Customers have always judged companies by their appearance. Patrons at a restaurant will just the cleanliness of the kitchen by how clean the serving area is. Clients will judge the competency of a lawyer by his dress. The internet has not changed people’s basic notion: A business’s appearance is indicative of its service or product.
For many customers, the only aspect of a business they will see is the company’s website. In some cases, people will never see any other part of the business; in other cases, people will only see the website before deciding whether to hire a company or not.
A company’s website is its main store front. For many business’s, their fate rides on their website’s design. A good website design can increase sales, while a poor on will decrease sales. Here are four strategies that companies used to design sites well and increase their sales.
Design to Load Quickly
A website’s code must be written as efficiently as possible. The coding behind a site is its foundation. Upon this, everything else is built. The structure and writing of the code determines how quickly a site will load. Often, the difference between a well-written website and a poor one is only a fraction of a second, per mistake. But, these fractions add up to longer load times, and people have almost no patience for a website to load.
Redesigning a website for faster load times will keep internet surfers satisfied. Any page that loads slowly may cause a potential customer to lose interest and close their browser. This could be a lost sale.
Design for All Browsers
There are many internet browsers people use, and a website should be designed to load in all of these browsers. Some of the more common internet browsers are Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, but there are others as well. A site that cannot load properly in all of these browsers will not reach everyone that uses the internet. To reach the broadest customer base possible, a website should be designed to function properly in all browsers.
As Smartphones and IPhones increase in popularity, people are using small, mobile devices more often to browse the internet. A website should be designed not only to look normal in traditional browsers, but it also must have a .mobi site. These are mobile-formatted versions that people can use one their portable devices.
Design to Be Intuitive
Websites should be designed to be as user-friendly as possible. Navigating them should be intuitive and natural. Any confusing links or dead ends will frustrate customers and possibly cause them to close the window. A simple navigational system provides people with digital customer service.
Visually Attractive
When they are on the computer, most people do not read in depth. They internet is primarily a visual mode of communication. Images and videos are important. Even the text that is read should be made attractive. The font’s size, color and style should be considered during the design process. A website should be designed to be attractive. This will attract customers and create a professional impression, which can increase sales.
A website’s design is a company’s key to success. There are no perfect websites; every site can be improved. During redesigning, developers should consider the site’s load time, viability in various browsers, navigation and attractiveness. When these are all considered, a redesigned website can increase sales.
November 23, 2011 at 2:24 am | Website Design | No comment
It’s hard when you are setting up your website to know where to focus your efforts. In writing this little ebook I wanted to help small business owners understand the main things that make up a great website. They are mostly simple things and most of them are things that the small business owner themselves can influence or implement entirely themselves.
The book is also supported by our ‘website review checklist’ which allows the business operator to easily measure their site against the 8 features covered in the ebook.
I hope you enjoy the ebooks and if you do then please feel free to share them.
August 18, 2011 at 7:37 am | Website Design | No comment
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One of the great things about the modern web is small business owners can do more and more themselves. While a lot of business owners are in the habit of updating their sites themselves, when it comes to setting up the site originally it’s still fairly rare to go it alone. What is more rare is small business owners building their own sites that are actually good!
However it’s certainly possible and while there is an oversupply of free ‘website builders’ which only really help business owners build sites that do more harm than good, there are also some great tools available.
While the tools exist however, it seems there isn’t a lot of really straight forward instructions on how to go about it.This is the reason I wrote ‘How to build yourself a free world class website‘. It is designed to help small business owners who want to go it alone, not only build a site but build a world class one.
The ebook is supported by a number of WordPress training videos to provide you with a step by step run-down of exactly what you need to do. |
| Download now |
August 18, 2011 at 7:32 am | CMS, Website Design | No comment
Download now |
I wrote the Website Starter Guideto help small business owners who are just getting started and don’t really know where to start.the intention of the ebook is to provide small business owners with what I believe they need to succeed online and that is:
- A basic understanding of the fundamental aspects of getting up and running online
- Some help in choosing the right company for them to partner with.
Click on the left to download (no registration required) and please feel free to share this ebook if you find it useful.
I would also love you to comment below with any feedback or discussion points on the ebook. |
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August 18, 2011 at 6:52 am | Starter Guide | No comment
