| Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month: |
 |
| Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review |
|
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // Web Design |
|
|
 |
Orient Your First-time Web Site Visitor
Imagine spinning someone around so profoundly and for so long that when you finally tell them to open their eyes, they ask "Where am I?" not knowing if they are even on the same continent they started from. When someone comes to your web site from a search engine or through a link from another site, it's like that for them. They may have little or no context within which to understand your home page - or another page deep within your site that they've landed on. By imagining and engineering your site for that profoundly disoriented visitor, you can add subtle clues and explicit messages to your site that orient the person arriving at your site from who knows where. You can do this without "dumbing down" your presentation in any way, turning confused visitors into converted ones. For instance, while judging sites for the Webby Awards, I've sometimes found myself at a home page about a city that appears justifiably proud of itself for all that it's achieved, yet I haven't a clue what state or province or even what country that city is located in. It's easier to appreciate what you're reading if you know that Kamloops is in British Columbia, Canada and not in Scotland or New Zealand. Likewise, when people are searching for a service provider and you do what you do only in a specific geographical area, say so right on your home page. For instance, if you provide emergency on-site technical support throughout Southern Vermont, say so. You'll have fewer potential clients clicking away in confusion and have fewer inappropriate phone or email inquiries to deal with. Sometimes the missing orientation pertains to your profession rather than geography. For instance, I was once sent to look at a site on "Japanese candlestick trading" and found myself completely mystified. After reading a few paragraphs, I gathered that this had something to do with investing in the stock market, but even after I'd read the whole page I didn't know what it had to do with Japan or with candlesticks. How much nicer to include a sentence like this not far into the home page: "Since its origin in 14th century Japan, this method of stock trading according to candlestick-shaped patterns of price shifts on a graph has..." Another time I evaluated a site for a firm that did "information protection" and "intellectual asset management." Even after reading the entire site, I wasn't sure what kinds of information or intellectual assets the firm protected and managed. I checked with the head of the firm, and my top two guesses were wrong. In fact, the firm helps companies protect trade secrets, confidential company information and intellectual property from theft or inadvertent exposure. Again, be specific and clear so that you let first-time visitors understand whether you offer the expertise or product line that they're looking for. These three site components help you provide clues to first- time visitors to your site: the page title - the text that appears in the top left corner of the browser; the site's name and tag line, which normally appear as unifying elements on every page; and the wording or text that appears on the home page or other page. Explicitly or through the accumulation of strong clues, make sure that someone coming to your site without any advance warning of what you do will feel oriented within their first 20 or 30 seconds. Marcia Yudkin is the author of Web Site Marketing Makeover and 10 other books. A four-time Webby Awards judge and internationally famous marketing consultant, she critiques web sites and performs web site makeovers for clients. Learn more about her detailed critique sessions on five different kinds of web sites at http://www.yudkin.com/websitequiz.htm .
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Choose A Website Designer When you're self-employed, choosing a website designer is a crucial decision, as a good website can bring you more business and a bad one can drive away prospective customers. Below are some important things to consider when selecting a website designer for your new site or site redesign. Reach Out To Billions Have you heard of 'Babel Fish'?It's a service provided by Alta Vista search engine people to translate every page you put 'Babel Fish' code, and up comes a a new language.Your page may be written in English, but people across Spain and Latin America can translate your web page into Spanish. Eight Website Pitfalls, and How to Avoid Them Clutter: Too much noise, too much text, and too little white space mean that customers ignore the content. Customers often scan pages quickly, only reading titles or input prompts until they reach the content they want. Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have very long pages. Why is that do you think? Well, it appears that long, scrolling, web pages lead to more sales than short pages. Usability and Considerate Design I hate to imagine that in your web development project team meetings, the one thing that will be overlooked is consideration for the end user. Yet, how many white boards have you seen lately that have "ease of use", or "be polite to customers" scribbled anywhere on them? Rather, the discussion hits on revenue generation, business requirements, colored backgrounds and information architecture. Creating Your First Website Building your first website can be very frustrating. It looks fairly easy, but almost always turns out to be more complicated than you expected. What to Ask Your Web Designer If you need a web designer, but have no clue about the typical web design process, I am quite certain that you must be feeling a bit overwhelmed about what to expect. As web designers, we oftentimes have a myriad of roles to fill when working with their clients, but as the client, you always have a right to know the complete design process up front. How To Choose A Website Designer Now that you have decided that it is time to create a website for your business there are many questions you must answer. One of the most important questions is "Who should create my website?"I like to use the analogy of playing music; in as little as a few hours, some people can strum a few chords on the guitar and play a song. 12 Essential Web Site Design Tips 1. What's the purpose?The most fundamental thing to do before designing your web site is to define its purpose. Content - the Key to Long Term Success Every day internet marketers are inundated with the latest fad or must have program. But the one tried and true asset which is vitally important to the long term success of your online business is valuable CONTENT. Dont Overdo it! Have you ever been to site with so much ad clutter that you wanted to just leave? Odds are you have, and odds are even better that you did in fact leave! Always refer back to the KISS philosphy. Keep It Simple Stupid!1. Give People What They Want And Watch Your Profits Soar! Do you know why the majority of people use the Internet?The majority of people use the Internet to do some type of research. In other words, to read. Making Good Websites that Stand Out Websites, there's literally billions of them out there in cyber-space. How many of them do you go to and just think this is boring, bland, or hard to use? It seems like too many to mention. Images: How To Make Them To Load Fast On Your Web Pages? 1. Use . How To Improve The Professional Look And Feel Of Your Website Projecting a professional image is paramount to your website's success. It can make or break your online business. Color and Web Design Color is one of the most important but least understood elements of web design today. Whether they know it or not, visitors to a site respond to colors and other visual elements on the site on a psychological level. 3 Tips You Can Use Right Now to Improve Your Web Sites Usability Studies done by Jakob Nielson the man touted as the, "King of usability" by Internet Magazine showed that people do not read on the web like they would normally read offline.So what does this mean to you and why should you care?Visitors to your web sites are in a rush, they want the information you promised and they want it NOW. Flash Web Design - The Wave of the Future? There are two camps when it comes to flash web design, those who believe it is the wave of the future and those who do not. To decide which camp you want to be part of, you of course need to learn a little bit about flash web design and try it out as well to see how you feel. Why You Should Use CSS It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness. Choosing Your Web Design We would all like to have the best looking website, that's a fact - but if we keep in mind that our main objective is to finally sell our product or service online, we'll realize that maybe design is not the most important factor when it comes to achieve this objective.Professional design is probably the most time consuming part of the web development, so my first tip would be, before you are contacting a Web Design Company, to browse the Internet for companies which offer similar services and products - you will find probably hundreds of them - save in your Favorites four or five websites which you really like, print out these, and show the printouts to as many people as you can, especially to your existing customers, and ask them which one it's more likely is to make them take an action (contact, buy, subscribe) on the site.
|
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |
