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Executive Report: Web site wisdom A good web site is an essential business tool. Nigel Strickland discusses the basic design elements required to create a successful internet presence. Some basic elements and features are found in all good web sites. Firstly, the purpose of the site must be clear, whether it is to sell or hire more products, to inform people about your services, to provide technical support, or a combination. Otherwise, measuring effectiveness will be difficult, if not impossible. The home page should describe your business effectively and quickly. Statistics suggest you only have 15 seconds to arouse visitors’ interest, and they will not make multiple clicks to discover basic information. What about the rest of the site? The key to keeping people reading is to be clear, concise and provide information they need, rather than what a marketing company or web designer thinks they want. A site should be easy to use with consistent and simple navigation. At any time, visitors should know where they are and how to get back to the home page. If your ‘contact us’ link appears in the upper right hand corner of one page, then ensure it appears there on all others. Clicking on your company logo should return visitors to the home page - search engines do not always direct people here initially, so a ‘home’ button should be a constant feature. Visitors should be able to access any particular page easily through well-organised product or service categories, clear titles and a site map. Facilitate communication by ensuring that points of contact via e-mail, phone, fax and a contact form are clearly signposted. Lots of graphics and animation may amuse you, but they irritate visitors with slow internet connections. Music and colour can be potent if used with discretion. However, commercially successful sites like Google, eBay, Amazon and Yahoo prove that the secret lies in simple and clear design. Domain names should be simple and easily remembered, since a complex or hyphenated name can lose business. Enhance your profile with a professional-looking e-mail address, with mail sent to your domain name. This also allows you to change your internet service provider (ISP) at any time while retaining your domain name for e-mail. Consider registering several names, all pointed at your site. You might also register similar domains to your main name to stop competitors acquiring them. Web site text is as important as that on any other corporate literature, so check it professionally for spellings, grammar and punctuation. Layout is also crucial. Having to scroll through screeds of text will drive visitors away. Just copying text from printed literature and putting it on the site will not do. Research shows people read web sites differently from conventional print, scanning pages, reading only headings or bullet points and stopping when they find something relevant. Generate a response Any site should encourage visitors to respond, by signing up for a newsletter, hiring a product, buying training or requesting more information. Even something as simple as a ‘contact us’ button will make this obvious and remind people why they are using your site. A simple way to create dialogue is via on-line forms for opening accounts, placing orders, or requesting quotes. These should be concise, asking only for relevant information. Privacy laws need to be adhered to, so ensure you understand your obligations. If you have a ‘news’ segment, make sure articles are up to date. Otherwise you will seem backward and uninterested in the site and its visitors. Indeed, the entire site needs to be re-appraised regularly with the latest text, images and product information. Fundamentally a site must attract as many searchers as possible, enabling effective on-line marketing. This involves two main devices, search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC). SEO is the skill of getting your site spotted and ranked highly by the major search engines. With 85% of businesses now found on-line, a site must be ‘search engine-friendly’. One way is to have good, relevant information that is organised and well written. Search engines only read text, not images, so animated graphics and buttons will just get in their way. PPC marketing aims to drive targeted traffic to your site, but it is beyond the scope of this article. But visit www.Google.co.uk/AdWords for more details. Once your site is performing well, consider extending its function. You might offer facilities like new account opening and other features showing potential customers why they should consider you as a supplier. Consider, too, the potential to attract new employees. A good site conveys a positive image and helps you compete for staff. Again, job application forms should be clear and concise without frustrations. Blandly asking all applicants, from workshop technicians to area managers, to “supply your CV as an MS Word document, PDF or text file no larger than 1mb” might deter an otherwise excellent candidate. Finally, you should explore web sites in different industries and countries for ideas that you can adapt and improve. Indeed, in a later article, we will look at some hirers’ sites and discuss their merits. • Executive Hire News › Archives › September 2007 › Executive Report › Web site wisdom
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