Making the Most of Your Web Site

An effective web site provides useful, timely information, and portrays your company as professional, capable and organized. If you’re thinking of creating (or overhauling) a web site, make the commitment to build an attractive, informative, carefully-planned site, and keep it updated!

Planning a New Web Site

Even if you’re hiring someone to create your site, you need to do some homework first. Write down the answers to these questions. What are your goals for the web site? What do you want it to accomplish? Who is your target audience? What would they want to know?

Do Some Research

Print out copies of sites you like, making notes as to what you like about them. This will help you form an idea about how you want your site to be organized.

Outline Your Site

Imagine your site as a pyramid; visualize the most important stuff at the top (your home page). Less important information will occupy the lower tiers (pages). Jot down a simple written outline to organize the information you'd like to have in your site. This will help you structure your home page, and give you an idea how many pages you'll need.

Write Your Text (Content)

The next step is to develop the content for each page in your site. Keep your goals in mind. If you're hiring a writer, gather some printed info about your business to get him/her started. The writer might want to interview you to get more info. When writing for the web, use plain English—this is not the place for stuffiness!

Keep Your Content Brief

In theory, your web pages could scroll endlessly. Don’t do this; people are impatient. Keep the text as brief as possible, and divide information among several linked pages so the visitor can choose his or her own path.

Make Sure the Site Accomplishes Its Purpose

Focus on information that's useful to your web visitors. Tell them how you can help make their jobs easier, improve their lives, give them great benefits, etc. Anticipate and answer questions your visitors might have. Lead them to take action.

Make it Useful

The best sites include info on helpful topics, “How-To” articles, FAQs, etc. This buys you credibility as an expert, and lets people know you’re interested in more than just selling to them. Use a different type of link or button to call attention to these “feature” type items.

Include links to other sites your visitors might find useful, but put them on lower-level pages. This way you won’t encourage people to leave your site until they’ve already seen most of it.

Keep it Fresh!

Update your site quarterly, at least. Add new articles or info to give people a reason to come back. Don’t put a “last updated” line on your site unless you update often (every day/week).

Tips for a Better Web Site

Make sure the critical information on your home page fits neatly into a rectangle of 640 x 460 pixels. Ideally this page should not need to scroll.
Make the site easy to navigate. Give visual clues to show people where they are within the site.
Never make your viewers scroll sideways!
If you provide an email link, be sure to respond promptly to all incoming messages.
Don’t go overboard with graphics. Pages should download quickly. Avoid gimmicks (animation, sound, etc.) unless they enhance your message.
Provide contact information in an easy-to-find place, maybe in a footer on each page.
Use a spell checker. Typos make you look unprofessional.
Promote your site! Register with search engines. Include your url on your business cards, ads, flyers, etc. Send postcards to tell people about your site. Try Google adwords for a cheap, easy "pay-per-click" ad system.

Can You Do it Yourself?

If all you need is a simple site with a few pages, you can probably build it yourself. If you don’t have time, or if you’d like a more polished look, you can hire a web designer. If you need databases, forms or other special features, you’ll need to hire a web design company that can also do programming.

How Much Does a Web Site Cost?

There is a tremendous variation in the cost, quality and complexity of a web site. For $250 you can probably get a very basic web page, or a prefab design (you supply the text). Most small sites cost a thousand to several thousand dollars. Complex sites with forms or custom programming are more expensive. Shop around! Give each candidate an outline of what you want for your site so you get accurate cost estimates. Make sure you understand what you're getting for your money. And remember, you’ll also have to pay for domain registration and web hosting.