When Bit-Wizards opened for business in early 2000, many small businesses had little or no web presence at all. I began designing websites in 2002 and a lot has changed since then. Screen sizes are much larger (and flatter), there are many different web browsers, and broadband has increased the number of people online exponentially. 
Today, businesses of all sizes are expected to have a website but few can say they know for sure it is effective. Your business is competing for attention with many others offering the same or similar products and services. Does your website standout or is it passed over as potential customers click on the websites of your competitors?
There are a few basic guidelines that every business website should follow in order to be effective. While a do-it-yourself-solution is cheaper, it usually falls short of these goals.
Planning and Goals
There should be significant thought put into your plan to launch a new or redesign an existing website. Clearly define the purpose of your website. It’s not enough to have a website for the sake of having one. Sometimes, it’s actually worse to have a bad website than none at all. Be specific when creating your goals.
Sometimes this takes getting consultation from an experienced web design firm. Part of our process involves sitting down with our client and getting the goals in place – before we ever think about the design. Some goals that businesses consider are obtaining leads, selling a specific number of products in a month, or getting a certain number of website-driven phone calls in a given week. Any of these goals should be followed with some form of measurement so you can gauge the effectiveness of your website.
Search Engine Optimization / Marketing
In order to meet your goals, you first need to attract attention. A good design is nice, but if no one knows your site exists, what good is it? There is a lot that goes into SEO / SEM but it is one of the most neglected parts of planning a website project. Optimizing your website begins with creating good content that makes sense when a human reads it.
A good mix of relevant keywords with internal links combined with proper code and a navigation system that is easy for search bots to crawl are the basics missed by most designers. The other mistake is guessing what keywords to use. Keyword research takes time and often reveals that the keywords you though someone would use to find your site are not going to get you the results you are looking for.
Design
What is it about us that reduces our attention span to that of a goldfish when we are online? A good design keeps this in mind by providing clear, concise design elements and navigation with a clear path to your call to action. A home page that makes its purpose known to visitors within the first 8 seconds reduces bounce rate (visitors who land on the home page and navigate away to another website).
Obviously you want your site to look good, but the graphics and the style should be tailored to your audience. If your target market is conservative small business owners, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a lot of flashy graphics and loud colors. Animation on business sites should be used sparingly as it is costly to develop and adds to the time it takes a page to load.
Good Content Rules
The last piece of this puzzle is arguably the most important. Good content starts with planning and evaluating your company’s message. A good starting point is existing marketing materials and then incorporating other parts of your company’s services, products, and history into the site’s call to action plan.
Properly researched and written copy along with proper layout and use of colors draws visitors in from search results pages and holds their attention as they browse your site.
Making your site interactive with features such as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), support or chat, mailing lists, comment areas, calendars, and forms get visitors involved and increases the success of your site. Properly name pages help visitors get a glimpse of what awaits them before they click on a menu item. Good use of images, icons, and graphics work to enhance your page copy but should not be the focal point. Images can work against you by confusing your visitors. For example, you wouldn’t use an image of a sunset on a page that talks about an indoor topic..
Lastly, avoid redundant statements like “Welcome to our website” and always, always, always check for spelling and grammar errors before publishing any new content to your website.
Conclusion
There are other important things to consider like a good domain name, building quality inbound links, and keeping your site updated with fresh copy through news and blog articles.
A lot goes into creating and maintaining an effective business website. Get these basics right and your customers will begin to regard your website as something of great value, which is the first step towards getting results.
