of their hearts is in their work, because if they were, they would quit and start their own company, just like you did. At the end of the day, you paid not only for your website, you also paid for their billboard!
AVOID: Designers that work from their mom's basement.
Why: Because you want to know that you're going to get something for your investment and where to find them if they don't return your call. You also want the very best website for your money. Like any other specialty, if they offer value, professional results, and are experts at what they do, they'll be successful enough to invest back into their business. Look for web design firms that are members of associations like local Chambers of Commerce, professional guilds, and the Better Business Bureau. If they have a studio or office that is open to customers, you know they'll be accessible when you need them.
AVOID: Web designers whose own sites are lacking.
Why: You can expect yours won't be much better. That would be like taking marriage counseling from Liz Taylor. For a list of professional web designers in Louisville, click here.
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5 Steps of Custom Web Design
Now that you know what kind of web design firm to hire, there are a few things to know about the design process. Web design can be broken down into 5 basic steps:
Conceptualization: Web design, like all design, starts with a concept. Anyone with an agenda, idea, product or service can utilize the ever more popular internet to communicate it to their desired audience. The design process is dictated by the need of the website owner. This initial idea will be the foundation of the website’s design and also the rest of the design process. Most of you reading this article already have a concept, most likely a product or service, that you want others to purchase. The concept is simple enough, but to utilize a website to successfully grow your business requires a great deal of planning.
Planning: Although one of the least exciting phases of web design, the planning stage is one of the most important. A good web designer does a thorough needs assessment in order to determine what functions and features your website will need, and will plan your website around them. A well thought out plan will save money because it will prevent having to re-design the website interface to accommodate an element or idea that was overlooked in addition to allowing for an efficient modeling stage.
Modeling: This stage is an extension of the planning stage, where the plan becomes a coded model. Elements are arranged in an intuitive manner that guides your visitors to the most important parts of your website. How visitors will navigate and extract the information they seek is determined in the execution stage.
Execution: This is the design stage where the website "look and feel" will be developed and the interactive elements will be integrated. Graphics, photos, animation and other visual effects, such as " mouseovers", are developed in this stage. Effective and engaging visuals and interactive features can increase time spent on the website, which will in turn increase customer conversion, which in-turn increases sales. Through the visual design of your website, your designer can utilize your corporate identity to create a website that is consistent with your brand, further increasing the recognizability and credibility of your business.
Fat City: Basically, this is where you buy a pitch fork to rake in all the dough generated from your wicked-bad website. At this point, you are perfectly justified in walking into your boardroom and yelling "Boo-yah!"
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What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of making a website perform well on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. The basic idea of SEO is to make it very easy for these search engines to “index” your website. The more optimized your website is, the higher it “ranks”, or places, on the search engine’s results page. This is very desirable because your website will be found by more people, and this obviously a means by which to increase traffic to your website, which in turn results in more contacts from potential customers. Search Engine Optimization techniques are ideally implemented during the design of your website, though an existing website can be optimized after they are created as well. Websites designed by professionals trained in Search Engine Optimization are vastly more likely to rank higher on the results page than websites optimized after the design phase. For this reason, it’s important to have your website designed by a professional web design firm that’s well versed in the art of Search Engine optimization. For a list of local web designers that are also SEO specialists, click here.
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Top 10 Pet Peeves of Web Design
How much time your visitors spend has an enormous effect on them doing business with you. Here are 10 surefire ways to make them go running to your competition.
1. Long animation intros.
Most of your website visitors won't have the time, patience or interest in sitting through a lengthy animated intro, or even a short one for that matter. The vast majority of visitors are coming to your site for information or to complete a task, such as ordering your products, not to be subjected to your dated web designer's animation abilities. Ex-ing the flash intros will prevent your visitors from ex-ing out your website window and moving on.
2. Bad Navigation.
The best way to have visitors leave your website quickly is to frustrate them with clumsy menus and bad navigation. Website content needs to be accessible, so navigation should be user friendly and intuitive to the point that it anticipates your visitor's needs. Remember, most visitors want information, and if they can't access the information they came for, they'll attempt to find it elsewhere.
3. Pop-Ups.
Everybody hates spam, and pop-ups are usually spam. For this reason, many people disable them from appearing in their browsers, so it's important that your website content doesn't open in a new window. Even if it isn't spam, they may never see it. Did I mention everybody hates spam?
4. Disabled back buttons.
People like to be able to utilize their own browser tools, so disabling them in any form is a bad idea. If they need to access the back button, it's probably because your website content is either incomplete, inadequate, or badly organized. Disabling them is just another way to frustrate them. Furthermore, disabling browser features can adversely affect your placement on search engines like Google and Yahoo.
