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Web Design Tips

Web Design DOs and DON’Ts

Marketing plans today start with a website for your business.  What, you don’t have the money for one?  Well websites are free to make these days and you don’t have to hire a professional web designer to get your business on the grid.  There are several on-line site-builders that offer completely free websites, such as WIX.com, WEEBLY.com, and my personal favorite, WEBS.com.  These on-line site builders are easy to use and rather intuitive; if you can create a Word document, you can build your website.  I teach a class “How to make a FREE Website for your Small Business” each quarter, and I have helped hundreds of people get on-line.  


Here are some web design tips to remember:

5 Pages Every Website Should Have:

  1. Home
  2. About Us
  3. Products/Services
  4. Testimonials
  5. Contact Us

This is enough to get you on the grid!  You can always build more pages since your website is, in essence,  a living document that can be updated as often as you like. 


Top 5 Web Design Tips for your website:

  1. Choose a domain name that helps you get found, not necessarily the name of your business:  think of how your clients would search for you
  2. KISS -  Keep it Simple, Silly!   Your Home page especially - don’t write a book, tell what you are selling, who you are selling it to, and why it’s awesome.  Use bullets to make words stand out and link keywords to other pages with more information
  3. Design your pages for LAZY people that have ADD  (I like to soften this statement by saying, design it for extremely busy people)
  4. Use Call to Action buttons – you have your email listed, but make a “Contact Us” button (on every page), “Shop Now”,  “Donate”, “Register Now” – these buttons work great and help the lazy people navigate your site
  5. Connect to social media


Top 5 Web Design Errors to Avoid on your website: 

  1. Don’t mismatch pages;  use a template for consistency and the colors and logos need to be the same for every piece of marketing items
  2. Don’t use unnecessary graphics or flash – search bots can’t read those items
  3. Don’t use your industry jargon – use verbiage your clients will understand, this site is for them, not you
  4. Don’t use hard to read text or background color schemes – your site needs to be easy on the eyes
  5. Don’t make your viewers guess what page they are on – use clear navigation buttons

Most importantly, remember when you build your website, make it for your customers.  You need to have your customers in mind when you create content – not the people in your industry.  Content is King – having a website that helps your customer understand your organization and products and services is more important than having a dazzling site with unnecessary flash and graphics.  If you keep your customer in mind while building your site, your content will automatically reflect the keywords that so many people fret over trying to create and will naturally rank well organically.  If you have an organization that you can write about weekly, then add a BLOG page to your site.  Search Engines love new content and you will increase your page rankings (otherwise known as SEO – search engine optimization) and ultimately this will help your customers find you.

Top 10 Web Design tips to DO on Your Business Website

1. Choose a Domain Name that is short and catchy

    2. KISS - your homepage needs to convey your product or service in 4 seconds!  
    3. Home page just needs a logo and tag line
    4. Each page needs your contact information; the footer is a great place for it.
    5. Each page needs Call to Action buttons on every page (click here, email me)
    6. Be consistent with template, colors, and branding
    7. Make your content Scannable - bold titles, short paragraphs
    8. Identify product/service benefit
    9. Connect to FREE social media sites like Facebook & LinkedIn.

    10. MARKET your website! 

    Top 10 Web Design Errors to AVOID on Your Business Website

    1. Do not have music and moving graphics on auto start, avoid the "flash"
    2. Do not write in Klingon ... avoid techno-jargon that others won't understand
    3. Do not misspell words
    4. Do not write a book
    5. Do not over use graphics - no fluff! Youu need good words/text
    6. Do not go "below the fold" - don't make your website pages too long
    7. Do not make your business website personal, no family photos
    8. Do not have mismatched pages; use a template to consistently reflect your brand
    9. DO not use hard to read texts or color schemes

    10. Do not make your visitors guess the page they are on


    Don't take my word for it... click on the video below to see a brief video by Eric Spellmann about Website First Impressions.  

     

    How can Web Design attract people to my site?

     

    1. Choose a domain name that reflects your business
    2. Connect to Google Places & Yahoo Places
    3. Create a free Google Webmaster Tools account
    4. Create a free Facebook business page
    5. Create a mobile website
    6. Link to your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
    7. Choose descriptive titles with keywords
    8. Send out an email newsletter (don't blast spam) to announce your business
    9. Create a FREE Small Business Brandify account for SEO recommendations at www.Brandify.com
    10. Promote your website in your email signature, business card, everywhere!

    Ask a friend to review your website,  4 eyes are better than 2!

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