Inside the Suitcase
New and established business owners often ask us for simple tips to improve their Web sites. Here are a few we put together.
- Focus on the purpose and goals of your Web site. To insure a site is going to convey its purpose and achieve its goals everyone involved with the project should know what those are. Without intentions clearly stated you may be facing a re-write or re-design, and therefore wasted money, months down the line. Ask your design team for a project profile to get you started.
- Understand your target market and speak to them through copy and design. If your Web site is geared toward children your copy should be written at their reading level and the graphics should be interesting to them, even if not to adults. Conduct market research or hire a firm to do it for you.
- Ensure your Web site is easy to navigate. Users should be able to find the subject they’re looking for quickly. If the site is large a search function is helpful. You should plan for future additions early on, if possible, so they will fit easily into the site. Don’t plan on creating sections later, instead make sections that are easily expandable.
- Your Web site design should legitimize your business. It should not look like an amateur designed it. Information should be orderly and easy to read. Text should stand out from the background and not be written over patterns. There should not be more than one area of the page moving at a time.
- Think about using Flash to further engage the viewer. Studies show users stay twice as long, on average, on a site that utilizes Flash.
- Make your Web site more than an online brochure. Have a way for users to contact you on every page the easier they can contact you the more often they will. An incentive to join your mailing list is a plus. Many companies offer informational e-newsletters, heavy on useful information and light on advertising. This keeps your company top of mind.
- Drive people to your “money page.” If you’re a non-profit looking for donations, this might be your donation page; if you’re a software company, this may be a demo of your product. This is achieved by a callout on every page or direct mail that drives people to this particular page.
- If using Google Ads, you have a greater chance of click-throughs if they blend in with the design of your site through type and color styles.
- Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The difference between being on the first page of a Google search and being on the second can mean millions of dollars. Register with all the search engines, be sure your code is clean and keep keywords in text higher up on the page. There’s much more to this and many resources on the Web.
If you’d like to learn more about using Web design to boost your sales, contact us for a free consultation.
Posted by Mackenzie
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