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Web design | Website Design | Website Designer | Business Website design | Web page design | Web designer
Affordable website design & Internet Marketing
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So you’ve decided to get yourself a website. We may have something that interests you and your company.
The case maybe that you do have a website but don’t feel the need to revamp it. If this is the case this information is still worth reading as your website could be doing a lot more for your company. The use of a website in order to strengthen your company is essential in the ever growing competitive markets of today.
Even SME companies these days can use their websites to present a more professional image to potential customers, attract new customers, allows their company to operate 24hours a day and even collect valuable information from site visitors such as warm leads or information of they’re wants.
There are a number of factors that determine how successful your website will be in attracting and retaining the right sort of traffic (i.e. visitors, potential customers etc.)
Content: (Written information you provide on your site)
The information you provide for the visitor must be relevant information that they are looking for. You could have the best looking site on the planet, but if it doesn’t have what the searcher is looking for they will leave straight away. Also keeping this content fresh and updated is very good for attracting repeat visitors. This doesn’t mean you have to update it daily or even weekly, once per month maybe twice is recommended.
Dynamic Content: (Animations, changing images, dates, news links etc.)
Dynamic content on your website keeps your site looking fresh, professional and informative. Most Dynamic Content is added using "HTML scripting” so it is essential to either have a professional web designer construct and update your site or an in house web master. Dynamic content makes the difference in how your website is perceived by it’s visitors, even the untrained eye can tell the difference between sites that are professionally done and unprofessional sites usually done by an none expert involved in the company. Although this is done in a bid to save money it has proven time and time again to cost more in the long run through loss of business, man hours and technical problems that would never occur with a professionally designed website.
Site Navigation:
It is essential that your website is easy to move around and find the relevant information that someone is looking for. The perfect website should in theory be laid out so that a visitor can get from Any page on the site, to Any other page in just 2 clicks. If a visitor is having trouble finding what they want on your site or even get lost which happens frequently with badly designed sites. Good site navigation also includes the speed at which pages on your site load up, so all pictures, videos and animations MUST be optimised.
Professional Look:
When a visitor logs onto you website they will instantly make a decision on how professional your company is, that’s why it is essential that your website has a professional look and feel to it. Most sites that are created by non web designers stink of unprofessionalism and send visitors straight to they’re competitor’s sites. Professional image can be presented using a variety of methods including, professional pictures (industry relevant or of the company & workers themselves), Animations, Well scripted Dynamic content and Website layout.
Inter-activity:
The ability of a visitor to interact with the website can make all the difference on keeping the visitor on the site, if they can leave messages, download items, change images by simply rolling they’re mouse over it. This all keeps visitors amused and impressed with a website enough to remain on it and read more information.
Search Engine ranking/ Optimisation:
Again you could have the world’s greatest site, but what’s the use if no one can find it. Submitting your website to search engines is not enough anymore. Your site needs to be optimised so that people searching for what you offer can find it. The Internet doubles in size every 3 months. This means search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN add different criteria for “Ranking” you site on the search engines e.g. Google alone have over 200 different criteria at present for ranking site.
You need to be in the top ten of every search engine to attract the most visitors to your site. A good web designer will get you there, considering most of the criteria needed from these search engines are created by the designer when constructing the site such as site maps, Alt Tags, Meta Tags, Keywords etc.
Availability/ hosting uptime: (a “Host” is a company that will keep your website on the internet)
The choice of the right host is as important as the site design itself. If you choose the wrong host you will find that when people go to log onto your site, it is unavailable for viewing or worse is available but takes ages to load up. This will be the last time that a visitor will try to access your site as they will assume that the site is no longer there, or they can’t be bothered waiting etc.
Relevant & irrelevant links:
You will need to put external links into your website to allow viewers to verify or confirm statements on your site or claims you may have made. These are links that lead away from your site to information sources, your portfolios or other relevant sites. Choosing which site to link to is very important, as you don’t want the viewer to leave the site for good. Linking to sites where there is no need will have this effect.
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