Your first website . . .
. . . . tips on what to look for, and what to avoid!
Get a website that really works for your business
When you're looking for a web site for your business don't be fooled by dramatic images or graphic effects. They may look good but they won't necessarily be easy to use, or find, for your customers. In fact having a 'flashy' website may well have the opposite effect, and rather than impress your visitors, it may well turn them away.
For a website to really work for your business it needs to:
- be clear
- well structured
- easy to navigate
- appeal to your target audience
- have unique and relevant page content
- be readable by search engines
A good web designer will take time to understand your business and the market you operate in. Who your competitors are, who your target customers are, and what you actually want your web site to do.
Do you want a website to attract new customers, or to provide information? what do you want people to do once they visit your site? call you, buy something, book online? who will your ideal visitors be? how will they find out about your website? All of these factors need to be understood.
As well as the design, colour and imagery of your website, your web designer should also be considering the infrastructure of the site, which means what information needs to go on the website, how it should be organised, and the names of the pages.
Make your home page work for you
Make sure your home page makes it obvious to visitors what it is you do and how what you do helps them. Don't make it all about you, what you do, who you are, what you have done in the past. That's all too self-indulgent. Instead, show the benefits people will gain by buying from you or from using your services, and how you are different and so much better at what you do than everyone else! And don't forget a call to action. Do you want them to phone you? then make it clear and give your phone number. Do you want them to buy now? then invite them to do so, and make it as easy as possible for them.
Keep the navigation simple
As well as avoiding flashy images and overly designed graphics (unless you are a graphic designer!) you should also avoid trying to be too experimental with your page navigation. A simple menu structure that gets people to where they want to go, with as few clicks as possible, is what to aim for. There's a reason why most websites use either top navigation or left hand side navigation - that's because it works and it's what most people are used to. You don't want your visitors struggling to work out out how to get from page to page, you want them to focus on what's on each page and how it can help them.
Content is as important as the design
Your website designer should consider the actual words, or 'content', of each page as well as the design, imagery and colour scheme. Good page content that focuses on the benefits your customers gain from using you, will help you convey the right message in the right way, and is one of the key factors when your visitors are deciding whether to stick around or click on to another website. It's important to remember that less is very definately more when it comes to good web page content, particularly on the home page and the first level pages. Web content also needs to be findable by search engines so it should sensibly incorporate the key words and phrases that people looking for your products or services are likely to use. Do not be tempted to undertake this job yourself - your web designer should take responsibility for this as well as the design, as your website will not be complete without it. Even if they don't offer this service in-house, they should have a roster of experienced web copywriters they can use. If they don't, be wary.
It's useful to ask your designer to build you a website that you can update yourself, especially if your content changes quite frequently. It will save you time and money if they build or integrate a content management system with your website that allows you to make changes to the content and even add pages when you need to.
Measuring how effective your website is
Your website is one of the most important windows to your business so it's very important to get right. Even when your website is completed you should conduct regular internal reviews to make sure it looks good, is easy to find what you want, and is up to date. Try and make regular updates to the page content to keep it fresh.
If you see your customers face-to-face why not ask them their views, or give them an anonomous form to complete so you get some really honest feedback!
One of the other ways to measure how effective your website is is to use a free tool provided by Google called Google Analytics. Google analytics provides a truly huge amount of useful information about your website traffic. It tells you how many people have visited your website over a specific time period, how people have found your website, which keywords they have used, which pages were visited and for how long, how many were new visitors and how many have visited you before. Google Analytics is free and is incredibly easy to install so be very wary of any web designer who charges you to add this to your website!
Website design services from Now Let's Get Started
Our designers can build you a website using a wide range of customisable WordPress templates to get the look and feel you want, complete with professionally written page content created specifically for your business.
ASK ABOUT OUR WEB DESIGN SERVICES SPECIALLY FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Your first website . . .
. . . . tips on what to look for, and what to avoid!
Get a website that really works for your business
When you're looking for a web site for your business don't be fooled by dramatic images or graphic effects. They may look good but they won't necessarily be easy to use, or find, for your customers. In fact having a 'flashy' website may well have the opposite effect, and rather than impress your visitors, it may well turn them away.
For a website to really work for your business it needs to:
- be clear
- well structured
- easy to navigate
- appeal to your target audience
- have unique and relevant page content
- be readable by search engines
A good web designer will take time to understand your business and the market you operate in. Who your competitors are, who your target customers are, and what you actually want your web site to do.
Do you want a website to attract new customers, or to provide information? what do you want people to do once they visit your site? call you, buy something, book online? who will your ideal visitors be? how will they find out about your website? All of these factors need to be understood.
As well as the design, colour and imagery of your website, your web designer should also be considering the infrastructure of the site, which means what information needs to go on the website, how it should be organised, and the names of the pages.
Make your home page work for you
Make sure your home page makes it obvious to visitors what it is you do and how what you do helps them. Don't make it all about you, what you do, who you are, what you have done in the past. That's all too self-indulgent. Instead, show the benefits people will gain by buying from you or from using your services, and how you are different and so much better at what you do than everyone else! And don't forget a call to action. Do you want them to phone you? then make it clear and give your phone number. Do you want them to buy now? then invite them to do so, and make it as easy as possible for them.
Keep the navigation simple
As well as avoiding flashy images and overly designed graphics (unless you are a graphic designer!) you should also avoid trying to be too experimental with your page navigation. A simple menu structure that gets people to where they want to go, with as few clicks as possible, is what to aim for. There's a reason why most websites use either top navigation or left hand side navigation - that's because it works and it's what most people are used to. You don't want your visitors struggling to work out out how to get from page to page, you want them to focus on what's on each page and how it can help them.
Content is as important as the design
Your website designer should consider the actual words, or 'content', of each page as well as the design, imagery and colour scheme. Good page content that focuses on the benefits your customers gain from using you, will help you convey the right message in the right way, and is one of the key factors when your visitors are deciding whether to stick around or click on to another website. It's important to remember that less is very definately more when it comes to good web page content, particularly on the home page and the first level pages. Web content also needs to be findable by search engines so it should sensibly incorporate the key words and phrases that people looking for your products or services are likely to use. Do not be tempted to undertake this job yourself - your web designer should take responsibility for this as well as the design, as your website will not be complete without it. Even if they don't offer this service in-house, they should have a roster of experienced web copywriters they can use. If they don't, be wary.
It's useful to ask your designer to build you a website that you can update yourself, especially if your content changes quite frequently. It will save you time and money if they build or integrate a content management system with your website that allows you to make changes to the content and even add pages when you need to.
Measuring how effective your website is
Your website is one of the most important windows to your business so it's very important to get right. Even when your website is completed you should conduct regular internal reviews to make sure it looks good, is easy to find what you want, and is up to date. Try and make regular updates to the page content to keep it fresh.
If you see your customers face-to-face why not ask them their views, or give them an anonomous form to complete so you get some really honest feedback!
One of the other ways to measure how effective your website is is to use a free tool provided by Google called Google Analytics. Google analytics provides a truly huge amount of useful information about your website traffic. It tells you how many people have visited your website over a specific time period, how people have found your website, which keywords they have used, which pages were visited and for how long, how many were new visitors and how many have visited you before. Google Analytics is free and is incredibly easy to install so be very wary of any web designer who charges you to add this to your website!
Website design services from Now Let's Get Started
Our designers can build you a website using a wide range of customisable WordPress templates to get the look and feel you want, complete with professionally written page content created specifically for your business.
ASK ABOUT OUR WEB DESIGN SERVICES SPECIALLY FOR SMALL BUSINESS