5 Steps to Good Web Site Design

Your web site is your window to the world; your first impression to your customer base. With all the advertising clutter that bombards the general population, it is absolutely essential that your web site design is easily navigated and attractive to your customers so that they “stick and click.” 5 steps to good web design:

1) Branding your site with the rest of your marketing campaign. Your website is only a piece of your overall marketing and advertising. Though the web has facilitated sales and productivity, it has not yet developed commercially to the point for most industries to generate income without a traditional brick and mortar campaign. Nevertheless, customers expect to see a professional web site. It will not make the sale, but it can stop it.

So when designing your site, make sure you have an easily accessed address page and customer service information. Create and advertise a customer service email and allow your customer base to contact you at any time. Your business cards and promotional materials should have your web address on it.

2) Good design is user friendly, easy to read and navigate. With technological advancements and willing and affordable professional help, there is no excuse for a confusing web site. Your competition is guaranteed to have a web site that customers can easily navigate, and frustration on the internet does not last too long. The second your customer can not find what he or she needs, you lose that customer to Google or to your competition.

3) You must develop good detailed content. Make sure you add a page for each service or product. This has implications for search engine optimization (SEO), which will be discussed later, but also for your professional image. To make sales is to be seen as an expert in your industry or field. Going back to the notion of your web site being easy to navigate, you must organize your ideas. The easiest way to do this is to create separate web pages for each topic you wish to address. Be sure to include a faq page answering common questions about your business, and do not be afraid to give away free advice.

4) Remember, your web site is meant to drive business. Make sure you have a call to action or contact on every page. The point of the entire marketing campaign is sales and increasing revenue. Salesmen have a saying – “You lose every sale you do not ask for.” Make contact information obvious and always link to your sales page from every other page. You can not predict at which point during the process your customer will become convinced and buy from you, so give them every available opportunity. There are also ways to track which pages produce the most sales. Use this technology to more accurately hone your process.

5) Optimize the site as you build – if they can’t find it, why build it? This is perhaps the most important piece of website development. Most people do not find services through direct reference – they find it through search engines. This means that your web site should be optimized to appear first, or near the top, when potential customers search for anything which concerns your market niche.