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Web Design Basics
In the last session we discussed some basic dos and don’ts about having an
online business and then began a bit of a lengthy look into search engines and
how they work. As we begin to explore using a web page or web site to enhance
our business or to create an online business, I will refer back to things we
covered about search engines, your PCs, your Internet Service
Provider, your browser software and more. As we cover each detail of
your website and its design, it is important to discuss why certain things are
done the way they are and how that can benefit you as a business.
I would also like to say that while I am describing certain hypothetical
situations, I in no way intend to criticize anyone’s work or site – as the
disclaimer for TV shows says, “the events in this story are fictional and in no
way are representative of you or anyone else.” And I am not going to suggest to
you how to market your business. I have enough trouble marketing my own. You
know your business better than I and probably anyone else. What I will present
are techniques to help you to be able to better market and present your business
to the rest of the world.
There are some basic business building blocks that hold true no matter what kind
of business you are running. When you decide to start your own business, I
presume you picked one that you would enjoy and more importantly, one you know
something about – you are an “expert” so don’t sell yourself short. Depending
upon the business you have chosen, you need to find a location and create the
physical aspects so your business can operate efficiently. And finally, because
you know and understand your business better than anyone else, you know who your
target audience is – i.e. who is going to buy your product, take advantage of
your service or both.
These are basic and general practices to start a business and putting one on the
Internet is no different than building one on Main Street, U.S.A. For our
purposes of discussion, I am going to create an online business selling ball
caps. I have sold ball caps for several years from my store in downtown Bethel
and I am thinking about expanding my business to include the Internet. I love
designing and marketing ball caps of every kind. I know who I now sell hats to
and I believe I can reach many more people around the world who want to buy ball
caps – other businesses and for personal use. All that is left is the physical
structure of my Internet business – i.e. my website.
But before we begin that, let’s take a minute to address your target audience.
A mistake many of us make and I am as guilty as the next guy, is fooling
ourselves when it comes to targeting our customer base. How many times have we
all heard: “I have something everybody in the world wants!” Unless you can
bottle eternal youth, I don’t think you have something everyone wants. Be
realistic in defining your market. It is easy to say that everyone needs a ball
cap but the reality is not everyone wears one – some people never wear one. If
my specialty is custom designed ball caps, then go after that market. Is my
ambition and goal to see to it that every sports team in the state of Maine is
wearing one of my custom designed ball caps? If it is, then I should make that
my marketing goal. Don’t get side-tracked or fooled into believing that you will
be supplying all of the professional baseball teams around the world with ball
caps.
Designing your website has to be done with the knowledge of your target
audience. There is far more success with online businesses that refine
their business to one product or specific product. I am far better off
trying to sell ball caps for sports teams in Maine, than I am selling hats to
the world to start with. With a well defined potential customer base, it is
easier to know where to start and how to get to where I want to go than muddle
around trying to decide where to start.
We are now good to go, as they say. Basically we have two choices when it comes
to building a website – do-it-yourself or hire someone. Whichever you have to
do, the formula is the same. If you need to hire someone, choose the right
person. How do I do that? Asking a friend for help is okay as long as they
understand that you need a commitment. This isn’t a hobby. It’s your business.
Treat it as such. If they can do what you expect them to do, you are a lucky
individual. If you hire somebody, as with anyone, make sure they are
knowledgeable and reputable. You need someone who you can work with and will
look out for your best interest – as good as that can get. The knowledge that
you will gain from this can be applied to your online business by utilizing it
yourself directly, passing it on to your friend who knows how to make web pages
or to make sure the one you hire is doing the job right. The more knowledge you
can display about web design, the better job they will do.
There are no miracles when it comes to starting a business online. If you
have been in your existing business long enough, you know how long it takes to
begin showing a profit. Cyber space is no different. It takes time, hard work,
intelligence, knowledge of your business and knowledge of the Internet and how
it works. Many of the things we will discuss, I will relate to a physical
business, like my Maine Street Ball Cap factory and store.
I want my store to have an appearance that is attractive and says, “I want you
to come in and buy my products.” The same is true with your website. The
first page that customers see is the most important one and I will give you
several reasons why. The obvious ones are, it must be appealing, not confusing
to look at, and easy to begin to navigate. Let’s say you come to my ball cap
store. When you get to the front door, you have difficulty figuring out how to
open it. Then you discover it was locked and you had to wait for someone to come
and let you in. You would either leave immediately or at best go in and vow
never to return.
With your website, you have at most, 8 seconds to get a customer to enter
your business. That’s right 8 seconds. If you are like 49 percent of all the
other Internet users worldwide, you are on dial-up. We know how long things take
to download. Here is where knowing your audience can help. If you live and sell
your goods in a rural area, chances are the majority of Internet users you do
business with are on dial-up. The more “bytes” of information you have on
your page the longer it takes to load – remember this important fact. We
will discuss it in depth later.
There are a few things that you should NOT include on your website so
let’s get them out of the way first. Item #1 is do NOT have a “hit counter”
or “you are visitor number 000000012”. These many times are placed right
on your Home Page – the page of your website where people enter – for the
whole world to see. We have all seen them and for a business it can be
embarrassing. If I’ve been in business since 1988 in Bethel and you are visitor
145 to my website – ouch! Just as importantly though, who cares what number
visitor you are. Save it for your personal website. Get it off your business
site. We will discuss later how you can get this vital information about your
visitors from your web hosting service.
