Go To Web Design Home | Add to Favorites
Design Your Site For Your Customers
The most important person that you need to please when you design your site is your potential customer. I can not stress that enough.
I have clients who have told me "I don't like this design or that one or I like these colours", etc. I want to please my customers so I try to create a design for them that they will be happy with, of course.
But my clients don't often think of their site visitors or their own potential customers when they ask me to design their site. Sadly most are thinking primarily of one thing - how to make money from their website. And because their focus is on making money rather than pleasing their customers, more often than not, the website won't sell. And as much as I try to advise them on how they can improve the quality of the site, they stick to their own ideas of what the site should look like. Then they email me later on and ask me what are they doing wrong. Oh brother!
If you want to have a successful website you must think of your visitors first. Before you hire a designer or design a site yourself, you must define: - Your Target Audience
- The Purpose of Your Web Site
- Procedures ie. What Material or Content Will Be Used
- Your Goals
Next, you must keep your visitor in mind by:- Utilizing a Simple and Consistent Design
- Making Sure the Website Design is Compatible To Most Browsers, Especially Internet Explorer and Firefox
- Making Sure Your Website Loads Quickly
- Implementing Clear and Easy Navigation Systems
- Maintaining Your Site and Regularily Adding Fresh Content
Your Main Page is Like a Sales Letter
Your main page should have a very strong sales message which includes a keyword rich heading and a short introductory paragragh telling your visitors what your site is about: products or services. Next in bullet form, describe the benefits of doing business with you. In other words, what makes your business stand out or what makes you so special?
You need to add credibility to your site so use verifiable testimonials. Offer bonuses or something free along with your product or service and then close the sale by calling for a clear action: Click here to order, sign up today, request a quote, etc.
Next, you need to create a mailing list. Have your designer install a mailing list script on your site so that your visitors can subscribe. Once your visitors start reading quality material in your newsletter, you begin to form a relationship with your subscribers and they begin to trust you. Trust leads to sales.
How Will They Find Your Site?
Once your site is complete, and I do mean complete, manually submit your site to the top search engines, such as Yahoo, Google, MSN and Alta Vista. Don't waste your time worrying too much about ranking yet, because you are not going to get a top ranking right away. No matter how much money you spend on Search Engine Optimization services, your website will not get in the top 5 position overnight.
Next, put your website URL and your email address on your business cards and pass them out at every opportunity. Make sure your business cards are a good quality stock and that they clearly define what your business is about. Most people are naturally curious and if they got a good impression from you and your business card, they will visit your site. Even if they don't need your products or services, chances are they know someone who does.
Word of mouth is very powerful. It is how I get most of my clients. So if you have pleased one customer, that person will tell someone, who will tell someone else, and then your business will flourish.
Yours in Success,
Karen Blundell About the Author
Karen Blundell is a web designer and internet consultant based in Welland, Ontario. Her focus is to assist home and small business owners succeed on the internet. You can find out more about her services at http://webzonecentral.com
How Not To Get Web Design Work
I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto. So I put an ad on a freelance site. It specified the programming qualifications needed, stated that the successful candidate should have good English, and was for companies only.The replies I got were enlightening. So much so, I made a list of things applicants did wrong. Here it is.I should point out I was initially prepared to give everyone a fair go. After the first twenty-odd emails, my attitude changed. I was looking for reasons to delete applicants. I only needed one successful one; with 100+ replies it was getting to be a headache, so I decided a brutal approach was needed.1. Failed to read the spec.Many applicants couldn't write properly in the English language. Many were individuals only. Result: in...
Maximising Web Site Viewability - Browsers
With so many different configurations internet users have their computers set up with, it can be difficult to decide how web sites should be configured so that it is viewable in as many configurations as possible.So in the last 6 months i have been logging the statistics from my web design site to achieve as accurate a result as possible to answer this question.The results are interesting reading and in my next few articles i wi...
Get Faster Download Times By Making Bigger Web Pages!
As a webmaster you already know how important it is that your web pages download fast. In a nutshell, if y...
|
 |
|
|
Nine Effective Tips For Improving Your Website?s Usability
Web usability is perhaps the most important factor in any web design. This is the driving factor that keeps your visitors coming back to your website. Given below are a few points that you need to consider to increase your website's usability. Points to consider for improving web usability 1.) Give your visitor what he is looking for A visitor means business; he is looking for information and will stay in your site only as long as he gets what he wants. So provide only relevant information on your homepage that is specific to your end users. Web logs are the best means of finding out which keyword your visitor used and for what purpose he could have visited your website. 2.) Tell your visitor what your site is all about |  |
| Web Copywriting: The Psychology Of Scarcity, Less Is More If You Want Faster Sales
Countdown to Armageddon - at least you'd think so judging from some of the garish copy and blaring headlines screaming at you from so many websites.At the opposite extreme though, you've some sites which don't even have a single decent headline anywhere that captures visitors attention, let alone leads them into captivating copywriting that'll get them a sale.Although it's true to say human emotion hasn't changed in the last 10 years online, the consumer and buyer reactions have undoubtedly become far more sophisticated over the past decade. Further, with something like 43% of all web shopping carts being abandoned at the point of sale it's crucial we understand and react proactively to this new buyer sophistication.In short, todays online buyers are both pretty wired and wised up. Unless you understand t... | |
| 10 Seconds Is All It Takes? (how To Grab The Attention Of Your Audience With Your Web Site)
FACT: 30 to 60% of visitors tend to drop off and click to another site when they are forced to click their mouse more often than necessary.FACT: People who use the internet are usually those who are always on-the-go and don't want to spend time figuring out how to navigate any web site.FACT: It takes all of ten seconds for most first-time visitors to spend time on any web site before deciding if it's worth any attention.Yes, it only takes ten seconds for viewers to get interested and stay a little longer to know more about your site and get the information they're looking for.This is the main reason why the first page... | |
| Website Creativity: Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
If one more business owner tells me their website sucks because they're just "too darn busy to deal with it", I'm gonna hurl. That's like saying, "I'm doing business in my dirty underwear because I'm too busy to get dressed." Realize it or not, your website (or lack thereof) is very often the first impression your prospect or peer will have of you. Now, it's no longer a matter of having a website -- it's a matter of having a great one.Most websites are informative, bu... | |
| Flash - To Use Or Not To Use?
Out there in the WWW there are thousands sites using flash for their needs. But the majority sites are not in this list. Let's summaries some facts about flash using on YOUR web site and after that it's you who will have to decide: to use or not to use. There are some facts about Macromedia Flash Technology:The First Fact:Sites... | |
| Maximising Web Site Viewability - Browsers
With so many different configurations internet users have their computers set up with, it can be difficult to decide how web sites should be configured so that it is viewable in as many configurations as possible.So in the last 6 months i have been logging the statistics from my web design site to achieve as accurate a result as possible to answer this question.The results are interesting reading and in my next few articles i wi... | |
| Why Content Is King Of Website Design
If there's one thing that most web site developers can agree on, it's this: content is king.That's not, of course, to say that good design doesn't matter. It does. A good, clean design, which is easy to navigate and optimised for search engines is absolutely essential if you want your online business to be a success. When you get right down to it, though, visitors don't come to your website to admire it. It's content that brings them there, and it's content that keeps them coming back for more. Or not, as t... | |
| The Most Important Question To Ask About Your Web Site!
When you design a website how do you start ?Do you start with the banner graphics at the top, or the order page or maybe the sales letter ?All of those are areas that have to be created but they're really not the place to start.The place to start is by answering one simple question about your site.>> What do I want my visitor to do before she leaves? > If she doesn't do that, what else would I like her to do? ... | |
|
|