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Build A Website The Right Way
1) Design 2) Usability 3) Findable 4) Functionality Design If your website doesn’t look professional and trustworthy, you can kiss sales goodbye right from the start. If you can’t get this right, I’m never going to trust you to get a credit card processing system right! Fortunately, there are a lot of web designers out there and this is where they excel. Don’t skimp on your web designer, I know you have a friend who can do it, but you need a professional. Usability This is the hidden component of design that often gets overlooked. Your website must be ordered in a nice, easy to follow, and logical way. Menu systems should be easy to use and find. Every page has an objective, whether it’s to get you to the next page or complete a sale, make sure it’s fulfilling its objective. And make it fast to load, especially if you may have customers on dial-up, you’d be surprised how many that could be. Keeping fancy graphics to a minimum is the best way to a healthy website. Findability To use the ancient Chinese proverb: “If you build a business in the forest but no-one is around to visit it, does it make a sale?” This is even truer of the internet and a critical factor. How will you get people to visit your website? Marketing! And one of your critical marketing actions should be making your website rank well in the search engines with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Once it’s there, it costs you very little to maintain and the traffic comes from people wanting to learn about and buy what you are selling. Traffic can also come from other marketing like Pay per Click (PPC) ads and Viral marketing, but SEO should be in every beginner’s bag. Functionality Does the website do its job, normally, sell your product or service? Whether you accept credit card payments online or have contact details on the website, are people buying what you are selling? This is one of the most overlooked aspects of a website and a personal pet peeve of mine. As I said before, every page has an objective, and most of them should be leading the customer closer to the sale. Make sure you write a good website that people are compelled to buy from and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. Once you get all these components sorted, you can move on to actually marketing your website. But remember, you should be starting with these four aspects or the visitors you attract will just as quickly leave your website. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Craig Dewe runs connexted, a consultancy that helps small businesses become successful on the internet. Visit his small business blog for more free information. |
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