12 Tips for Standout Website Design
12 Tips for Standout Website Design
1. Know your site’s objectives – The success of your company’s website should, at the end of the day, hinge on how well it achieves your objectives. To help with identifying your website’s objectives, here’s a starter list of the most common ones:
• Generate more qualified traffic
• Produce more leads
• Sell more products
• Educate buyers
• Generate passive income
• Increase employee productivity.
Once you identify all the objectives for your site, see if you can’t prioritize what the top three objectives are. Keeping these top three objectives for your website in the forefront, you’ll do a far better job of designing a website that achieves your objectives.
2. Make your online identity synch up with your offline one – Most small businesses have spent countless hours and dollars developing an offline company identity. This identity, found in existing signage, PowerPoint presentations or brochures, may have already established an image in the minds of visitors who land on your site. That’s why you should work hard to incorporate logos, icons, colors and typestyles from your offline identity into your online one. To drive this point home, picture a visitor to your site with one of your brochures in her hand. Now, imagine her reaction if she sees one identity reflected in the brochure and an entirely different in your website.
3. Identify the key three tasks for your site - A short time ago, I was hired to audit a client’s website. When I met with the owner, I asked him to name the top three things he wanted visitors to do after arriving at his website. He said he wanted them to 1) place an order for his spa covers 2) understand why his spa covers were superior to the competitors’ and 3) order accessory items. But when I visited his site for the first time, I couldn’t see how to do any of these three tasks. For your small business website to succeed, first identity your Key Three tasks and then make each one blindingly obvious. Use whatever design ideas you and your website designer can come up with (i.e. box them in, shade them a different color, use bursts), but just make sure they’re as obvious as the nose on your face.
4. Draw visitors in with your first two paragraphs of copy - Based on studies, you’ve got between 15 and 30 seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your site, so your first 100 words of copy have got to be compelling. I once heard a webmaster refer to these first 100 words as your “opening statement”. And much like the lawyer arguing in court, if your opening statement doesn’t convince your visitor, you’ll fail to win your case.
5. Consider including a search box - According to website marketing guru Jakob Nielsen, 50% of all website visitors are search-dominant; meaning they arrive at a website fully expecting to search its content using a search box. So, if your site contains many pages (over 100), articles, white papers, or back issues of newsletters, provide a search box that’s easy to find and use.
6. Use a tagline - Good sites use a tagline to communicate what their site is all about, and place it inside the front page header for maximum exposure. Some of the world’s most popular websites use this approach including:
Ebay – “you can get it on Ebay”.
YouTube – “broadcast yourself”.
MySpace – “a place for friends”.
If you’re wondering how to develop a distinctive tagline for your site, try my book Stand Out from the Crowd; Secrets to Crafting a Winning Company Identity which features a step-by-step approach to generate taglines for any business.
7. Keep the web page layout consistent throughout your site - I disagree with those who say the home page template should differ from the site’s interior pages. In my mind, all pages, images, elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should stay consistent throughout your site. Consistency may be the “hobgoblin of little minds” (Ralph Waldo Emerson), but it’s the hallmark of any standout website.
8. Keep text short - Recent statistics show that people read from computer screens 25% slower than from paper. To address this, break up your small business’ website copy into small blocks, use shorter paragraphs, lead off text sections with subheads, and occasionally use bullet pointed lists.
9. Provide a FAQ section - For recurring questions, a FAQ section can be a godsend. A FAQ will also help first time visitors get acquainted with your company and its philosophy. But more importantly, a FAQ section will build trust and credibility in the mind of a visitor by helping them answer their own questions.
10. Hang sales tools off your site - One of my larger clients hangs its latest PowerPoint sales presentations off its website. That way, one of its sales reps in Boston can give a product demo to a prospect in Wyoming without either of them leaving their offices. If your small business is national in scope, think of the travel savings if you adopt this approach.
11. Provide contact information on every page - Many times buyers print off web pages for further review. Then, they end up contacting your company from that piece of paper. That’s why it’s so important to include your company’s address, phone numbers and email at the bottom of each web page. As a marketer, your job is to make it as easy to do business with your company as possible. This is one way.
12. Increase media access to your company with a press room – If one objective of your site is to generate media coverage, consider adding a self-serve “Press Room” to the site. I was once emailed by a reporter who had, unbeknownst to me, downloaded one of my marketing articles and my biographical information from the “Press Kit” section of my website (www.emergemarketing.com) . She then emailed me, seeking my permission to reprint the article, just hours from her deadline. The more accessible your website is to the media, the more your company will be written about.