Unless you are a photography business don’t load your site with pictures and
flashy graphics. They eat up bytes rapidly and take a long time to load.
Remember the 8 seconds. Flashy graphics and photos are nice and catch the eye
but that is all they do. Repeatedly studies show that no matter how flashy it is
and what that flashing, talking, spinning banner says, people will not click on
it nor go any further. That means lost business. While we are discussing photos
let me mention something else. Photos have their place. All over the home page
of your business is not the right place. Provide a place on your site for photos
and give your customers the option to go and look at them. Don’t do things to
your site that “forces” your customers into – like seeing a picture(s) or
hearing music in the background, unless of course you are a music store.
Another mistake web designers make is using “wallpaper”. For those who
don’t know, wallpaper is some kind of designer junk that appears to be “behind”
the text and other items on your page. Sometimes it remains stationary when you
scroll and other times it moves with the page when you scroll. Most of the time
the only purpose it has is making it that much more difficult to read the
IMPORTANT text. If you don’t believe me, try this test some time. Take some
information you may have and print it out onto several different kinds of paper
– colored, floral, designer and plain white. Then place all the papers on a
table for people to pick up and read. They will almost always pick up the white
– if they are interested in what is written on the paper.
Lose logos! No body online cares what your logo is. By logos I am talking
about sayings like, “The best damned ball caps in America!” A banner at the head
of your page with your logo is acceptable along with your business name but
logos just take up space. Hey, the bottom line is I want to sell ball caps.
Online shoppers are a breed all unto themselves. They are in a hurry and 8
seconds is an eternity to them. I want them to see my prices and my product as
fast as I can. Having them read my “best damned ball caps in America” logo could
be just enough to make them hit the back button and leave.
Those are some of the bigger “don’ts”. Let's get into more of the dos. Keep your
Home Page as simple and easily readable as possible. Are any of you
familiar with newspapers? Of course you are. We all read them. Where’s the most
important material in a newspaper go? – Front page above the fold, right?
When your home page opens on someone’s computer screen, what they will see
without touching anything else is your first and only shot to get them in the
door. Make it good. Whatever is on the rest of the page that they have to
scroll down to view is secondary.
Every page of your website must be limited in size, easy to read and simple
to navigate. What is too big? The rule of thumb is keep your file size per
page under 50 kilobytes – we’ll discuss this further later. The other aspect of
size involves scrolling. Studies again show that users prefer to click a
“link” or a “next” button than to keep scrolling. I always use
this as a rule of thumb. I go “surfing” the Internet often for research.
I use what I find for my own guidelines. If I find something I like, I take note
of it and on the flip side, if I find something I don’t like, I make note also.
Many web designers charge by the number of pages as opposed to bytes and pages.
Negotiate that with your web designer. Tell him/her you would rather have a few
more pages with less information on each page.
What is easy to read? Text size is important. Don’t get so small that
people can’t see it just to save space. Newspaper sized font is about as small
as I dare to go. I have some sites that I know are read by older people, so I
intentionally make the font larger. Avoid fancy fonts that are difficult
to read. You’re not designing wedding invitations. You want people to discover
your product and spend money with you.
Make the site easy to navigate. When a potential customer lands on your
home page, if you have been successful enough to get them to at least take a
look around, it has to be easy to do. Where do you want them to go? If my
marketing plan says that once they see how inexpensive my ball caps are they
will buy them, then that is what I want them to see. I may try to put that right
in the middle of my home page or I will place a “teaser” on my home page
with a “CLICK HERE” button perhaps to get them to the next page.
There are two more items that are in my humble opinion absolutely necessary
items to have on a website. The first, which is the most important of all pages
with the exception of the home page, is your contact information. It is a
known fact that most people still are skeptical about buying products online. We
also hear repeatedly from the news about Internet scams etc. If you are
operating an online business tell people who you are and where your physical
address is and how to contact you. Make it easy for them. Don’t hide these
facts. If it appears you are hiding something you have lost customers
immediately. Many times web designers will include a separate “About us”
page. This goes hand in hand with a “contact” page. If you opt for an “about
us” page, which I recommend, tell people about yourself and your business.
Include a picture of yourself and try to be as personal as possible without
spilling your guts completely to the rest of the world. People want to feel
comfortable with who they are thinking about doing business with. Remember one
thing. A successful business has repeat customers and the best way to build
repeat customers is one at a time. You need to get to know them as a customer
and the first step is letting them know about you.
The second item is a “site map”. A site map is a page that lists
all of the pages in your website and what those pages are. More and more people
are going looking for site maps because often they can be faster for the
searcher. Site maps need to be accurate and have page titles that are
descriptive. Search engines love site maps and we’ll discuss that further
later on.
This has been a general overview of a web site and what it should and shouldn’t
contain. I have tried to approach this discussion from the point of view of what
a customer is looking for and how you should present yourself to the customer. I
will break these and more items down further and explain how they relate to
search engines. Without ever losing sight of the all-important customer, we must
learn how to do all this and keep the search engine monsters happy too.
In our next session we will further investigate search engines and how the
design and layout of our home page must relate well to search engines without
losing a good marketing approach for your customers. We will also discuss
briefly about web hosting services and web design software.
Remember the link to the web site :
http://www.kenton6.com/Tips.htm
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