1. Static 800×600 Box-Style Websites are out!
The static width websites that were created for 800×600 screens are by far today’s most qualifying feature for a new website. Having such a limited space in which to organize and display your content often forces you to fit the content to the page. It can even limit your creative freedom, and the ability for you to take full advantages of the variety of features available to you. Not only does it restrict valuable content from being provided to your viewers, but it is also very visually compact. Why restrict your viewers to such a small environment from which to gather valuable data about you, your business, or your products and services? New web standards show that standard monitor sizes are between 1024×768 and 1680×1050. In fact, if you’re doing business online, up to 95% of your target audience is using a monitor within those sizes. Five to ten years ago, it may have been a different story. Larger monitors were a luxury, and the standard was a much smaller resolution. However, it is important to consider what the majority of your viewers will be expecting in order to stay competitive in today’s online economy.
2. Flash as a Splash? Think again.
Although these can be very attractive and stylish, and can add a unique touch to your website, a Flash Animation as a splash page on your website greatly increases the “bounce rate” and diminishes “return visitors”. Bounce Rate is a term that is defined by how many people come to your site and leave shortly thereafter. They usually visit your homepage, and then based on a series of expectations and standards, the viewer chooses whether or not to continue to a second page within the website. There are a variety of factors that play into that choice, and one of the major issues contributing to high bounce rates is the time it takes for your page to load. Perhaps it’s better to think of your website like a TV Commercial. Companies pay thousands of dollars for a small block of time on the air. Every second must be carefully planned in order to maximize the Return on Investment (R.O.I) with that ad. Think of your splash page as being a small uninformative commercial before your own commercial. If I am a return visitor, I now have to watch your intro “commercial” every single time I visit the site. As a user, I am most likely going to find a company to use and return to based on the quality and presentation of content, a strong brand identity (logo, color scheme), and ease of navigation. In addition to alienating your viewers, Flash Animated Splash Screens make search engine indexing and optimization difficult, if not impossible.
3. Social Networking is your friend
Social networking has quickly become a vast new world of opportunity for a majority of online users. Almost every online user is either a member of, or has in some way participated in a social networking community.
According to Nielson Online, two-thirds of the world’s Internet population belongs to a social network and as of April 2009, the total minutes that individuals spent on social networking sites increased by 83 percent when compared with the same period a year ago. (source)
Craigslist, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, YouTube, WordPress, Blogger, etc… From the CEOs of big corporate companies to the ever-present online marketer, businesses and entrepreneurs have experience with, and use social networks on a regular basis. If social networking for the business becomes a widely used and successful marketing form (which it is), shouldn’t you consider adding that to your website? Almost all of these different social networks in some way offer you the capability to embed and display specific information in your website. With Twitter, you’re able to tap into your stream of posts and display them within a module on your website. You can add it to the sidebar on a blog, or even dedicate an entire page to your feeds (perhaps for multiple accounts?). Twitter is just one example of social networking that can be added to increase the overall user experience on your website. For an example of a site that we’ve designed that uses social networking, visit www.jeffrago.com
4. Multimedia can be overdone
I’m sure you’re familiar with the typical e-book/affiliate marketing sites that have 5 pages of content smashed together into one single column. There are usually a series of YouTube videos explaining their “big ideas” that help to break-up the content a bit, and a big red button to “sign-up”. In my mind, whether or not the affiliate program or e-book is actually valuable to me, I instantly classify this site as “Spam”, and hit the close button. Why? As mean as this sounds, if you (the website owner) have a “Million Dollar System”, why does your website look like a 3rd grader put it together? It seems like they put more work into the content of their presentation, rather than what makes that presentation something that people want to spend time viewing. That same concept carries true for all websites. When used strategically and in moderation, multimedia marketing tools (Video, Audio, Animations, etc) can add a considerable amount of value to your website. You may have the best YouTube video in the world, but depending on the quality of the website design, and the practicality of the layout all affect a users decision on whether or not to hit the “close” button.
5. Communication is the key
Did you know that there are a variety of tools out there that allow you to instantly interact with your website’s viewers? Applications such as Zopim and LivePerson give you the ability to chat with users who visit your site. Zopim even has an incredible list of features that makes it one of the top communication tools for website viewer engagement. In fact, I liked it so much that I installed it on our site! (view the bottom right of Graphics.ms). Needless to say, communicating with your site viewers is one sure-fire way you can actively engage them with your services or products.
6. Put down the blog, and back away slowly!
A website can and should have a blog. But when a website is a blog, the first thing you are telling your viewers is that you are about as significant as a classified ad in the newspaper. Perhaps you are an independent business person or entrepreneur, and you don’t necessarily think you need a custom-designed website. Well first of all, as much as you want to build credibility with your clients by having a physical store or office location, the concept of individuality and distinction make a big difference online as well. There is one specific website that I have in mind, but to save the person’s identity, I’ll do my best to describe it to you.
