In the past couple months I have touched on a very important part of marketing in my continuing What Your Website Needs series.
If you haven’t yet be sure to check out these:
Today I want to give you some insight into the construction of a business website by using my newly relaunched company website as example.
For three months now I have been working on creating an ideal site for my company. It is a lofty goal because a website is becoming more and more important for the success of a company (especially a web design company).
VISUALS
1. Simplicity - It is very tempting to load your site with as much as you can. Cool graphics, interesting pictures, seemingly important text; but all that takes away from the fundamentals. Instead with this design we focused on minimalism so users do not feel overwhelmed or feel like they don’t know what to do.
2. Aesthetics - While aiming for simplicity we did want the site to look as visually pleasing as possible. In doing so we used mostly simple techniques like gradients and borders to develop the visual feel of the site.
3. Recognition - While this site has a far different feel than that last, we wanted our current patrons to be able to still recognize us and so we kept our logo and colors pretty much the same. The major difference is it is mainly a dark background instead of white.
4. Greener - The main reason we switched to primarily dark colors is to do our small part to help the environment. The brighter the colors in a website, the more power the screen uses. It seems arbitrary and pointless but the numbers add up, especially on high traffic sites. We may only be saving each user pennies but by being part of this important movement, we are doing what we can to save the planet. (Ironically, green is not a power-saving color on a website.)
TARGETING
5. Information - Much like the look of the site, we kept our information minimal. We only put in what we needed to to reach our target market, which is primarily creative professionals and small business owners. The words we used were picked carefully to reach our market in terms of understanding and call to action.
6. Identity - Every company needs to have an identity. This is how your market will view you as an entity. We used everything from color choices, word usage, and types of information to show the type of company and people we are.
7. SE-Oh - In an effort to diminish our marketing efforts, we have been trying to beef up our Search Engine Optimization on all our sites. Having organic search traffic means people can find you without you lifting a finger. But there is preliminary work to do before this can occur. In our site we used locally targeted keywords and techniques to make our site viable for local searches in and around Chicago.
7. It’s Alive! - A mistake so many sites make is that they do not update. People and search engines don’t like to see the same information all the time. By updating information and adding a blog and news section, we have created a life on our site. This provides a better user experience. People like personality, even in business. This is why identity is so important.
USABILITY
8. Homepage - We spent the most time on the homepage. It is the most important function on a website being that it is where you introduce everything. A bad homepage is like a restaurant entrance with no one to greet you and no signs to guide you. You don’t know if you should seat yourself, where you are supposed to sit, or how you are supposed to order.
9. Non Target Info - Down at the bottom of the site, all the important but not targeted information is present. This includes the site map, the terms of use, and the services policies. Site maps allows search engines and users to easily find any particular part of the site, regardless the depth. The Terms of Use gives information about users permissions on a site. It is a good way to thwart away at least some spam and to ensure there is no dispute over users rights. The Services Policies is a new feature to our site. We added it to give clients insights into our working process and rights as service contractors.
10. Flow - The entire site is designed to provoke people to take steps. First, the home page’s main function guides people to our services and introduces everyone to our company. It also allows people to skip steps easily if they already know our services and work. Then from our services you can go to the portfolio or skip to the quote form and so on. The information and graphics flow in order to give users a call to action.
11. Call to Action - One of the most important aspects of a business website is providing users with a call to action. You want to provoke them to contact you, get prices, set appointments, etc. Eventually your call to action should be meant to create more sales. People sometimes need a gentle shove in the right direction for them to act. By having the right information presented in the right order and having means for them to communicate to you, you will be able to turn your visitors into customers easily.
How does your website look? Could it be updated? Feel free to leave a link to your company site in the comments.
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The call to action is the really important part if you are trying to earn any form of income from your site. People need to be told how to buy your product or use your service as simply as possible.
on a completely unrelated note, your new website is GREAT! I love the new design.
@Steve: I totally agree. I tried to save the best for last in this article so it sticks in peoples minds. Above anything else, call to action will lead to sales.
@Mike: Thanks for your enthusiasm about the site. It’s really great to hear positive feedback.
Awesome design…