5. Hidden Contact Information.
Sometimes, visitors come to your website just to get your address or phone number. This is a good thing! Making them search around your website for this info is not. Make it as easy as possible and put your contact information on every page, in plain sight!
6. Inadequate or Outdated Content.
Again, most website visitors seek information in the form of copy content. If your website provides it, they are much more likely to spend significant amounts of time on your website and return often, greatly increasing the odds of them contacting you, which in turn increases the likelihood of them doing business with you.
7. Jumping Through Hoops.
Websites that require people to enter information or register as a guest to access all or portions of their content are asking for too much. If a customer can't get what they need from your website they'll move on to one that will. The same holds true for websites that require visitors to download additional software to view the website.
8. Slow Websites.
Websites that that are not optimized for speed, have heavy files, or are hosted on a slow server are very frustrating. Again, many website visitors don't have the time or patience for a slow loading website. They'll move on to your competitor's website faster than you can say “loading”.
9. Dead Links.
Nothing says “I don't give a crap about the experience of my website visitor” better than dead links. People really like it when things work properly, and get a bit miffed when they don't. This is especially true, when your link promises them the very information that they need, only to do nothing or to open a “does not exist” error page.
10. Repetition and reloading Content.
Featuring a song or video on the main page of your website may seem like a good idea. It's not. As the main index page often contains kinetic links that are accessible from that page only, vistors may visit that page often. And every time they do, the into song or video reloads. This can be annoying at best. Just ask Sisyphus. Uh, never mind.
If your website is guilty of more than a few of these infractions, you should consider having your website redesigned. For a list of web designers we recommend, click here.
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Web Re-Design
Website design is constantly changing, and changing fast. Now that website design has been popular for well over a decade, there are a vast amount of websites out there that are no longer effective on many levels. And that’s assuming that the website was well designed at the time, which is also unlikely as inept self described web designers are much more common than professional web designers.
Interactive features and website functionality has also greatly expanded in the last couple of years. Gone are the days when “brochure” websites, ones that were basically an online brochure, advertisement, or catalog. A properly designed website can now accomplish tasks that were unheard of a few years ago. Blogs, podcasts, video, newsletters, and content management systems are only the beginning.
As the internet is proving to be a competitive battle ground for business advertising, a business who’s website is antiquated, or otherwise not performing at it’s full potential should seriously considering having their website redesigned, especially if it’s not ranking well on the search engines.
Web re-design is basically no different than having a new website designed, except that the lessons learned with the first website can be implemented into the new website. As well, some of the elements of the first website that were successful can be repeated in the new design, while the ineffective elements can be improved or completely discarded.
Need your website redesigned? Click here.
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Website Maintenance
Website maintenance is the process of keeping an established website up to date. Once designed and uploaded to a host server, a website will remain on the internet unchanged and doesn’t require maintenance to stay online, so long as the host server is reputable and your account is up to date. However, the times change quickly when it comes to the internet and online marketing. Competition is constantly increasing and the freshest and most relevant websites will rise to the top. All other things being equal, websites whose content is consistently replaced, changed, or refreshed rank substantially higher on search engines like Google and Yahoo. For these reasons it is a great idea to update websites on a regular basis. Moreover, as business plans often change and grow, it’s only logical that the website will need to change or grow to reflect the business itself. Many website designers have website maintenance programs available for either a monthly fee or by the hour. Depending on how often the owner wishes to add to or change their website and to what extent will determine which maintenance plan is right for them, as well as how involved they want to be. Website owners who desire a large amount of control over their website and who need to change it often should consider having a “content management system” designed and implemented in their existing or future website.
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Content Management Systems (CMS)
A Content Management System allows a website owner to update content on their website without having any knowledge of HTML or any other computer programming language. Having a Content Management System designed and integrated is highly recommended for people who want to make changes on a regular basis without accruing expenses to have the changes made by a web designer or programmer. Though there is an initial cost, over the long term it’s a much more inexpensive solution than a website maintenance plan or paying a designer by the hour for each change. For a website design company that offers Content Management Systems, click here.
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What is New Media?
New Media is a general term that includes all non-traditional ways of delivering advertising and/or promotional messages through an electronic format, such as the internet and cell phones. It’s usually interactive in nature and requires delivery through a digital device. New Media is the latest way to reach your potential customers. Many businesses are opting to spend much of there advertising budget on new media advertising venues such as Google and Yahoo. There is a notion that exists in business circles that the internet is the most widely used form of advertising, and many businesses are spending a smaller percentage of their marketing budget on traditional media such as yellow page advertising, billboards, etc., and increasing the amount spent on the internet. However, statistics still show that traditional print media is still the most widely used source of generating new business leads and remains the most dominant form of advertising.
