Things to consider for a great web page

At my seminars or meeting people in all walks of life, the most common question I have been asked in the last 14 years is "what makes a web page?". As a Web designer we evaluate to your individual and/or business requirements to create a unique and relevant website that meets your vision. The analogy can be used on building a house, you need to demonstrate your vision, your ideas and work with an architect who can then capture that vision onto plans. It is no different in building a quality website where the 'architect' here is the website developer. The website must convey and demonstrate your vision otherwise you will have a website that seems distant from you and eventually you will lose interest and let it sit out in the background. The features that you need to think about for your website are: How does your website look? What do the graphics look like? How does it compare to your competitors? Is the presentation professional or is it amateurish? Does the website convey a message of trust i.e. would people feel comfortable in purchasing from your website? If your website has been gathering 'moths' for far too long, well maybe it is time to revisit it?

Some features of a great website? Firstly the website is clean and simple. The website must be easy to the eye and loads quickly. Secondly the content of the website has to be relevant to your market. Imagine and think of who your client is and what do they want from you? Simply stated, place yourself in their shoes. Provide credibility to your website by over-delivering and providing realistic and honest content. This will keep your customer at your website.

Your website must be easy to move around. Many times I have found myself looking for what a website offers and what the product pricing is. I'm highly unlikely to purchase from a website where I have to jump through hoops to see what I'm going to get. Getting your tabs and page links right is so important. Another must for your website is to have the important tabs above the fold. The Fold is the bottom of the screen. If you have a person looking for your product they tend not to read too much content unless it has already captivated them. Most people are unwilling to scroll down the screen to look for your tabs and your offerings! Think about how your website can be made easy for the lazy man to view and find your products!

Consider having a membership area on your website. You can make it affordable for your customers and it is a great way of keeping them up to date with new products/services etc. Have a site map. There are 2 types of site maps: one for us humans, and one for search engines. So, which one is most important? Search engines want to know what is on your site, its keywords and layout. This helps in quality scoring your website and referring your ideal customer to your website. A good site map can assist the search engines direct customers to the source your website! Remember to make your website compatible with all web browsers. You may like Firefox, but your customers might prefer Internet Explorer. If your website can only be seen in one browser then you are missing potential sales. Check that the photos on your website in a compressed format. If not, it can take minutes to download your landing pages. Most people won't stick around that long and leave your website before the full page has downloaded. People want what they want and they want it now! Your website should accommodate this.

As a website developer I always attach a tracking program to all websites we build or modify. This function provides statistics on the number of visitors to you website, the words they are using to search for your website/product, the length of time they are staying, what your most popular pages are. All these are important so that you know if something needs to be changed. Sometimes small adjustments can bring more traffic. These are only some of the small adjustments you need to make to make a great website. You can have an affordable website created for you using a website developer, which has all the qualities you need to own a professional website for your business.

Place your page tabs in two places. Top of the page and bottom of the page. By placing the page tabs in these two places we make it simpler for the web-surfer to determine what your site is about without moving around too much. The page tabs at the footer of the page will have links to terms of service, disclaimers and privacy page. Another important tab is the 'about us' page. Web-surfers are interested in finding out about the people behind the company, its product, how many people are involved their experience. This information assists clients in the buying decisions based on who you are and how you look. As customers cannot visit your physical store, they then want to visit your 'virtual' store. A 'contact us' page is also required. This page will highlight your phone number, fax number, email address, postal address and Skype address. The more options you provide your visitors to contact you the more confidence the customers have in you. Going that extra step by creating a blog page, where people can subscribe to, is an efficient model. The blog page provides information on the industry you are in, products, prices, packages. The blog page is an information page. Information that is relevant to your product and/or service. The blog page must be updated at least once per week preferably 2-3 times per week. The interesting part here is that Google and other search engines love new content.