10 Website Pitfalls.

You definitely want a professional, efficient, and effective site, to your visitors it doesn’t matter how cool or pretty a web site looks, if they find it impractical and worthless they will head to your competitor’s site, which is just a click away.

Avoid this website pitfalls....

1. Flash intros interesting? (maybe) the first time you visit a site. Avoid using
   flash because surveys show 80 percent of visitors hate them and they hurt your search
   engine optimization efforts.
   
2. Animated GIFs and scrolling text what a major distraction, especially when they are
   overused. Unless an animated GIF or scrolling text complements the information on
   your page, don.t use them.
   
3. Distorted pictures is the number one dead give-a-way your site was not created professionally. Use a cropping tool to evenly distribute the image dimension or use an image gallery that will automatically crop the images for you during upload.
   
4. Free Advertising is how you spell frustrating and annoying. You run the risk of loosing high dollars to an ad that will probably only generate a few pennies.
   
5. Outdated content and broken links these are very unprofessional and shows lack of
   commitment. Use automatic tools to keep you content fresh.
   
6. Under construction pages how completely unnecessary and they will cause you to lose business. Create a basic page listing your contact address, phone number, email and why not add a short paragraph about your products or services.
   
7. Keep it Simple confusing and a confused mind always says no. Limit your menu choices between 5 and 7 and make sure your navigation appears in the same spot on every page.
   
8. Information Overload can overwhelm the visitor because no one wants to read a
   dissertation. Make your web site about your visitor by providing them with essential
   information like the benefits of doing business with you.
   
9. Music or Voice is a major annoyance because everyone has different tastes. If
   there’s not a compelling reason to add music, don’t. If it is a voice you are using program it so it only happens on request, or upon initial visit.
   
10. Hit counters are truly useless because they only track one element of site statistics. Try
    sophisticated, easy to understand and free analytics tools that are hidden to your visitors. If you are having 1 visitor or 1 million your visitor only cares if you have what they want.

THE BALANCE: Design & Functionality

Today at WebWise we will examine balancing design with functionality and some of the trade offs you must consider when designing your website. Consider what components would clearly define a website as "professionally" done? Simply spending thousands of dollars on web design won’t guarantee success. Never underestimate the importance of simply making sure it loads quickly and employs a straightforward navigation system. Your visitors must also feel that the time spent at your site worth their while, there is nothing that accomplishes this better then content. All this is easily said, however; establishing it in a website could be a challenge. This article will help you determine the required balance and ways that it can be achieved.

DESIGN
Your visitor's first impression will be the determination of whether or not you're going to make a sale. A professional website should be visually appealing, well organized, easy to navigate and load quickly. How can that be done?

The one mistake commonly made is the "busy" web design factor. Which means including things that have flashy appeal or a novelty value as in Marquis, status bars, blinking, spinning, animated gifs, and cartoons in an attempt to replace structured content. These are memory intensive and will increase you page loading time. Instead of going in for the "busy" design features, make your site attractive and user-friendly by combining strong content, with a good layout.

Strong content, must include the use of effective sales copy. Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Most business failures are the result of ineffective copy. Whether it is your website, sales letters or advertisements, your words play a major role in determining your success. When writing your website copy, try using the following formula:
A -Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attentionI -Interest - Intrigue interest and create curiosityD -Detail - Provide details about your product or serviceA -Action - Call for action

Good layout means considering how each of your pages will flow. How will you maintain a balance between links, graphics, fonts and text. Only use graphics that express what your site is about and compliment your text. Use fonts, which are compatible across the many computing platforms. It is recommended that you use these standard fonts Arial, Courier, Terminal, Comic Sans and Times New Roman. Using stylized fonts can replace graphics or create a great title. Although pictures say a thousand words they can’t replace well-written copy. Graphics and pictures should only compliment your site. Graphic and picture intensive sites usually load slowly and the customer has left the site before they even see the content.
When choosing colours, graphics, tables and banners remember that many monitors can only accommodate a resolution of either 640x480 or 800x600 pixels. Exceeding these factors horizontally will require that users scroll to the right. Scrolling is both inconvenient and distracting.

FUNCTIONALITY
Organize web pages so that users can quickly scan pages and get a feel for content. Your users don't want to read the entire page to find what they are looking for. Keep it clear and simple. When you can, use bulleted lists and menus instead of burying useful information in text.
Create pages that are a suitable length. For the most part, more than 3 scrolling screens, is too long. Similarly, links that lead to a new page containing only a sentence or two of text frustrate users. Try to aim somewhere between a few paragraphs and a few screens. When considering how to break up information, factor in the issue of printing. Is the document something users may want to print out?

Think carefully about your hypertext links. Put yourself in the user's shoes and imagine where you would want to go next from any given idea in your pages - then link up with those places. Try to integrate links into your text, rather than breaking up the flow of ideas. For example, avoid writing "for information about dogs, click here". Instead make dogs the hypertext link. Also, avoid excessive linking. Too many links on a page will distract the user. Make sure that your links are contextually appropriate and don't link to a URL more than once on the same page.

Have your site designed with multiple platforms and multiple browsers in mind. A page that looks great in Netscape may not look so great in Internet Explorer. Similarly, Netscape for the Macintosh renders pages differently than Netscape for the PC. Finally, remember that some browse the Web in a text-only environment and cannot view graphics or tables.
Do your best to accommodate all users and check your web pages on the several different browsers and platforms. Specifically, check your pages on a Macintosh, a PC running Windows 95/98/NT and a PC running Windows 3.1. This is the minimum compatibility requirement.
Lastly but importantly, check your pages regularly to be sure that all information is current. Be very conscientious about looking for "broken links". Remember that web sites move and disappear every minute, and users will tire quickly if your web site points to outdated links or contains dated content.

