by Mary Killelea November 3, 2009  

Did you know?

  • 80% of users scan pages (users don’t read every word) - Lesson: Write for your audience and the medium in which you are delivering your message
  • Only 10% of people look at the web page below the fold. - Lesson: put your most important info on the top half of your page.
  • Users decide to stay or leave your page within 10-15 seconds - Lesson Make a good first impression and give them something good to keep them interested in staying on your site. (make your site sticky)

It’s important to have goals when creating your site:

 Company goals

  • know your company mission & vision
  • Is your goal Business to Consumer (B2C)  or Business to Business (B2B)

Define your website goals

  • do you want to increase sales?
  • do you want to build a list of leads?
  • do you want lots of traffic?
  • do you want to sell a service, product, share news or entertain?
  • what valuable web content will you share? white papers, ebook, blog articles, videos

 Provide value for your customers

  • figure out how you are gonna make your site sticky
  • what can you offer your visitors that your competitors can’t or aren’t
  • what are the benefits of your services, products,news or entertainment ?

Know which type of site you you should have to best suit your business goals.

  • static website
  • dynamic website
  • content management site
  • eCommerce site
  • flash website

Website Must haves:

  • professional, non distracting design, use a natural palette of colors, create a strong contrast between a pages background and it’s text, use an average of 3 different colors consistently throughout your site 
  • call to action
  • formatting - write for your audience and the medium
  • easy clean and clear navigation
  • strong enticing headlines (utilizing keywords)
  • rich interesting copy
  • current up to date info (never out of date info)
  • your page must load quickly
  • contact info
  • contact form
  • no pop ups
  • no frames
  • avoid distracting bells and whistles

Great resources for choosing colors for your site:

http://www.2createawebsite.com/design/color-psychology.html
http://www.avangate.com/articles/color-web-site_59.html

Great resource for designing the perfect “call to action button”
http://www.leemunroe.com/web-design-trends-call-to-action-signup-download-buttons/

  • color, location, language, size, and margins

,
Luv At