Some business owners plan to use their website to acquire customers or generate leads and expect it to act as a 24/7 sales person. Other business owners plan to use their website as more of a secondary marketing tool, a place to send prospects after they have made contact through a face-to-face meeting or a phone call. Either way, your website is going to account for a percentage of your annual budget.

If you plan to use your site as a secondary marketing tool, then you may only need a static website. Static websites are usually under 15 pages and do not include a content management system. It is like an online brochure. You will want it to have a polished, professional look because it does represent your business, but you may not need any interactive features. It is simply a place prospective customers can go to learn more about your business and decide if they wish to contact you. Make sure that the graphics and colors are impressive and that you have the right look and feel because your site could be the determining factor in your prospective customer deciding to go with you or not.

If you plan to use your website as a primary marketing tool, then obviously you will want to allocate a greater percentage of your advertising budget towards it. You will probably want some interactive features such as a contact form or a search feature which will make the cost of your site go up, but if you plan to use your site as a marketing tool, you must invest the money to get it right, otherwise you will convert very few visitors into customers.

Clarify your goals as a business

Consider the following questions when thinking about the goals for your Web site.

What is the purpose of your site?
Try to express the purpose of your site in a sentence or short paragraph. If you are clear about the purpose of your Web site, it will also be clear for your visitors. By defining the purpose of your site you also ensure that the Web is the right medium to achieve your goals.

Who are you trying to reach with your site?
A Web site should be designed for the typical user, yet it is often designed for those in charge of creating it. Be sure you have an understanding of the audience for your Web site, and keep the typical user in mind as you create and organize your site.

How will you know if your site is successful?
Defining specific objectives for your Web site will help keep you on target as you organize and create the site, and will allow you to design a Web site that works.

Will your site be updated? How often? By whom?
If your site includes news or information that periodically changes you must be prepared to update it regularly. Consider the cost, in both money and time, involved in keeping the site current.

Will the site grow?
Are you providing a fixed amount of information or will additions be made over time? This is especially important to consider early in the design process so that your site will have room to grow without needing a complete redesign.

How long will this site be posted?
Is your site only for use for a limited period – say for a school term – or will it be posted indefinitely as an information source? How long will your information be interesting and useful?

Choosing a designer

When you contact a designer to create your website, make sure they take the time to sit down with you and get to know you and your business. You will want someone who understands how you plan to use your website. After all, you don’t need an expensive custom-designed site with a plethora of interactive features if you’re planning to use your site as an online brochure. If you plan to use your site as a primary marketing tool, then it needs to have all the necessary features to convert prospects into customers.

Here are some basic elements of good design:

Text

Background does not interrupt the text

Text is big enough to read, but not too big

The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear

Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen

Navigation

Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use

Navigation is consistent throughout web site

Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the site they are currently on

Frames, if used, are not obtrusive

A large site has an index or site map

Links

Link colors coordinate with page colors

Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor

Graphics

Buttons are not big

Every graphic has an alt label

Every graphic link has a matching text link

Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors

Animated graphics turn off by themselves

General Design

Pages download quickly

First page and home page fit into 800 x 600 pixel space

All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 800 x 600 pixels

Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text

Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages

REMEMBER:  Your home page is important
The opening page to your site, or home page, is very important. It is a combination of cover, flap, and table of contents for your site. It explains the purpose of your site, draws the user, explains how the site is organized, and helps her find the information she needs as quickly as possible. It is good to include a list of links to the most requested pages on the site to help your user navigate through your site.

Watch For an Article Next Month On Google Rankings………see you next month  CDT

Your logo says everything about your business. Nothing beats a great, professionally designed logo to establish a brand. Without a great logo, you have no identity with your business name. Identity is everything in the world of business.

A nifty looking business logo is just not enough if you cannot have it printed nicely and clearly on your stationary or business card. Some of the things that make a great business logo is:

Vector Designed: A vector logo is one that will never distort. With a vector format logo you can make it as small as a pin cap or as big as a billboard and the logo will never distort. It is a key element for screen printing and stationary.

Visibility: Stand out from the crowd, its surroundings, and competition. A memorable identification is necessary for a great business logo.

Simplicity: A logo emblem, symbol, or illustration that is easy to memorize. It should never be to complex. The logo has to be easily recognized and identified.

Slogans: If you are using a slogan it should be catchy and easy to remember also just like the emblem. If you are not using a slogan don’t worry its not necessary. However, don’t add a slogan because it looks good – add one because it will help you market better.

Timeless: A great business logo design stands past its time frame. The user should not be able to figure out when the logo is made. In other words this business logo design should look good still five, ten, or fifteen years from now.

Color: Selecting the proper colors for a logo design can make or break a logo. Each color stands for another meaning in the real world. For example red might stand for heat, passion, love, desire, danger, etc. Keep the colors appropriate to your business.

There are many search engine optimization companies out there to choose from, but how do you know which is the one for you. There is a very good article presented by Google talking about the proper areas to look for in a SEO optimizer for hire. This article also gives SEO optimizer’s pointers on certain areas of optimization. Here is the article for reference. Google Information for Webmasters

The information provided here is for those in search for SEO to be aware of companies who tend to sell the easy and less effective ways of SEO to customers. It has found that some SEO companies might be selling their services under keywords that are rarely or never searched. The proper approach for a SEO optimizer is to choose a broad keyword that provides optimal phrases to be searched so the ranking can be based on multiple phrases instead of one single keyword. There are some companies that are using full phrases instead of broad keywords to optimize web pages. The problem is that these phrases are rarely or never searched and are being use to sell ineffective SEO.

In order to avoid this problem, when you are given the keywords by your SEO Company, ask to have the keywords run through their keyword analyzer to show how many times the keyword is searched daily or monthly. This will show you if they are optimizing your site under a well searched keyword. Also ask to see a report of your keyword’s competitors on Google or Yahoo search engines. The SEO Company should be able to tell you what your web site is up against. They should be able to break down the Optimization strength of your competition and tell you what will be needed for your site to rank above them and a virtual time frame. A knowledgeable SEO Company should be able to give all this information and analysis to you.

If you want to start getting better search engine rankings on your site, please watch this video on SEO Basics with Matt Cutts from Google.

What do I need on my brochure/flyer to make it effective

Make sure you understand your target audience. Come up with a concept that will suit your target audience. Go to a place that has lots of brochures or flyers, like a travel store and take a look at what you pick up to read. What caught your eye? Why did you pick that brochure up instead of another one?

The cover: The cover has to have a strong message. You have to have a call to action on the front cover. A reason for your customer to turn the page.

Easy on the eyeballs: From the concept to the colours, the brochure needs to appeal to the eyes. If it is all choppy or disjointed, it is hard to read. Right? Remember what you learned in school: “Keep it simple”

Even if a client doesn’t read the whole brochure or flyer, they need to be able to get the idea from just simple glancing through it.

Contact us for a free quote on your design.