To start, let me first tell you that the website belongs to a real estate company. They are using Blogger (a popular blogging platform) as the service provider for their website. The website is 2 columns wide, with content that takes up over 4 pages in length (all on the homepage!). The 2 columns of the website expand in width to adjust to the width of the browser, which when viewed full-size on a larger monitor, makes content very difficult to read. The right column is dedicated to the various different sections of the site such as Navigation and Social Networking. Inside this column are sections titled: “Twitter Updates”, “Recently Closed Properties”, “Services We Offer”, “Subscribe”, “About Us”, and “Blog Archives”. The left column is filled with large images of properties, and a very basic display of information pertaining to those properties. Needless to say, the company itself has a lot of valuable information. However, by using the blog as a website, they have almost completely lost any marketing potential. That’s why it is important to understand what a blog is, and how it should be used. Sites like WordPress and Blogger are both blogging engine websites. Both can be used to make a custom website as well. However, in an effort to save on costs, most individuals choose to use the FREE Templates that the provider has to offer. These templates were not created for serious business use, nor were they made by any means to make you “look good”. Chances are that there are also hundreds, if not thousands of other blog members who are using the same exact FREE Template.
7. Maximize the Marketability of your Website Real Estate
On the first point I made in this article, the old box-style 800×600 websites were shown to be outdated and limiting to the user experience. On the other side of the spectrum, a website with an overly abundant amount of information also restricts its potential marketing value. That is why it is extremely important to organize and group content into distinct categories and sections, and simply link to them from the homepage. I’ve seen a great deal of websites that treat the home page as a place to bombard their viewers with as much information as humanly possible. In such cases, I find myself skimming content (in which case I’m missing potentially valuable info), and shortly after becoming lost in my search for what I’m looking for and leaving.
There are a variety of different ways that can be used to help maximize the marketability of your website real estate. The best way to do so is to treat your homepage like a Table of Contents. First, you must decide on the top 3-5 most marketable features for your company. If you own a line of products, Featured Products, New Items, Best Sellers, and Customer Feedback might be the most relevant for you to make a sale. If you are a service provider, Industries, Testimonials, White Papers, and Portfolio (examples of your work) could be the best options to turn a visitor into a lead. Whatever the top 3-5 marketable features are for your company, your homepage should in some way call attention to those areas.
Examples of this with our clients:
Sliding Carousel Banner (Cvisontech.com Top)
Cvision is a software development company specializing in OCR tools and document processing applications. Along with their line of software products, presenting viewers with quick options to access or purchase the software are two of their most marketable features. By grouping the top-sellers of their product line into 3 slides, and providing options for accessing and downloading on each slide, we’ve tripled the marketability of that area while using only 1/3rd of the space. In addition to taking full advantage of the homepage’s real estate, we’ve also increased the click-through rate for the website. Simply put, more viewers will view more pages, stay longer, and have an increased chance of becoming a customer.
Client Logos (Cvisontech.com Bottom)
There is no better way to instantly build credibility and trust in your company than through the display of high-profile/recognizable client logos on your website. It shows new visitors to the site that you have a product or service that is widely used and well-respected in your industry. With a rotating panel of client logos, you can add an infinite amount of your clients without taking up a lot of space. However, showing your users your client logos should be done in moderation in order to avoid appearing overly reliant upon their success to drive sales. Basically, (from the viewer’s perspective) it’s nice to know you have a high-profile client list, but there’s no need to show off! A viewer isn’t there to learn about the people you’ve already done business with, they are there to be the ones who do business with you.
Section Lead-Ins
A great way to maximize the marketing potential of content is to offer small “lead-ins” to other parts of the site. One good way of doing this is by taking the first few lines of a page’s content, adding it to the homepage, and adding a “read more” link next to it. You can repeat the process over and over without much concern for overwhelming your viewers. Another good technique is to emphasize specific keywords within your site’s content with a hyperlink. For example: “Our company is dedicated to the success of our clients. Our wide range of services and custom solutions…”. These are just a few examples of how to maximize the marketability of your website’s content.
Summary
In order to create a positive user experience, keep users on the site longer, and make sure that they return, it is important to consider the expectations of your end users. Remember that on average, you have about 15-20 seconds to convince a user whether or not to stay on your site. They have the power of Google at their fingertips to find any number of companies in your industry that can give them what they are expecting. I hope this article helps you to identify the trends and features that your website users have come to expect, and make you more aware of the negative consequences they can have if not utilized properly.
For more examples of the work we’ve done for our clients, view our portfolio here.
No comments:
Post a Comment