If you have been keeping up with this series of articles you may recall I have covered a number of steps you must follow in order to successfully launch your company online. I have covered identifying a need, clarifying
your offer, setting your cyberbusiness goals, getting your equipment together, and finding the right support. Now comes what may be the most critical step in the process -- building your website. Do this right and you
are well on your way. Do it wrong and all your hard work may be for naught. My intention here is to offer some guidance based on past experience.
Unlike the early days when the Internet was a new frontier you do not have to know HTML these days in order to create an effective Web page yourself. As cyberspace fills up with small and large businesses trying to
find their niches, standing out from the crowd and attracting attention on the Internet has become increasingly difficult.
How do you gain, and more importantly keep, the attention of visitors who are increasingly mobile and increasingly accustomed to more sophisticated content? The answer is to keep your site simple, well organized,
and content rich.
First impressions are critical on the Web, where shoppers can jump from site to site with the click of a mouse button. Given the competitive nature of the Internet, a few extra seconds of downtime waiting for complex
images or scripts like Java applets to load can be the difference between a purchase and a rejection.
How do you make your welcome page a visitor vacuum? Here are some things I that have worked well for me since I got started:
Keep the Web page simple: As tempting as it may be do not overload any one page with more than three or four images. Try to keep image sizes under 20K.
Find a fast host: All Web hosts are not created equal. Some have super-fast connections while others claim to, but fall way short. If you find your pages take longer than 10 seconds or more to appear, ask your host
company why and find out whether they can move you to a faster server. Along with this I also suggest purchasing your hosting on a month-to-month basis. That way you can move to another host quickly and without
any contractual hassles.
Provide sales hooks: Everybody likes a deal and nothing attracts attention better than a contest, giveaway, or a special sales promotion. If you have anything you can either give away, either though a contest or a deep
discount, do it.
Keep it short: Your most valuable information has to appear at or near the top of your page. In fact, if you can make your page fit the standard 15 inch screen you can almost rest assured it will appear "above the fold"
(to borrow newspaper parlance) on any other size monitors. If you do not think you can make it fit, then consider using smaller images and text snippets that link to the complete description. Do not worry about having
to create additional pages to hold all your websites content. In fact this is a good thing. I will explain why in a later article.
As for the Web page layout I suggest trying the traditional look. Some call it boring, but it works. People find your site and they want satisfaction immediately. An uncluttered page that makes its offer clear is what
Web browsers are looking for. The statistics program I use (Google Analytics) shows visitors are finding my pages and staying for several minutes. This may not sound like a long time but on the Internet this is
considered a long time. I like to think this success is a function of page design and a clear offer as well as an effective sales hook.
What does the traditional welcome page look like? They may have a company logo across the top, navigation down the left side of the page, content in the middle or body of the page with 3-4 images, and a footer
along the bottom.
The footer should contain your Copyright Statement, the same navigation links as those on the left side navigation as well as additional links to other pages in your site that are not directly related to the selling
process. These pages may include your privacy and shipping policies for example. One page you do not want to omit is your Site Plan (or Map) page. It is my belief this is the second most important page on your
website after your Home page.
What colors should you use on your site? The very first color choice should be the background of your page. I use white almost exclusively. I have tested other colors and I have seen dramatic decreases in traffic on
those pages. It is your choice, but consider how newspapers and most magazines are printed on white backgrounds. It is easier on the eyes and our minds have grown accustomed to it.
One exception to my "white background only" rule is if I happen to use an image as the background. I rarely do this, but when I do I make sure they are subtle and do not interfere with reading the page content. Any
background image, if not chosen with care, can make the page completely unreadable.
Lastly, I want to talk about the choice of fonts to use. Generally speaking, when you design Web pages it is best to use a generic typeface that is built into virtually every computers operating system. This more or
less ensures your pages will look the same no matter what type of browser is used to view them. Some examples of these font types are Times-Roman, Ariel, and Tahoma.
You should by now have a basic idea on how to get started in designing your website. I recommend looking around at other sites. Mimic, do not copy, what you like. Keep the decision making process simple for your
visitor and enjoy the fruits of your labor when you get it right.
Chuck Lunsford is a moderately successful Internet Marketing practitioner with 10-plus years of
do it yourself website software experience. Visit JustGoDoItYourself.com and learn to do just about any
diy home repair and improvement projects. For a private consult contact Chuck at 239-340-2297
