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Every day, new businesses turn to the web in an effort to create profitability, each meeting with a varying degree of success. Some small businesses, like Raleigh Creative Costumes ( http://www.raleighcostumes.com ), survived the recent recession based on web revenues, even seeing dramatic increases in sales (up to 60%) during First Quarter '02 over last year. Other business sites simply meander along, never really producing the intended results.
What causes these steep variations in web performance? Marketing plans, for one. Just building a website and putting it on the 'net isn't sufficient. While very important, submitting it to dozens, even hundreds of search engines, isn't enough either. The website must become an integral part of day to day marketing. Your traditional marketing tools such as business cards, newspaper ads, radio spots, stationary, and even your company vehicle's paint jobs can improve your web performance. But marketing aside, once you've driven the traffic to your website, how do you make the sale? Or, at least, get the user to return frequently to your site until they do buy?
The plan you make before you even begin your website is key. In order to be successful, several areas of website planning and design must be implemented. These are fundamental, yet often overlooked, elements which can make the difference between a high-performing website and one that barely earns you back your investment:
First and foremost, a successful website must be visually appealing to the user, yet fast to load. Remember that while the Triangle area is blessed with a proliferation of broad-band options for web access, most rural areas are still accessing the web at speeds which can average 28.8K. A recommended load time of no more than 20 seconds at 28.8K would be a safe bet. This will prevent impatient users from clicking the 'back' button and trying the next site in the search engine. A handy tool for checking load times at slower speeds is available at http://www.cast.org/bobby.
A local arts organization recently redesigned their website to feature a beautifully designed montage of photographs as a 'splash' page. While very appealing to the eye, the graphic was well over 150K and took far too long to download. When the organization examined its web traffic for a single month, over 9000 visitors had entered the page via the splash page and over 3000 had left before it finished loading. The overly large graphic cost the organization 1/3 of its possible traffic!
Load time is very important to remember when employing large plug-in elements such as streaming video and Flash. Users crippled by a slow connection will not likely wait for 2-5 minutes for a large file to download. If these files are embedded in your home page, you'll likely lose traffic. Instead, make these an option and give users a chance to bypass such files. If these are absolutely essential to your page, considering posting a warning that advises users there might be a wait while the page loads. You'll still be able to provide the cutting edge look without sacrificing visitors.
To be visually appealing, a site doesn't necessarily need a highly artistic design. Just be careful to choose colors which are pleasing to the eye and provide high contrast. Choosing colors for text and background are important, because people who are vision impaired may have trouble reading your content if you chose to place blue text on a black background, for instance. Large areas of bright colors can also be offensive to the eye. Solid yellow or red backgrounds should only be chosen with care. By providing warm and pleasing colors with high contrast, combined with a sensible and logical layout, you'll create a site which your users will find appealing.
Secondly, a website must be valuable to the visitor. Sites which simply proclaim that you are the best choice in your field, or have won dozens of awards aren't necessarily good marketing options on the web. Instead, offer your web-customers the information they need to make an informed decision before they spend. This could include community information for real estate agents, brand comparison for audio-visual companies, or recipes for a gourmet shop. A well-informed customer is more likely to buy, and will remember your site when they are ready to purchase.
Remember that your customers may not always know the lingo of your business. Define any professional affiliations, technological terms, or recognition you use on your website. Tell the user what it means for them. If you've been recognized as having the best customer service of any store of your kind in the area, that would likely mean something to your customer. However, saying you've been recognized by the (insert A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. here) with no explanation will likely mean nothing.
A successful website is always up to date. Nothing is more gratifying, nor the lack thereof more annoying, than current information. If your website features a calendar of events, be sure that someone is updating this constantly. Recently, I ran across a website which had not updated the events calendar since 2000, yet was still offering retail sales! This does not do much for consumer confidence in your business or organization.
Further along this point, website should never feature links to pages which read "Under Construction" or "Coming Soon." While not serious a few years ago, the sheer number of websites which left those sorts of pages in place for months, even years, have established this as a stereotype of an amateurish webpage. The best option is to add links to new pages as they are ready to be added, not before.
Fourth, the site must be easy to use and feature clear and concise navigation. Make the main menu choices available in the same place on the page, in the same order, throughout your site. Not being consistent will often confuse your visitors and you'll lose them in their frustration to return to a particular page from deep within your website.
Consider offering a "Site Map" page which features links to all your pages, so that users can pinpoint their way to a specific page more easily (this also help you with search engine positioning). Finally, ensure that there are no 'dead' links which may lead users to encounter a File Not Found error.
Finally, a successful website is interactive. Give your visitors a place to request information from you, answer a poll about what products or services they'd like to see you offer, or perhaps enter a contest. Each of these has the added bonus of allowing you to collect some demographic information from your users, and also to build an e-mail list which you can later use to announce special sales or new products.
Sending out a periodic update to your e-mail list will remind your users you're there when they need you. Just be sure to remind them in every communication that they can opt out whenever they like… and when they ask, be sure to remove them.
Together, these five elements allow you to begin planning your website with a solid foundation. Armed with the knowledge you need to create a successful plan, talk to a web professional to see if e-business is right for you.
Jeremy Clos is the lead design professional of Satori Digital Marketing. He can be reached at satori@satoridigitalmarketing.com.
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