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Your website is the first exposure customers
have to your company. You have only a few
seconds to impress them, entice them to investigate
your site further and convince them that you are
a solid, legitimate business. It can sometimes
be a tough task to accomplish. But by following
some simple rules your website can have the same
impact as a website owned by a huge corporation.
RULE #1 - Focus on the
customer.
Most companies use their logo as the focal point
for their home page. Do new customers initially
care who you are? No! What they want to know,
immediately, is do you provide the service, information
or products they are seeking? So your main focal
point is a title: "We provide
the BEST WIDGETS in Reno". Then add a subtitle
"Best Selection in the West!". Then
add bullet points to keep them interested:
• Huge Inventory
• Overnight Shipment to Anywhere
• 24 Hour customer Service
RULE #2 - Focus on your
message
Are you selling a product? Providing a service?
Promoting a cause? Focus on your business and
the customer will be grateful you've had the foresight
to make their visit as easy and quick as possible.
RULE #3 - Be consistent
The fastest way to confuse, and subsequently lose
the viewer, is to put your navigation links in
different locations on different pages. Once a
viewer is accustomed to navigating your website
the last thing you want to do is make them hunt
for the links again. It wouldn't be much fun to
try and find the gas pedal every time you got
in the car.
RULE #4 - Leave white
space on your pages
Design your website so the viewer can easily compartmentalize
sections of your website in their mind. This way
they can approach your website in small bites
rather than looking facing a page full of data,
links, images etc. You'll find that the viewers
experience will be much more enjoyable. In other
words don't fill every square pixel of space.
Leave some room to breathe.
This is a simplistic approach but it's one that
works!
1. Keep Your Visitors Awake
Many sites waste valuable space on their home
pages with either a "welcome message from
our CEO!" or an interminable mission statement
- sometimes both. Most often, that's about as
interesting as reading the tax code, so visitors
nod off before the page even finishes loading.
Unless he's just been indicted, few visitors are
interested in a company's CEO. Give him his own
vanity page and bury it deep in the site.
But your mission statement can be useful in one
respect. Use it to distill your Web site's purpose
into a single compelling statement that contains
important keywords. Then feature that one-liner
prominently on your home page. For instance, MarsupialWorld.com
might say: "The World's Largest Selection
of Marsupial Statues!" - a phrase that's
sure to entice any collector of kangaroo or opossum
art.
Use that one statement to pique visitors' interest
and encourage them to scan the rest of your home
page to see exactly what you have to offer.
2. Make It Short And Simple
Visitors want useful information that is served
up quickly in usable, scannable chunks. Don't
expect them to scroll down through 3 or 4 screens
to find out about your products. Instead, try
to fit your entire home page on a single screen.
Be succinct: you're writing for the Web. Visitors
have different expectations when they read online
than they do when reading printed materials. It's
also more tiring to read online, so make it easy
for visitors to find the information they want:
Bulleted items: People often scan these first
and ignore text in paragraph form, so include
your most important points in bullet lists. You
can even create custom bullets for more emphasis.
Clearly defined sections: Use color, header
tags, or horizontal rules to structure your page
into sections.
Columns: These are easier to scan than long lines
of text that spread across the whole page.
Short paragraphs: Make your major point early
in the paragraph because people often won't read
the entire text.
Use these techniques to briefly describe what
you're offering and explain why it's valuable.
Then provide links so visitors who want more information
can go deeper into the site. Your home page is
the appetizer that makes visitors hungry for more.
3. Tell Them Where To Go
An understandable, easy-to-use navigation system
is crucial because visitors hate to get lost on
a site. Frustrated visitors leave and never come
back. Take steps to make sure this doesn't happen
on your site:
Accessible navigation: Give visitors multiple
navigation options to avoid locking out visitors
using assistive technologies, PDA's, or non-graphical
browsers. Navigation with image maps or JavaScript
menus are fine as long as you always include text
navigation as well. Keyboard shortcuts are very
useful to visitors who use keyboard navigation
instead of a mouse.
Search function: Visitors love to be able to
search a site to find the exact information or
product they want. Fortunately, you don't have
to be a coding wizard to include one. Some Web
hosts provide them; other free sources include
Google, and FreeFind. Learn more about how Web
site search tools work at the SearchTools.com
site.
Site map: This is a must for large, complex sites
- but it's often helpful for small sites that
cover a variety of topics or whose organizational
structure isn't obvious. By the way, search engine
spiders love them because a site map helps them
index the entire site.
Your site navigation has to be easy to use. You're
wasting your time tantalizing visitors with exciting
copy on your home page if they get lost while
trying to learn more.
4. Earn Their Trust
Visitors can't see you; they'll probably never
meet you in person, or even speak to you over
the phone. That means they have to be extra comfortable
with your site before they're willing to buy anything.
Include the following on your home page to increase
your visitors' confidence:
Company name, address, and phone number: You'd
think this would be automatic, but many sites
don't include this vital information. Many visitors
hesitate to do business with a company that won't
provide a phone number. Search directory editors
look for contact information too; they may reject
your site if you don't provide it.
Contact email address: Always provide a contact
email address, but be careful to avoid the dreaded
email spiders that harvest your address for spammers!
