Simplicity is the Key

Think of your website like a retail location with dozens of visitors walking by the front window.  Your home page is similar in nature to the display window.  If someone visits your home page and leaves without clicking a link this is like someone walking by your window and not coming in. 

An effective window display is simple and specific.  It captures the attention of prospective clients quickly and easily.  As you walk through a mall notice the displays that capture your attention, and notice the ones you walk past.  Most likely the ones you walk past either don’t communicate well or they’re not relevant to you personally. 

As you begin to develop your home page put a list of key word phrases together – a list of words and statements someone would type into Google/Yahoo/MSN to find your site.  These ideas will form the foundation on which you’ll build your entire web site, especially the home page.

You’ll want to incorporate these ideas into the design as well as the copy over an over again.  Put these statements right up front on the web page along with some strong visuals.  Don’t put too many words on your home page (remember, it’s just like a window display).  The goal is to engage a visitor, not tell them everything you do right up front. 

Think about how you’d like people to “walk” through your site – create specific “sections” so people can find what they need right up front so they don’t have to “hunt around.”  Think about what action your visitors should take and help guide them from the home page, to some interesting content, to some deeper ideas, and then to an action step.  

Take a look at how our website is set up (www.sinatraco.com).  You’ll notice three specific services across the top (Website Design & Development, Marketing Services & Branding, and Ecommerce), and very few words.  We’ve also added some links down the left side for easy access to key information. 

Also notice that we have many services, and few of them are listed on the home page.  The key is to keep your home page simple and uncluttered, while providing some specific entry points.  Visitors can see right up front some samples of our work and some testimonials and not much more.  As people dive deeper into the site they’ll gain access to more and more information that will help to meet their needs. 

Our goal is to have visitors fill out the “Free Consultation” form so we have a button on every page that leads to this form.  We provide many links to interesting content found in this blog.  Our hope is people will read this blog and gain a sense of what we’re about, how we approach web design, and acquire some helpful ideas that may impact their business in a positive way. 

Conclusion

I think the most important element of any home page is simplicity and focus.  Let people know who you are and what you’re about right up front (with as few words as possible) and then provide a few specific entry points into the site.  Too many choices on the home page will often lead to confusion, which will lead to visitors bouncing to a different site.  Check your web logs to see what percentage of people are only viewing your home page.  If more than 50% of your visitors ”bounce” off your home page you may want to consider redesigning your site and making it more specific and simple. 

If you have any questions feel free to fill out our form: http://sinatraco.com/consult.html 

Here are a few links to explore:

Home:  An Affordable Website Home Page

Design Choices:  Affordable Website Design and Color Schemes

Articles: 

The Affordable Website Problem

Why So Affordable?

How the Affordable Website Works

Affordable Website Service

Feedback:  Contact Us Form

We have found that this assumption is often seriously off base and the statistics prove this true.  Ask your new clients if they visited your web site and you may be surprised by how many did.  I just saw a statistic in Entrepreneur Magazine that said, “41% of consumers say a frustrating online experience would make them less likely to shop at a retailer’s physical store.”  I believe this statistic also holds true for any local business, not just retail.

Other statistics from SEO RoundTable (8/22/07) show a significant trend toward local searches:

• 2.2 Billion monthly Internet queries have a local intent
• 82% of local searches resulted in contact with a local business
• 93% of local search conversions (sales) take place offline

Clearly, there is a “Silent War” taking place among local businesses.  People are looking at company web sites before they decide to contact the company – this is especially true with the 20 and 30 somethings.  Sadly, many small business owners have no idea how many people are visiting their web site, and don’t understand the value of a strong web property.

Importantly, your prospective clients have access to your web site as well as all your competitors.  If they don’t gain a good impression from your web site or find what they need quickly, they’ll visit your competitor’s web site a few seconds later and you’ll be none the wiser.  It is a ”Silent War” because a tremendous amount of business is won and lost via the Internet and company owners often have no idea. 

I would recommend that you install Google Analytics on your web site and look at your traffic each week.  Check out how many people are visiting, from where they’re visiting, what pages their visiting, and how long they’re spending on your web site.  While this data sounds complex Google has done an excellent job presenting all this data via graphs and charts.  Plus, it’s a free service from Google.

Also, check out your competitors web sites – does your web site measure up?  does it communicate effectively?  does it present the same kind of information?  This kind of competitive analysis is essential because often your web site will be your first impression.  If it looks amateurish, so will you.  If it’s hard to navigate and looks “low-end,” so will you. 

The local search trend has grown significantly in the past few years.  The way in which people interact with companies is evolving quickly and includes research on the web. If your clients/customers are not finding you via your web site now, they certainly will in the months and years ahead. 

Presented with this information, some company owners overreact and go overboard with their web site.  I worked with one small company who was spending tens of thousands of dollars per year on web development.  We were able to lower this expense significantly and provide a more professional web presence. 