For further information or assistance with website design and functionality email Sherry or call 344-6889.

Twellow - the fastest growing directory online

It is free to join - and - who knows where this directory is going to go!

7 Web Marketing Strategy Essentials

Setting Goals and Objectives for the Web
What goals and objectives have you planned for your Web business? We offer a few suggestions.

Strategic Marketing Options
There are only three! We'll help you choose the BEST one for you.

Web Site Positioning
How will your Web site fit into the current marketplace. Can you find your NICHE?

Building Customer Trust
An evaluation of your customer and how to build trust in YOU and the products and services you sell.

S.W.O.T. Analysis
If you already have an online business, this analysis will help you evaluate it.
If not, use this information to AVOID costly mistakes.

Competitive Intelligence
A useful checklist to help evaluate the competition.

Action Plan
Here are some important points to keep in mind about putting your marketing strategies into action.

This is an upcoming seminar I will be hosting, if you are interested in attending or would like to receive the "online" version please contact me.

Best Tool Ever - Google Analytics

If you are not using Google Analytics, you are not measuring your web traffic, if you are not measuring your web traffic, how do you know what or how your website is doing.

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.


If you are interested in using this valuable tool on your website please contact me.
http://www.google.com/analytics/

Web Site Content

As is common knowledge, having fresh content on your web site will keep people coming back for more. For most of us however, keeping everything fresh can be a difficult task. In this article of the Website Source, we will investigate content to include in your new site as well as additional content to add to existing websites. This will keep those potential customers coming back.
Although creating a web site can be easy, there's more to it than first meets the eye. Your first task before investing any time or money, should be to create a profile of your target audience, and design a site that's responsive to their needs and interests. Select content by thinking from the perspective of your audience. How can you add value to their online experience? How can you make your website different than an electronic version of a printed page or in other words, how can you add interactivity?

Once you've decided what you and your audience wants, it's time to prepare the content. This involves more than adding HTML code to documents you may already have. Here are some general guidelines and possible pages to include on your website:
The home page should draw your audiences’ attention and not overwhelm them with information. Keep the layout simple and the text brief. Add graphics to communicate your message and image. Use graphics to enhance the site, but optimize graphic file sizes maintaining a good balance between file size and image clarity. Include only those images that add value. Not every photo needs to be in color nor does every catalog item need a picture. Consider using thumbnail images that the viewer clicks on to enlarge thus minimizing page download time. Most of all with your home page give the reader a reason to proceed further into your site.

A requirement is a page or catalogue dedicated to outlining your products and/or services. This page can include detailed information complete with pictures, descriptions and even pricing. A services company may describe their services and the benefits to prospective clients. Reproducing existing brochures or other documents on the Web usually doesn't work well. People have short attention spans and don't particularly like to read copious text on a computer screen. Use only the most compelling information. Add headings and bold text, where appropriate, to make reading easy. Try to limit the length of a web page to three screens.
Another important page is corporate profile and should include information about your company, its corporate structure, its history, location, staff or team, a satisfied customers list, and even a mission statement.

You may choose to integrate a policies and procedures page where you may let your customers know your shipping, returns, exchange as well as other corporate policies adhered to by your organization.

Consider including a page to help your customers answer questions and concerns. This may consist of: instructional literature, product manuals, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), troubleshooting guide, tips and suggestions. If you want to provide access to a lot of documents provide them as Portable Document Files (PDF) that can be easily downloaded for reading off-line or printing. If you must include lengthy documents, break them up into sections with headings. Create an index or table of contents at the top of the page, with links to each section also try adding a search feature. Always have an easily visible icon where customers can email you if the information they are looking for is not available. Marketing by information is a very powerful means of selling. Many times customers are compelled to buy from those that have provided them with useful information.

Contemplate incorporating a quest book or feedback form on your site. This will provide you with access to your customers comments and any concerns they may have with your website or service. Include this page only if you have the time to respond promptly, not responding is negative marketing of your business and something to avoid. You will however get invaluable information from your audience and recommended by all professional web designers.
Add a links page with links to suppliers or related websites, which expands on or complements your information. This may be a standalone page or may be incorporated into your product information page. Be sure to send courtesy notices to webmasters at the sites you link to as many times they will reciprocate a link helping to increase your traffic.

The Web is a powerful medium that offers many ways to enhance your business or organization, especially if you add interactivity to your content mix. Even consider creating information request forms, an on-line support channel to customer service and or a chat room where people can discuss issues or exchange tips with one another.

For further information or assistance with website content email Sherry or call 344-6889.

20 Things To Remember For Good Web Copy

1. Tight writing. That doesn't mean bad or easy writing.
2. Copy of about 600-800 words is better for SEO and catching the long tail of search.
3. Title – Subject – Support, in that order, like subject, verb, object.
4. Titles should be snappy and informative – clickable, but clear.
5. Leads (first sentence or paragraph) should get to the point. Tell the reader what the article's about first thing.
6. No fancy, wordy intros where it's not clear what you're talking about.
7. Information beats fluff every time. Pretty is for books and newspapers (and only sometimes).
8. Information does not beat style every time. Style keeps people awake.
9. Sans serif fonts are easier and faster to read on computer screens.
10. White space is awesome – even better than big, pretty pictures.
11. Content should be scannable.
12. Think in bullets and subtitles.
13. People like lists.
14. Pictures should be specific and informative, not generic, decorative and ad-like
15. Photos should be relevant to content.
16. People in pictures should look friendly and approachable (and have their whole head).
17. Photos should be full body if possible (so guys can check out packages and stuff).
18. Spell stuff right. It makes you look smarter.
19. Grammar IS important. Unless you're not really a professional.
20. Online press releases should be even tighter than Web copy.

For further information or assistance with website content and design email email Sherry. or call 344-6889.