6 essentials for a web site - a quick checklist
With millions of sites out there in every niche and genre, it's important to remember a few basic web site rules to make sure your clients/users are getting the most out of your site and it's serving its purpose - be it getting leads, online sales or ad revenue.
Here's a quick checklist of 6 things your site must have:
1. Calls to action - I rate this #1. Calls to action are multiple series of steps that drive your users to do something you want them to. A site without calls to action is like an expensive magazine advertisement without your contact details.
Most successful websites are those that tell users what to do next. If you're selling a service or product, then a description of the service/product followed by "Click here for more information" or "Click here to buy this product" will get you multiple times conversion than just a little "Contact us" link in some corner.
Sounds simple, but surprisingly, "Calls to action" are something that most websites forget to pay attention to.
2. Multicolored designs - The other day I happened to be at a web design workshop where 5 web sites were shown on a massive projector screen to about 500 people and they were asked to rate the sites from 1 to 10 based on their liking of the design. 4 were uni-colored (use of one predominant color) and one was multi-colored (a mix of several colours). Predictably, the multicolored site won.
You've got to remember that sites based on one predominant color will look good to people who love that color. So make sure that your site has a good multicolored theme on a white background. Compare my latest Party Mania design to that of Michael Magill.
3. Navigation regulation- Make sure your users follow the hierarchy of links you want them to. Drop down menus were a rage when they first came in for the same reason. A website, unlike any other medium gives you complete control of what you want your users to see when - make use of that. If you want a user to first know that you're a Google certified company and then go to your PPC page, then name your page "Google certified PPC management" and then give a link saying "View packages". This way a user definitely knows you're Google certified.
Plus, make sure every page on your website is mentioned on your sitemap. Although not very popular today, some users and almost all search engines still use sitemaps.
4. Page coding - Make sure your web pages have well defined title tags, meta tags and alt tags. Most important are "title tags". In less than 8 words define what a page is about. Make sure you use keywords that you think people will search for. Duplicate title tags are a major mistake that websites make. Meta tags are not so much in use with top search engines but you must use them anyway for a few that do and for directories. Alt tags define images and with image searches becoming widely used, use alt tags to define images.
5. Grab those users' details - Another one that I see highly ignored on most websites. Ask users for their contact details by offering some free stuff. Anyone who's come to your website and really liked it will be happy to stay updated with new products/service or news. This is undoubtedly the best way to increase your usership. A simple form asking people to "subscribe to your mailing list" for your next blog, new products, service enhancements or news will do wonders. Give your users multiple ways to stay in touch with you. RSS, contact forms, mailing lists, blogs are a few.
6. Content - Ultimately it all boils down to content. If people love what they see/read on your site, they'll take your seriously. Needless to say, make sure the spellings are immaculate, tenses, grammar are all perfect and target your content to your audience. A site catering to the UK wouldn't do very well with words like "color" or "favor". Get your content written by language experts, make sure it's concise and to the point. At the same time, make sure you use keywords that people will be searching for within your content to help search engines relate your site to those keywords.
Here's a quick checklist of 6 things your site must have:
1. Calls to action - I rate this #1. Calls to action are multiple series of steps that drive your users to do something you want them to. A site without calls to action is like an expensive magazine advertisement without your contact details.
Most successful websites are those that tell users what to do next. If you're selling a service or product, then a description of the service/product followed by "Click here for more information" or "Click here to buy this product" will get you multiple times conversion than just a little "Contact us" link in some corner.
Sounds simple, but surprisingly, "Calls to action" are something that most websites forget to pay attention to.
2. Multicolored designs - The other day I happened to be at a web design workshop where 5 web sites were shown on a massive projector screen to about 500 people and they were asked to rate the sites from 1 to 10 based on their liking of the design. 4 were uni-colored (use of one predominant color) and one was multi-colored (a mix of several colours). Predictably, the multicolored site won.
You've got to remember that sites based on one predominant color will look good to people who love that color. So make sure that your site has a good multicolored theme on a white background. Compare my latest Party Mania design to that of Michael Magill.
3. Navigation regulation- Make sure your users follow the hierarchy of links you want them to. Drop down menus were a rage when they first came in for the same reason. A website, unlike any other medium gives you complete control of what you want your users to see when - make use of that. If you want a user to first know that you're a Google certified company and then go to your PPC page, then name your page "Google certified PPC management" and then give a link saying "View packages". This way a user definitely knows you're Google certified.
Plus, make sure every page on your website is mentioned on your sitemap. Although not very popular today, some users and almost all search engines still use sitemaps.
4. Page coding - Make sure your web pages have well defined title tags, meta tags and alt tags. Most important are "title tags". In less than 8 words define what a page is about. Make sure you use keywords that you think people will search for. Duplicate title tags are a major mistake that websites make. Meta tags are not so much in use with top search engines but you must use them anyway for a few that do and for directories. Alt tags define images and with image searches becoming widely used, use alt tags to define images.
5. Grab those users' details - Another one that I see highly ignored on most websites. Ask users for their contact details by offering some free stuff. Anyone who's come to your website and really liked it will be happy to stay updated with new products/service or news. This is undoubtedly the best way to increase your usership. A simple form asking people to "subscribe to your mailing list" for your next blog, new products, service enhancements or news will do wonders. Give your users multiple ways to stay in touch with you. RSS, contact forms, mailing lists, blogs are a few.
6. Content - Ultimately it all boils down to content. If people love what they see/read on your site, they'll take your seriously. Needless to say, make sure the spellings are immaculate, tenses, grammar are all perfect and target your content to your audience. A site catering to the UK wouldn't do very well with words like "color" or "favor". Get your content written by language experts, make sure it's concise and to the point. At the same time, make sure you use keywords that people will be searching for within your content to help search engines relate your site to those keywords.
posted by Modulus Systems at
6:57 PM
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