You don’t need a high-end web site with all the gadgets and animation.  You simply need a professional web site that is easy to navigate and communicates what you’re about.  I would recommend that you avoid both low-end ”create your own” web site software as well as high-end Flash web sites.  Find a place in the middle and recognize the web site is only one part of an overall brand-building strategy. 

If you have any questions about south of Boston web design or marketing feel free to request a free consultation from our corporate site:  www.sinatraco.com  

It’s amazing how quickly search engines respond to new content.  A few years ago it would take months to get listed anywhere.  I remember submitting my site to Yahoo! and it took 3+ months to see the site anywhere.  Also, changes to the site would take weeks to get re-cataloged.  Technology has come a long way in a very short period of time.  The algorithms used by search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN are incredibly sophisticated these days. 

In fact, it’s my understanding that part of the reason Google is digitizing so many classic books is so they have a massive sample of quality content on which to test algorithms in order to identify strong content.  As these search engine algorithms become more sophisticated it will be far more difficult to “trick” them into getting web sites listed higher.  For example, when the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry began you could put hundreds of your key words at the bottom of each page and make them the same color as the background – they would not be seen by visitors, but search engine spiders would catalog them and your ranking would skyrocket. 

Those days are long gone – thank goodness!  Try that “trick” today and you’ll quickly be banned and penalized and your ranking will drop.  Now, it’s more about being a good Internet citizen as I recently discussed in a post.  

Back to the reason I posted these comments:  the speed and dynamic nature of local search placement.  After I realized we dropped in our Google ranking, I decided to do some more research and post more content.  Here’s the amazing part of the story – within 20 minutes Google already cataloged the page and the new post was listed in the Search results.  Our ranking for ”South of Boston Web Design” jumped to #11, and we were back to #2 for “South of Boston Marketing.”  I find it breathtaking how far search technology has come in such a short period of time. 

My recommendation to any company South of Boston is to find a way to add valuable content to your web site (perhaps use a blog like we have done here), partner with other businesses (cross link between web sites as much as possible), and don’t let your web site become static.  If it does, you’ll drop in the search rankings, but more importantly, you’ll become less relevant to those visiting your web site.  The Internet is dynamic and alive, so use your web site as a tool, not a brochure.
  

Here’s the rub: Web site designers are first and foremost artists.  They’re primary goal is to create beauty.  Yet, the Internet is about sharing information.  The webs’ primary purpose is to deliver relevant information, regardless of how this information is packaged.  Several years ago I owned a self-help web site that was truly pathetic from a design perspective - it was built on some lame template, had no images, and the layout was horrible.  Yet, within a year or so I sold over 1,500 packages that helped people live a better life and had over 6,000 subscribers to my newsletter. 

I then had a professional web site designer redevelop my web site.  I thought the conversion rates would increase and more people would sign up for my newsletter.  Nothing changed.  The conversion rates remained the same and so did the percentage of people signing up for the newsletter.  The fact is, it’s not so much about web design as it usability and valuable information.  

Conversely, a small business needs to create a professional image.  I recently met someone at a conference, looked the company up on the web, thought the presentation was horrible, and decided not to do business with them.  The key is to balance usability, content, and professional web site design.  The key to success is rarely one element (unless you visit www.craigslist.com, of course, which has little to do with anything graphical).        

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), content is king along with inbound links.  When it comes to giving a professional image, design is essential, and a poor design can cost you business without even knowing it.  When it comes to presenting vital information, usability is the essential ingredient (which is why Blogs end up doing so well in search engine marketing).

You’ll notice on our web site we use this blog to provide valuable design and marketing information to small businesses south of Boston, and we use the corporate web site (www.sinatraco.com) to present our web site design service and design samples.  Adding a blog to a web site design strategy is a great way to bridge the gap between valuable information and a professional image.  

Usability is also essential.  I found a great web site that has over 100 “best practice” usability tips (see link below).  Some of my favorites include:

9. Redundancy in Navigation. Navigation is fundamental to website development so redundancy assures users will find what they are looking for. Some may be attracted to images, some may wish a descriptive text link and some may wish to see an embedded link which assures them that what they are clicking is what they want. It never hurts to make it easy for the user to find their way around even if that means pointing them directly to what you think they may want.

From Schkecy

42. Keep everything close. No matter how complex your directory structure may be, there’s no reason any page should be more than three clicks away from the home page.

From Bob Gladstein aka qwerty
Raise My Rank SEO Services

49. Keep the page simple. Direct the readers eyes to the important parts of the page. Overloading the page headlines and links in confuses people.

50. Be careful with animations & marquees. They distract a reader from reading your content.

51. Make links obvious. Don’t use the same font settings and color to make links visible only on a mouse-over.

From Bernard Ertl
SEO Help – search engine optimization reference, tutorial and advice

Full list of 101 web site design usability tips can be found here:   

 http://www.keyrelevance.com/articles/usability-tips.htm

If you have any questions about south of Boston web design or marketing feel free to request a free consultation from our corporate site:  www.sinatraco.com