That said, there can be no doubt that New Media is the future of advertising and the disparity between the percentage spent on it versus traditional media is decreasing every year. The most dominant form of New Media advertising, in terms of revenue generated, is via the major Search Engines, especially Google. Search Engines are already a competitive battle ground in many industries, though there is still plenty of room for newcomers, especially if they’ve hired a professional design and marketing team to oversee and develop their strategy. Click here for a few in Louisville that can provide you with a dominant internet presence.
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Drive Traffic to Your Website
There are many ways to increase traffic, or number of visitors, to your website, both through traditional means and via the internet. However, before you drive the first visitor to your website it’s important to make sure that your website accomplishes a few things first. The last thing you want to do is spend money driving people to a website that is ineffective. Here’s a checklist:
• Is your website professional? Will people be impressed or turned off by it’s overall look and feel?
• Will it convert visitors to contacts and customers? Will your visitors be enticed to contact you?
• Is your website informational? Will visitors find what they seek?
• Is it interactive, interesting, or fun? Will visitors want to spend time on your website or return to it often? Will they want to tell their friends?
• Is it easy to use? Will people become frustrated and move on?
• And finally, do you provide multiple ways for them to contact you?
If the answer to any of these things is no, click here.
If not, read on!
A great way to increase traffic to your website is to include your web address in any traditional advertising you do. Print ads can be very expensive and are generally based on size. While the print ad may small, including your web address in the ad will give people who are interested in your services or products an easy way to find out so much more. The same holds true for radio and television ads, billboards and especially your business print collateral such as business cards and brochures.
Another great way to drive traffic to your website is to go straight to the media that your visitors need to access your website anyway: the internet. There are a number of ways to do so, and the monetary and time investments vary greatly. Here are a few of the most common.
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Search Engines: What are they?
Search engines are websites that provide results for specific keywords, called search strings. Search results are ranked based on relevancy, or how closely they match the search string. The major search engines are Google and Yahoo. There are a few different ways to advertise on search engines.
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Search Engine Submission
By far the most desirable is to appear naturally, or organically, on the major ones like Google and Yahoo. However, this is a bit difficult to do properly and results cannot be guaranteed, so stay away from anyone who guarantees this type of natural placement.
To be listed on the search engines you first have to be “indexed” by them. The quickest way to do so is to hire a web advertising firm that will do it for you through a process called search engine submission. There are various ways to do so, but the easiest way to do it is to have your website designer to submit your URL (web address or domain name) to Google and Yahoo. The search engines will then send “crawlers” or “bots” to troll your website for content. Once complete, the search engines will decide whether or not to include you in their search results, called “indexing”. Not all websites are indexed by the search engines, though most professionally designed websites will be. Where you rank on the index depends on a number of factors, including how many other quality sites link to yours, the content of your website, how well your site is “optimized” for the search engines, and ultimately how relevant and informative your website is. Obviously the higher your website is ranked across multiple key word search strings, the more traffic your website will receive. While there are companies that will employ backdoor schemes that can give you this top placement, it’s a very bad idea to attempt them. This activity of providing artificially inflated search engine rankings is called “Black-hatting” and the search engines make it a point of blacklisting, or barring, any website that it determines is doing so. The best way to get indexed naturally and ranked well on search engines is to hire a professional web design firm that is well versed in the process of Search Engine Optimization to design or re-design your website.
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What is Search Engine Advertising?
The only guaranteed way to appear on the first page of the search engine results is to purchase a Search Engine Advertising campaign. This allows you to choose the keywords you desire, and when an someone in your selected geographic area searches for your keywords, your information appears in the form of a “sponsored link”. This is a “pay-per-click” format, and whenever a visitor clicks on your ad (which links to your website) you are charged a set amount that you are able to limit. The amount per click also depends on the key word and your desired placement on the page. The number of “clicks” your ad received is determined by your pre-set budget. The advantage of Search Engine Advertising is that your ad can be on the first page of major search engines immediately, and the programs are very flexible. They allow you to control just about every aspect, including your budget and time frame foe which your ad runs. This flexibility is also what makes it a bit difficult for those with little or no web marketing experience to manage. It’s quite easy for an inexperienced business owner to waste a good amount of money on a SEA program. However, utilized by a professional, an Search Engine Advertising program on Google (called AdWords) or Yahoo can be one of the best advertising campaigns that you can have. For a list of Louisville firms that can develop and manage an effective Search Engine Advertising campaign for you, click here.
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