Resources

Connections Vol. 2 Issue 12 December 2007

Considerations Before Designing a Web Site

By: James R. Dragoo, Jr.

1-877-5-BLAINE

December is here. The holidays are coming and before you know it a new year will begin. It is very important to plan for success in the coming year.

When you are planning for your business’ success in the New Year there are several things to consider. One thing that some businesses do not think of is planning a web site. Some of you out there may be saying, “But I already have a web site.” Is your web site still working to its potential? Is it accomplishing the goals that it should?

Whether you are building a new site or considering giving your current site a redesign, there are certain things that you should consider.

What are my web site's goals?
Many people do not think about this but it is actually the most important thing to consider when planning a web site. Many people think of a web site as an online presence but it should be so much more than that.

If you have an e-commerce site, it is obvious that you want it to sell products online. Even if you do not have an e-commerce site you want it to help you in some way. Perhaps you want it to inform clients of your services or products. Maybe you want it to bring clients to you or make them interested in what you have to offer.

Knowing what goals you would like your web site to accomplish could help you decide several other factors mentioned in this article.

What web sites do you like or not like?
When thinking about starting a web site you want to take a look at other sites. You want to look to see what your competition is doing. This will give you ideas about how to compete with their web sites. You can also look at individual features of other sites. Maybe you like a certain feature and would like that on your site. Maybe you do not like a site because of the color or navigation. Doing a little research could start to generate a vision of what you would like your site to be.

What kind of color scheme or layout would you like for your site?
Many times you want your color scheme to match your other corporate identities such as logo, letterhead, business cards, etc. Layout should also match corporate identities. You can even pull some ideas from previous research such as the web sites that you like or do not like. What elements about the layout did you like or not like.

What information should go on your site?
Many times this can be easily determined by analyzing the goals of your web site. After you decide what should go on the site you can begin to organize the content. You can start to categorize the content into pages and come up with the appropriate verbiage for those pages.

If you hire a web developer to create your web site, having all of these ideas can help them to understand your vision and deliver a great high quality results driven web site. The best part is that the web site will not just be a “presence” but a great asset to your business that contributes to sales.

Organizing Content for Your Web Site

By: James R. Dragoo, Jr.

1-877-5-BLAINE

In the previous article we discussed considerations to think about when creating a web site that is results driven. The last point mentioned was to determine what information should go on your web site. Many people hit a snag when they get to this point. This is mostly because they are not sure where to start.

Home Page
The best place to start is with the home page because the home page is the most important page of any web site. It is the page that your visitors first see when visiting your web site. It should give them a general overview of what your site is all about. In other words, it should be a preview as to what information they may find, what services you offer, and about your company in general.

Contact Page
The second page you should think about is the contact page. This is important because it is your visitors’ point of contact with you. You should list all of the ways that you wish them to contact you such as phone, email, fax, etc. Many times it is appropriate to have a contact form so they can send information to you from the site without having to open their email program. Another possibility to consider for your contact page is a map or directions. This is good in case you have a physical store front where customers can come to you.

About Page
Another page that is good to have is an about page. Many potential customers want to know not just about your services but what type of company you are. You can include a history about your company, about your founder, bios of key staff members, awards, or memberships. You can even include more than one of these.

Service/Product Pages
The next thing to focus on is the services that you offer. The first thing to decide is if you want a services page that lists your services and maybe a brief description or if you want a separate page for each service. If you have several services or need to elaborate on them it is probably better to have a separate page for each service. Product pages can also be used in place of or in addition to services pages.

After you have the content for the home page, contact page, about page, and services page(s), you then have most of your web site content done. At this point just look it over and see if there is anything that is missing that you would like somewhere on the site and create that content along with any other pages that may be required.

It is also always a good idea to consult with some of your top clients to see what they would find helpful or like to see on the web site.