Quiz: Every Page on Your Business Website Is a (Fill in the Blank)
February 9, 2010 by gfrancis · Leave a Comment
I don’t know if every online marketer is similar to me. I often think, “If I had only known then what I know now.” The “then,” of course, is when I first ventured into the Internet business arena. I could easily fill a book with important things that I didn’t know how to do but that I tried, anyway. It’s a bit embarrassing.
Periodically I try to share one of those bits of wisdom that have subsequently come my way. I identify one or two simple realities of the online business world about which I had been ignorant and that cost me a lot of money, a lot of wasted energy or, usually, both.
My advice for today is this: Every page on a website is a landing page.
You see, I believed that every visitor to my websites would come first to my home page. They would all happily consume the valuable content there, and then they would use that information to thoroughly explore the rest of the site in the order that I happened to find logical.
If I had been intelligent enough to hire a consultant to explain to me how my prospective customers would actually discover my site and navigate around it, my websites wouldn’t have looked the way they did those early years. They may not have been as aesthetically pleasing, but they might have earned a liveable income. I needed to either contract with an outside expert, take much more time to learn before acting or had someone with Internet marketing experience professionally design a web site for me that could have met my expectations much sooner.
Here are some things that would have saved me a great deal of time and money in the long run:
* Understand that search engines do not view the Internet as a collection of websites; instead they see a collection of individual pages
* Recognize that each page on a web site should be created with the goal of achieving the ultimate purpose of the site (obtaining the desired action on the part of the visitor)
* Track real human beings to see how they move through my website, which is often very different from the way that I expected that they would
* More quickly discovering that, cumulatively, the interior pages of my website receive more first time visits than my home page
* Recognize that an aesthetically pleasing page is not the same as a productive page
* We should all “bite the bullet” and spend some money wisely in the early stages of our business development, because that will lead to greater income sooner than if we behave as the iconic Mr. Scrooge
I actually love the process of designing the architecture of business websites, now that I actually understand it, so I probably would still not do what I recommend to you: Hire a professional Internet marketer to build yours. But, when I build my first site, I needed to learn so much more before I moved on to the fun part–fun part for me, at least. Meanwhile, there were plenty of other tasks that I could have had done professionally to allow me more time for my learning.
Web Dummies: Here are some great tips for you : )
February 6, 2010 by gfrancis · Leave a Comment
Web design tip number one – Use black text on a white background.
Web design that converts visitors into customers must make sure that any sections of text greater than 2 lines uses dark text, preferably black text on a white background. For blocks of text in your web design you need to forget about fancy font colours and dark backgrounds in your attempt to achieve visual appeal.Sticking with the basics of making it easy to read the text on you web site has proven to be the best strategy.
The web design reasons for it include…
In order for you to be able to sell to your potential customers.
- It is important to make it easy for people to absorb the information on your web site. This is done with a clean well designed structure andand colours.
- Research indicates that having more than a 15% background tint will negatively impact on the effectiveness of your sales message.
- Your web design needs to be all about conversion and less about the branding.
If you are a small to medium business then selecting a dark text on a white background for main copy usage use is the most sensible and cost effective strategy to use.
Research your keywords early in the process.
Research of the most commonly searched keyphrases used to find your product or service is a critical step. Then once you know what they you need to make sure that these keywords occur on your website.
A great web design that never gets seen will not help you grow your business, and the best online way to be seen is to be found in the search engines.
Web design is often a less about the design, and more about the copy, because if the copy does not contain the frequently searched for keywords/phrases, then you are never going to get in front of a customer. So make sure that you know which keywords you should be being found for and place these strategically in your text throughout the site.
Tip Three – Make your web site visually appealing.
Some graphic designers may be worried web design tip number one and number two are diametrically opposed to web design tip number three.
The reality is that you need to be found in the search engines and have your information easily communicated first. But you must also at all times present your information in a professional manner to engender the customer trust required in order to purchase from you for request information from you.
By the following of these three simple rules above in your business, you will benefit from more sales leads, signups and sales conversions from your web design.
What Are The Essential Elements Of Website Design
January 14, 2010 by gfrancis · Leave a Comment
When you think about the Internet, most people think about websites. Websites don’t just appear out of the blue and forethought and planning is often required before uploading. Presenting the correct information in an understandable manner to both the search engines and human visitors is paramount to success, and this is one aspect you really need to get right.
It goes without saying then that you’ll need to educate yourself about the basics of what goes into a website design. The most important factor is bandied about the internet with wild abandon (and rightly so), and that is the premise that content rules the roost.
Great Web Site Content
Gone are the days of successful websites with just a smattering of content, older websites may still rank well but newer site with little content rarely fair well, so what type of content should you have on your site? If you really don’t know then here are a few indicators to point you in the right direction.
Firstly – The content on your site actually has two readers, on the one hand you have the search engine spiders who will index the text on your site so they can deliver the most suitable web content for the searchers query. Secondly you have your human visitors and they will need to have a quality and appealing message that draws them into your site rather than frightening them off.
Whilst content will remain as the prime ingredient for a successful website until the search engines go down a different path, other factors come into play as well.
Secondly – You need to ensure the your websites graphical image is complimentary to the target market you are trying to capture, this is why you need to ensure your graphic design company has a full understanding of your market niche. You also need to make sure that site navigation is easy to understand and captures key search phrases.
Utilize Effective Placement Of Tabs And Side Menus
Thirdly – Take a look a tab placements and the locations of sidebars. These are generally the way someone gets from one point to the other within site, so you need to take some time and plan these out carefully. Make sure any navigation is clearly visible because if not visitors will find it difficult to find their way around and will in all probability bounce of your site.
And finally, although it’s tempting to do otherwise with all the options that Web Design offers today, you’ll want to keep your website as uncluttered as possible. A site that’s too busy can have the exact opposite effect on a client to the one you intended if they feel overloaded.
For more web design help visit graphics design Sheffield
Advantages Of A Professional Web Design Vs Doing It Yourself
January 11, 2010 by gfrancis · Leave a Comment
Your website says a great deal about you and your business. It can make the difference between making a sell and the consumer using another website for their purchase. It is quite possible to design a website on your own, but it isn’t always the best choice.
A professional web designer has insight about what consumers are going to focus on and how to set your site up to offer them exactly what they are looking for. They are also very skilled in how to promote various aspects of your website to help you generate even more sales.
Having a professional design your website generally means you won’t have to spend so much of your time focusing on this aspect of the business. Websites continually need changes and updates so you can see how that will eat away at your time. This means the navigation tools will often need revamping to keep up with such changes. A professional web designer is an expert in making everything fall into place. You want the consumer to be able to click and access on your website without having to consider how to make it happen.
A professional web designer does cost more than doing it yourself, but you can avoid common mistakes that plague do it your self website projects. A huge issue is the scripting of the website. It takes more than good spelling and grammar to make it interesting and attractive to the consumer. Graphic designs look great, but do you know how they affect the consumer? It may attract their attention but if it takes too long for the graphic to open they will likely move on to another website.
You can avoid both of these issues by placing your web design needs into the hand of a professional web designer.