Tips for a better website
The #1 reason people visit web sites is for information. Thus,
if you provide information for people such as free marketing
tips, a how-to section, or tips for buying your product or
service, you have given a benefit for visiting your site.
The tips for buying your product or service is particularly
beneficial because you are helping your potential customers
make the best decision they can. It shows that you are thinking
of your customers ("Let me help you make the best purchase
for your budget"), not yourself ("Buy my stuff because
I'm the best").
Why should I return to your web site?
People usually won't buy from you until they visit your site
4-5 times. So you should give people a
reason to return to your site. Updating product or service
information, timely how-to tips, or an
upgraded software demo are good reasons for people to return
to your site or maybe even bookmark it.
Coca Cola does not show the same commercial year after year
after year because people will get bored with the same commercial.
Nor should anyone show the exact same web site month after
month after month. A site should be updated at least every
1 to 3 months, even if the changes are minimal.
(Search engines re-index/re-catalog changed pages.)
What separates you from your competition?
We expect to hear company's unique selling proposition (USP)
here and try to design or market the
site based on this. We are usually amazed when people tell
that they are the *best* at something but
cannot back it up with customer testimonials or data. We also
get many potential clients that have no
unique selling proposition.
We often hear the "best customer service" and the
"lowest prices" together. From our standpoint,
if you want to hire a really talented customer service staff,
you have to pay them well. That will affect
your overhead and, thus, your prices. Also, we have found
that the lowest prices rarely get the best quality.
Online businesses who can answer these questions immediately
do extremely well on the web
because they are giving people reasons to come and return
to their sites. They show that they are
willing to listen to their visitors and adapt their site to
help their visitors get what they want.
Your web site should be easy to read.
The most important rule in web design is that your web
site
should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose
your text and background
colors that are modern.
You don't want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or
use colors that are hard to read.
Dark-colored text on a light-colored background is easier
to read than light-colored text on a
dark-colored background.
You
also don't want to set your text size too small (hard to read)
or too large (it will appear to
shout at your visitors). All capitalized letters give the
appearance of shouting at your visitors.
Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not centered.
Center-aligned text is best used in
headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what
they are reading, and most text
(in the West) is left aligned.
Your web site should be easy to navigate.
All of your hyperlinks should be clear to your visitors. Graphic
images, such as buttons or tabs,
should be clearly labeled and easy to read. Your web graphic
designer should select the colors,
backgrounds, textures, and special effects on your web graphics.
It is more important that your
navigational buttons and tabs be easy to read and understand
than to have "flashy" effects.
Link colors in your text should be familiar to your visitor
(blue text usually indicates an unvisited
link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited
link), if possible. If you elect not to use the
default colors, your text links should be emphasized in some
other way (boldfaced, a larger font
size, set between small vertical lines, or a combination of
these). Text links should be unique --
they should not look the same as any other text in your web
pages. You do not want people
clicking on your headings because they think the headings
are links.
Your visitors should be able to find what they are looking
for in your site within three clicks.
If not, they are very likely to click off your site as quickly
as they clicked on.
Your web site should be easy to find.
How are your visitors finding you online? The myth, "If
I build a web site, they will come," is still a
commonly held belief among companies and organizations new
to the Internet. People will not come
to your web site unless you promote your site both online
and offline.
Web sites are promoted online via search engines, directories,
award sites, banner advertising,
electronic magazines (e-zines) and links from other web sites.
If you are not familiar with any of
these online terms, then it is best that you have your site
promoted by an online marketing
professional.
Web
sites are promoted offline via the conventional advertising
methods: print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth,
etc. Once you have created a web site, all of your company's
printed materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes,
invoices, etc. should have your URL
printed on them.
Not only should your web site be easy to find, but your contact
information should be easy to find.
People like to know that there is a person at the other end
of a web site who can help them in the
event that, they need answers to questions which are not readily
available on your web site, some
element on your site is not working and end users need to
be able to tell you about it, and directory
editors need you to modify parts of your site to be sure that
your site is placed in the most relevant
category.
By
giving all relevant contact information (physical address,
telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email address), you are
also creating a sense of security for your end users.
They can contact you in the way that makes them feel the most
comfortable.
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