Some advice on designing and programming a good web page
Easy things you can do with your web page to promote your company.
As the saying goes, brevity is the soul of wit:
Where is it happening?
There are billions of webpages on the Internet, but social networks are the most popular and most visited (during Christmas 2009, Facebook took over Google in terms of number of visits). That’s why we advise creating a blog, and setting up Twitter, Flickr, Digg and Youtube accounts, or even creating your own podcast. Use your imagination to start positioning your website using these new social marketing techniques.
User-friendly web-surfing
Easy browsing on a website is vital. A web design with a poor or badly-designed navigational structure will prevent the customer from finding what he or she is looking for easily. Web users stay on main pages for around 60 seconds on average. If they spend this time trying to work out where to go, this potential customer will probably end up going to a competitor’s website that is more user-friendly.
Marketing: Use short messages
Several studies have shown that that 80% of visitors to a website do not read the content of the pages, but rather review them superficially. That is why it is advisable to take the content you want to use and reduce it by half, and having done so, repeat the process. If you manage this, you will see how the message reaches a greater number of final users more easily. This message should only include important information and what makes your company stand out from others.
Usability: It has to be simple, the user should not get confused. The main page of any website should be clear and simple. A website with lots of images and text can lead to confusion and uncertainty about the contents. We have to bear in mind that potential customers are normally busy people who tend to compare several web sites before opting for those that lead them easily and quickly to what they are looking for.
Design: Design of the main page
Most companies with a website ask for a home web page similar to a supermarket leaflet, showing all the news, offers and services they want to highlight. Imagine you are driving along a road and you see a billboard. You only have a few seconds to see it, process all the information, assess if it’s what you’re looking for and find out how to contact the company. The main web page of a website works in a similar way: your customer should be able to find out what they need to know about your website in a matter of seconds. It doesn’t pay to overload them with information.
Marketing: Web domain easy and short
Every website should use a short domain name, that is easy to pronounce, note down, and remember. We would also recommend buying up the different domain name extensions (.co.uk, .com, .net, .info, etc.) if your budget allows it and they are available. The domain should also contain the name of the brand, company, or key words of particular interest.
Summary
A company web page should follow guidelines about image and corporate identity defined by the brand and logo. On top of that, the web address of the company should be put on any paper or promotional material. SEO: search-engines work in a particular way, and whilst a web page can be very easy to use for customers, it can still be very difficult to index and position for a search-engine. A good web page has to be both user-friendly and easy to index for search-engines. A good ranking on search engines is always a great advantage.
Analytics: measure and analyse results and statistics
We all want our web page to receive as many visits as possible, but we also have to analyse whether all these visits convert to sales or other objectives (contacts, sign ups to newsletters, etc.). This analysis will enable us to decide which sections/web pages should be improved to achieve higher sales or other objectives. By analysing the visit statistics and sales figures, we can continuously improve the different sections to increase sales, as this analysis is based on real data, rather than assumptions.
You get what you pay for
You will not have any difficulty in finding people who say they can develop or design a web page, but it’s worth bearing in mind that having a computer isn’t the only requisite for good web design (just as a having a first-aid kit doesn’t make you a doctor). It is worth entrusting this task to a company specialised in programming and designing websites.