The document provides tips and best practices for creating an effective small business website. It emphasizes that a good website should clearly identify what the business does through a tagline and consistent design, provide easy navigation and organization of information, and include important elements like contact details and ways to collect user data. The document also stresses the importance of following conventions, using images and chunking content to improve readability, and optimizing the site for search engines and different devices through responsive design. It notes both the benefits of building a site independently using common platforms, and of hiring a professional for their expertise.
4. Powerful Moments
There is more computing power used to do a single Google search thanall existing
NASA computers used to land on the moon in 1969.
5. Infinite Noise
The average American had access to more thanten connected devices in
their household. Eachdevice can create and filter noise.
We've gone from being exposed to 500 ads a day back in the1970's to as many as
5,000 a day today.
6. We cannot reach consumers with mass media if it is
filtered by algorithms on devices
13. A GoodWeb Site Has:
A tagline that clearly identifies what you do
Consistent design and navigation onall pages
Clearhierarchy of information
Footer links at the bottom of everypage
Keywords that identify your business
Easy-to-find contact information
A means to gatheruserdata
22. Web Site Conventions
They are useful. Conventions onlybecome conventions if they work.
Designers are reluctant to use conventions, they like to reinvent the
wheel.
Innovate when you KNOW you have a better idea, use conventions
when you don’t.
23. Web Site Convention
Examples
Navigation appearing along the top or running down the left side of
the page
Logo located in the upper left corner
Hyperlinks are underlined
24. Things to Avoid
Splash or Intro Pages
Slow loading pages
Large blocks of text on the main site pages
White text on color background
Too much Flash and Music
Incomplete or outdated pages
25.
26. Understanding who our target audienceis and where
they spend their time, you can build an organic
presence by focusing on content that speaksto their
needs and wants.
27. Information Architecture
Create Usable Navigation System
Easytolearn
Consistentthroughoutthe site
Minimum numberofclickstodestination
What is the mission orpurpose of the site
Who are the intended audiences
Determinethe organizational structure
Hierarchyofinformation
Narrowanddeep orbroadandshallow
Create a site map or blueprint of the site
28. 3 Important Concepts Require Your
Attention
What the audiencewants from you
What you want to say
How you arrange the content to best meet your audience’s
needs
31. Important Considerations
A clear, concise mission, vision, and values statement.
Include photographs to add visualmeaning to the site.
All photos should be captioned to increase comprehension &
SEO.
32. Important Considerations
FAQ’s- improves users understanding of the information presented
and reduces demand on your staff.
Site Map—Helps users navigate and search your site.
Page Footers offer the user a set of linksto other pages in addition to
essential data about the site.
33. Site Marketing
Your Web site should be anintegral part of allmarketing campaigns
and corporate communications programs, and the URL for the site
should appear on every piece of correspondence and marketing
collateral.
34.
35. Site Navigation
Gives us something to hold on to
It tells us what’s inside
It instructs us how to use the site
Consistent Navigation allows users to adapt easily and predict with
confidence the location of information
36. Landing Pages
Landing pages, or “lead-capture pages,”
are used to convert visitors into leads
by completing a transactionor by collecting contact information from them via
a
Call-To-Action.
37. Landing Page Elements
• A strong Call-To-Action
• A brief description of the offer that clearly emphasizes its value.
• At leastone supporting image.
• Supporting elements such astestimonials.
• Form to capture visitors' information.
38.
39. Call-To-Action (CTA)
• Your CTA is the action you want your
website visitor to take.
• It doesn't matter if your landing page objective is increasing sales,
generating email leads or developing customer relationships, we all want
more conversions!
40.
41. Omit Needless Words
Reduces noise level of the page
Makes useful content more prominent
Makes pages shorter, reduces scrolling
42. Kill the HappyTalk
Happy talkislike small talk,visitors to your site are not
interested.
Contains no useful information
44. Kneel Before Google
Your content should be “Search Engine Friendly” Zero-Click
Searches
Content should contain keywords that best describe your
products and/or services
Use hyperlinks within your content to linkto other pages on
your site
45. Stock Photography
Google Images is NOT a source of photos for your web site
Royalty Free:Pay fee for variety of usage
Rights Managed: Pay fee for very specific, one-time usage.
ShutterStock, AdobeStock, iStock offer affordable plans for
Royalty Free Stock Images.
46.
47.
48. Responsive Design
A Single Web Site That Works Effectively on Both
Desktop Computers and Mobile Devices.
49. Design is Devine
The design of your site should offer relief to the eye by strikinga
balance between text and graphic elements.
50. Success Criteria
Top of Mind Awareness within Marketplace
Content is relevant, informative, and addresses the needs of the visitor
Information is easy to find and read
Increase unique visitor traffic to site
Reducedemand on staff when handling inquiries
Capture userdata for future marketing
Connectedness–link to other Webproperties
More product inquiries—MORE BUSINESS!
51.
52. Design Your Own Site
WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and Shopify are CMS products
that use templates so you can build your own WebSite and
manage the content.
CMS allows you to add/edit and delete pages from your site
53. Benefits of DIY Web Sites
Saves you money
Template driven, plug-insavailableto add functionality
Provides content management system (CMS) that archives
content and allows you to easily upload new content to the site.
Manage site content viaa Web browser
54. Benefits of Hiring a Pro
Saves you time, allows you to focus on core capabilities
A professional will know how to structure the site to make it
visitor friendly and design the site to make the most of web
technology
Customized approach to meet your specificneeds
Employ SEO strategies
55.
56. • Used by 1.0%of all the websites
• Basic website builder for free
• Simple drag and drop interface
• 500+pre-madetemplates
• Nearly200+apps available
• Offers e-Commercewith paid plans
• Used by 32.5%of all websites
• Software is available for free
• Visual editor to write content
• 1,000sof freeand paid themes
• 55,000+freeplugins available
• Powers over 42%of all e-Commercesites
There are two kinds of noise: Busy-ness, everything on the page is clamoring for attention.
Background noise. Your web pages are like being at a cocktail party, no one source of noise is loud enough to be heard
Without being taught, we all learn to read newspapers, not the words, the conventions: Large type is usually the headline, text underneath a photo is a caption.
Web design conventions are a set of rules that help visitors “feel at home” on your site even if it’s the first time they visit it. Most websites adhere to these rules and yours should to.
Make sure that you invest the time to properly plan the information architecture of your site
Understanding who our target audience is and where they spend their time, you can build an organic presence by focusing on specific platforms.
The home page is reserved for high-priority tasks and should divide your audience and send them to their particular area of interest.
We are always looking for the next thing to click. Don’t force users to think about something that should be obvious
Discuss situation client experienced using photos lifted off the web.
One of the most common mistakes that businesses make is focusing too much on the Form or Style and less time on the Function or Substance of their web site.
With CMS, you can add calendars, online forms and blogs