Website design
A Users perspective
Your website design should carefully what your target customer is going to want to see when they visit. They have clicked the link on a search engine or typed in the URL and they will have certain expectations of what they are going to see.
The key factors for website design are that each web page must be
- Content relevant to the customers query - if I search for a Red Socks, I want to go to ap age that has Red Socks on it, Not blue socks, red ones!
- Easy to use
- Fast loading
- They will also want reassurance in the way of guarantees or testimonials.
- Above all the user is going to ask WIIFM - What's in it For Me
your perspective is about all conversion
The website design needs to be quite clear about what is it that you want the customer to do and it should also have a fall back position, always remembering that with most visitors you will only have one chance to capture their interest, they may never find your website again!
Good persuasive copy is essential - focusing on the benefits of your product or service.
So if you are selling goods you want them to buy from you. So there needs to be a simple to use, add to cart button or similar. But how often does anyone actually buy the first time they go to a website? So is there a fall back position? A bookmark this page button - or a sign up for a discount voucher for their next visit.
The search engine perspective
For search engines to index the website, the website needs to be set up correctly. There is both a technical element to this - via the use of tags and metadata - and also an organisational aspect where it is important to try to restrict the number a topics on a page. For example if you sell shoes and bags, have a shoe page and a bag page.
Things to include
- a punchy headline
- subheadings to enable quick reading of the page
- short bite-sized paragraphs of information
- clear navigation and toolbars
- dark text on a white background - it is much easier to read than white on a coloured background.
Also make sure that you have some personal information on the website especially if you are selling services.
Things to avoid
Avoid anything that distracts from the goal of the particular web page. This includes
- distracting banners, graphics, animations and video clips.
- too many colours and fonts.
- patterned backgrounds.
- large graphic files that take an age to download.
- links to other people's website
reflect your character
If you are a professional services company, then the image you will want to portray will be very different to an online clothing store for teenagers.
start collecting websites...
if you like the design of a particular website, make a note of the website address (the URL) and if you can also make notes on what you like about it, that will help in the design phase of the website.
An initial consultation with Webcopy
Initial Free no obligation consultation
Our initial meeting (about an hour) is a free, no obligation consultation for you to see whether we can work together and from my point of view to find out more about your company and find out which areas need to be addressed.
We will review your current website (if you have one) and whether it meets your needs both now and for how it might be used in the future.
You probably know this ... Many 'consultants' in this field are really salesmen for website companies 'in disguise' making their money from selling you a new website when the existing design and framework may be fine. Unfortunately, even a well built website will fail if the marketing elements are not in place.
My expertise is in making your website work for you - through search engine optimisation, keywords, adwords and great copy writing - and this can often be done within the website framework you already have.
Yes, I do build websites but I also have experience with a number of website companies and may recommend those companies that I think may have a good fit with what you want to do now and into the future. I'm not in the business of providing huge websites or shopping cart sites myself - but I can develop small database applications quickly and effectively.
At the end of the meeting, I will ask you whether you would like me to draw up a proposal. This could be for a website or for any of the other area I deal with (see internet marketing overview).
To find out whether we can work together, we will need to meet for about an hour.
To arrange a suitable time, call Miles on 021 776 334 now.