If You Build it, Will They Come?
6 Secrets to Developing a Great Web Site
By Bob Russo
President, IMS Advertising
- Information First, Beauty Second. Unless your business is an art gallery, you want more content on your web site than beautiful photos or graphics. The latter support the content and make it more inviting and easier to read, but the content will always win the award for lead actor.
- Ease of Navigation. Our company builds web sites that I can navigate, and trust me, that’s the ultimate acid test as I still have the attention span of a five-year old…and boy, was he happy to get rid of it. More often than not, people come to your web site for one or two specific reasons and not to look at every single page. So your job is to make it easy as pie to find those one or two pages.
- Make it Easy to Read. Mouse type is for mice. All caps is for people who think too much of themselves. The point is, use a clean, legible typeface in a font size that won’t hurt your eyes trying to take in. More tips for ease of reading: avoid long paragraphs, use bullet points to break up the flow and to highlight specific information, and use such devices as a second color plus bold and italic type to further draw the eye to key information or selling points.
- Keep it Fresh and Relevant. Putting a web site is a lot of work. I should know. And the temptation for those of us who build them and those of you who hire us to build them is to sit back once the site goes “live” and admire it. The problem is, admiration has its limits. Because unless you change things around periodically, especially on the home page, return visitors will sooner or later stop returning. And that’s the last thing you want to happen.
- Give People a Reason to Contact You. Sounds like a big “duh!”, right? You would think so, but if you look at as many web sites as I do, you start to wonder why some people bothered in the first place. What kind of responses to you want? Orders, scheduled service, more information, survey completion, and so on…and with each and every one, you want CONTACT INFORMATION, especially email addresses so you can begin to build or enhance your email marketing and database…a subject for a future article.
- Make it Easy to Load. Mega flash or video files may please the senses, but if they take an eternity to load, most people will wave “bye-bye” to your site before they read the first word of content. Don’t get me wrong: video content is a wonderful addition to almost any site, but don’t make it obtrusive. Rather, make sure people can turn of the sound or picture easily, which is especially important for repeat visitors to your site.
How about you? As in, do you have any “secret” web site tips you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear from you.
Phone: 860-282-2268
Email: info@imsadvertising.com
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