|
Designing a Website That Really Works!
|
Jim Moore
|
Dec 22, 2002 12:31 PST
|
Getting a Website - Part 2:
Designing a Website That Really Works
The Six Steps to Get Started
By Jim Moore, Owner of Phoenix Technologies
Member - International Assoc. of Webmasters & Designers
As you begin to create your own website, there are six preliminary steps
that will get you started.
#1-The first thing you want to decide is what kind of image do you want
to project to the world. Your company's existing literature -
letterheads, business cards, brochures, logo, annual reports, etc. - is
your first guide. You want to keep your image consistent and unified.
Your website is not a separate entity; it is part and parcel of your
over-all company image, right down to the color schemes. In fact, the
colors you pick for your company carry powerful subliminal messages that
influence how the public perceives your business, whether on the
Internet or from an office or storefront. (For more information on
specific colors and their effects, go to Your Website's Aura)
#2-Your second step, if you're doing it yourself, is to sit down at your
desk or even kitchen table and spread out what you have. You'll also
need some blank paper and a pencil.
The most basic website should contain these elements:
Home page - where your visitors first land
Contact information - email, phone, fax, street & city address
An introduction to your business, its people and its history
Clients who use your services or products (not really applicable to
general consumer sales, but more to professional services and goods)
Why, out of 500,000 businesses offering the same thing, people should
choose you
Ordering information, if appropriate - order forms, thank you page, etc.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes: what kind of useful information
about your product, service or industry would you want to know? For
example, if you own a heating/AC service, wouldn't you want to be able
to find information about how to select heating/AC units, cleaning,
consumer-end maintenance, etc.?
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) - often this can be combined with the
item just above.
Remember, these don't all have to be separate web pages, but you don't
want to throw too much onto a single page. Write down all of your
answers, using your company's existing materials. Don't worry about
design - just get the information down.
IMPORTANT: Keep your sentences - and especially paragraphs - very short.
If you look at most newspapers, their paragraphs are only one sentence.
A study by Jakob Nielsen (who by the way charges $70,000 - and gets it!
- for a 3-day seminar ... or a "discounted rate" of $30,000 just to
review your website) claims people only read 75% of what's on any given
page. If it's 1000 words they read 750; if it's 4,000 they read 3000. So
put your most important content in the first part.
What do people actually read? He claims highlighted text and one idea
per paragraph rate high.
He also says bulleted lists, like this, catch people's eyes:
what is your name
favorite color?
do you have a pet?
What do you think? Did those items stand out?
He says photos grab our attention for only 1.25 seconds.
#3-Get on the Internet and take a look at the websites of your
competitors. Get their web addresses from the Yellow Pages or do a
search (I find www.google.com is great!).
What do their sites offer that make them stand out from the rest? How
fast do the pages load? What points do they stress? Are they overloaded
with fancy gizmos, Flash animations, music, etc.? You can learn as much
about what not to do as what to do from this exercise.
Look at their page layouts. Often there is a "header", a "sidebar" on
the left with links to other pages or categories of information, and the
"body" of the page - the text and photos, if any, that put the meat on
the bones.
#4-Now take a blank sheet of paper and just roughly sketch out what your
own first page would look like. It doesn't have to be anything fancy,
too detailed or even at this point too accurate. You're just getting
your feet wet, priming the pump. Remember, though, that all following
pages should have the same general appearance, color scheme and layout.
You don't want a disjointed collection of pages, you want a united,
cohesive package.
Every page should contain your email address and, if your site is aimed
at customers within a geographic area such as your neighborhood, city,
county, etc., your street address, phone, and fax. Every page should
also contain your logo and company name. There are other things each
page should also have, but we'll deal with those later in another
lesson.
#5-Now review your material and ask yourself - what do I want my website
to do? Do I want it to inform? Do I want it to sell? Do I want it to
prompt visitors to call me? Do I want it to amuse? Maybe you want to do
all of these or even more. The words you use should support and
reinforce those goals.
Don't know what are the best words? There are many websites out there
that offer free articles on how to write better sales letters, better
classified ads, what words turn people's heads, and so on. You'll find
many of these article by searching for "free content" - you don't have
to shell out a lot of money.
There are many sources, but one of my personal favorites is
www.freesticky.com. Go down their menu bar at the left and select
Syndicated Material, then look for business and marketing articles.
There's no need to wait until you happen to run across this information
on another website. Go right to the source. Another one you might want
to check is the World Wide Information Outlet. However, their
information doesn't seem to have been updated since July 2002.
Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing said, "Content is
king. Provide what your competitors are not providing. Give your
visitors information of value. People aren't as interested in you as
what they are in learning."
You'll also find a lot of other intriguing things for websites - but for
now, ignore those. Focus on your message. Bookmark the site so you can
come back to it later.
#6 - Sit back, get comfortable and start reading some of the material
you've just downloaded or printed on promotion/marketing tips. It's time
to step back, take a break and relax with a cup of coffee or whatever.
By the way, you may want to keep that notepad and pencil handy, because
your reading will be interrupted by your own ideas you'll want to jot
down.
NEXT LESSON: Part 3 - Creating your website toolbox
Jim Moore is manager of Phoenix Technologies, a website design and
promotion service in Williamsport, TN, where he also serves as online
editor of TennTimes - the News (http://westviewnews.virtualave.net),
America's largest online newspaper. He has won numerous writing and web
design awards, is a member of the International Association of
Webmasters & Designers and for eight years produced, directed and hosted
"The Omega Report", a popular hour-long TV documentary cablecast into
1.5 million homes from Nashville to Boston.
He publishes a free monthly newsletter, "On the Go!", for busy people
like you.
Subscribe here, or send an email to OntheGo-s-@topica.com.
He may also be reached at Phoenix Technologies .
Copyright 2002 by The Phoenix Foundation. All rights reserved
|
|
 |
|