Customer ratings: Sites such as BizRate, eBay,
and ResellerRatings allow customers to rate a
Web site's sales and service level. If you're
a member, be sure to prominently list your high
rating with these services and provide links so
visitors can see for themselves. Careful online
shoppers do use these services!
Testimonials: Don't go overboard, but a few well-chosen
statements from happy customers add credibility
too. You might place them in the margin or inside
pull quotes for emphasis.
Don't forget to emphasize your site's accessibility
on the home page and link to the site's accessibility
policy. Visitors with disabilities are loyal consumers
who spend twice as much time on the Internet as
people without disabilities. Show them you want
their business!
5. Don't Break Anything!
Finally, your home page has to work when visitors
load it. You may have the coolest Flash animation
ever, but don't expect visitors to download a
plug-in just to view it. Yes, you do want the
page to look good, but avoid advanced technologies
unless you're specifically marketing to a segment
sure to have all the latest goodies installed.
That's a pretty small segment of the consumer
audience. The bulk of your visitors just want
to see a page that loads fast, looks attractive,
and has useful information. That's not too hard
- if you finish these three tasks:
Select good colors: Good color combinations give
contrast and emphasis to important points. Avoid
red/green combinations; they cause problems for
colorblind visitors. Standard link colors make
navigation easier.
Use images wisely: Make sure the images actually
advance the purpose of your site. Most visitors
want to read information, not read pretty pictures
that increase download time unnecessarily. Optimize
your images for free with GIFBot before you post
them.
Correct errors: Even simple HTML coding errors
can break your page: forget to close a TABLE tag
and Netscape may not display the table at all!
Validate your HTML code with NetMechanic's HTML
Toolbox. It will alert you to code problems and
even correct your code for you.
Beginning webmasters spend a lot of energy trying
to attract visitors. Unfortunately, some don't
consider what visitors see once they get to the
site. Yes, you certainly want to invite visitors
to your site, but more importantly, you want them
to stay - and keep coming back.
Your home page is your front door. Make it as
useful and inviting as possible.
6. Annoying Animation
Yes! It's so irritating that we set the animated
GIF to only cycle 25 times.
This technique is most commonly used by banner
advertisements to catch and hold your attention.
Designers sometimes use it in a Web page's content
section to draw attention to important text. But
beware. Often, the animation draws so much negative
attention that visitors leave your site immediately
and never see that important content.
Use larger headings and bulleted text instead
of blinking animation toemphasize important sections..
7. Ransom Note Text
Some designers get so excited and bewildered
by the variety of fonts and colors available that
they have a hard time choosing the best ones.
So they compromise and use them all. The end result
often resembles a ransom note cut from several
different magazines.
Ransom note text takes forever to code by hand
since each single letter has a different font
and color. It's easier and more tempting if you're
using a WYSIWYG editor because you don't have
to write the code, just point and click.
Resist that temptation! Use common fonts (Arial,
Times Roman, etc) because all browsers recognize
them. All the time you spend optimizing your layout
using the Showcard Gothic font (for instance)
will be wasted if your visitors' browsers don't
recognize it and instead default to Times Roman.
8. Under Construction
Few Web sites are static. Most are continually
being updated with new information and optimized
for search engines. In a sense, they're always
"under construction."
However, that message should never appear on
your home page because you're essentially telling
visitors that your site is a waste of their time.
Never submit to search engines until the site
(or at least the home page) is complete. If you
have some sections of other pages that aren't
complete, it's ok to note that, but avoid the
animated road construction graphic.
9. This Site Best Viewed With…..
Few statements on a Web page annoy visitors as
much as this one. Think about it: have you ever
downloaded a new browser (or browser version)
just to look at a single Web site? Unless you
are absolutely certain that visitors will use
a particular browser (on a company Intranet, for
example), all sites should be optimized to display
effectively across browsers.
NetMechanic makes this easy: HTML Toolbox scans
your page for HTML code problems and identifies
design techniques that may not display accurately
across browsers.
10. Background Music
Background music on a page adds no content but
increases the annoyance factor - and the page
download time. It's ok to include music clips
on your site, but give your visitors the option
to listen instead of assaulting them with a tinny
rendition of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony the instant
your page loads. The choice makes your site seem
more interactive and gives visitors more control
of their experience.
11. Horizontal Scrollbars
Horizontal scrollbars decrease a page's usability
because visitors have to manually scroll the page
back and forth to view the content. Monitor resolution
settings can cause a Web page display to look
drastically different from one monitor to the
next. Visitors with low resolution monitors are
most likely the ones to encounter horizontal scrollbars.
Remember: if you designed your site with your
monitor display set to 800x600, your Web page
will appear 20% larger (and fuzzier) on a 640x480
monitor. Most Web designers have 17-inch monitors
set to 800x600 pixel resolution (or higher) and
tend to forget that the rest of the world is not
quite so lucky.
Ideally, you should test your site on a variety
of different monitors, but that can be difficult
if your only access is your home or office PC.
At least adjust the settings on your own monitor
to see how your page will appear at different
resolutions.
12. Color Combinations
The Web Palette consists of the 216 colors that
both Macintosh and Windows systems display accurately.
Here is another area where color can get you into
trouble. Many of those 216 colors aren't found
in nature - and shouldn't be on your Web site
either.
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