Follow these twelve tips and you’ll be well on your way to a standout website design.
12 Tips for Standout Website Design - To learn more about this author, visit Jay Lipe's Website.
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If you want your small business website to stand out from the crowd, follow these practical website design tips. If you do, you’ll harvest more traffic, higher conversions and more sales from your site.
1. Know your site’s objectives – The success of your company’s website should, at the end of the day, hinge on how well it achieves your objectives. To help with identifying your website’s objectives, here’s a starter list of the most common ones:
• Generate more qualified traffic
• Produce more leads
• Sell more products
• Educate buyers
• Generate passive income
• Increase employee productivity.
Once you identify all the objectives for your site, see if you can’t prioritize what the top three objectives are. Keeping these top three objectives for your website in the forefront, you’ll do a far better job of designing a website that achieves your objectives.
2. Make your online identity synch up with your offline one – Most small businesses have spent countless hours and dollars developing an offline company identity. This identity, found in existing signage, PowerPoint presentations or brochures, may have already established an image in the minds of visitors who land on your site. That’s why you should work hard to incorporate logos, icons, colors and typestyles from your offline identity into your online one. To drive this point home, picture a visitor to your site with one of your brochures in her hand. Now, imagine her reaction if she sees one identity reflected in the brochure and an entirely different in your website.
3. Identify the key three tasks for your site - A short time ago, I was hired to audit a client’s website. When I met with the owner, I asked him to name the top three things he wanted visitors to do after arriving at his website. He said he wanted them to 1) place an order for his spa covers 2) understand why his spa covers were superior to the competitors’ and 3) order accessory items. But when I visited his site for the first time, I couldn’t see how to do any of these three tasks. For your small business website to succeed, first identity your Key Three tasks and then make each one blindingly obvious. Use whatever design ideas you and your website designer can come up with (i.e. box them in, shade them a different color, use bursts), but just make sure they’re as obvious as the nose on your face.
4. Draw visitors in with your first two paragraphs of copy - Based on studies, you’ve got between 15 and 30 seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your site, so your first 100 words of copy have got to be compelling. I once heard a webmaster refer to these first 100 words as your “opening statement”. And much like the lawyer arguing in court, if your opening statement doesn’t convince your visitor, you’ll fail to win your case.
5. Consider including a search box - According to website marketing guru Jakob Nielsen, 50% of all website visitors are search-dominant; meaning they arrive at a website fully expecting to search its content using a search box. So, if your site contains many pages (over 100), articles, white papers, or back issues of newsletters, provide a search box that’s easy to find and use.
6. Use a tagline - Good sites use a tagline to communicate what their site is all about, and place it inside the front page header for maximum exposure. Some of the world’s most popular websites use this approach including:
Ebay – “you can get it on Ebay”.
YouTube – “broadcast yourself”.
MySpace – “a place for friends”.
If you’re wondering how to develop a distinctive tagline for your site, try my book Stand Out from the Crowd; Secrets to Crafting a Winning Company Identity which features a step-by-step approach to generate taglines for any business.
7. Keep the web page layout consistent throughout your site - I disagree with those who say the home page template should differ from the site’s interior pages. In my mind, all pages, images, elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should stay consistent throughout your site. Consistency may be the “hobgoblin of little minds” (Ralph Waldo Emerson), but it’s the hallmark of any standout website.
8. Keep text short - Recent statistics show that people read from computer screens 25% slower than from paper. To address this, break up your small business’ website copy into small blocks, use shorter paragraphs, lead off text sections with subheads, and occasionally use bullet pointed lists.
9. Provide a FAQ section - For recurring questions, a FAQ section can be a godsend. A FAQ will also help first time visitors get acquainted with your company and its philosophy. But more importantly, a FAQ section will build trust and credibility in the mind of a visitor by helping them answer their own questions.
10. Hang sales tools off your site - One of my larger clients hangs its latest PowerPoint sales presentations off its website. That way, one of its sales reps in Boston can give a product demo to a prospect in Wyoming without either of them leaving their offices. If your small business is national in scope, think of the travel savings if you adopt this approach.
11. Provide contact information on every page - Many times buyers print off web pages for further review. Then, they end up contacting your company from that piece of paper. That’s why it’s so important to include your company’s address, phone numbers and email at the bottom of each web page. As a marketer, your job is to make it as easy to do business with your company as possible. This is one way.
12. Increase media access to your company with a press room – If one objective of your site is to generate media coverage, consider adding a self-serve “Press Room” to the site. I was once emailed by a reporter who had, unbeknownst to me, downloaded one of my marketing articles and my biographical information from the “Press Kit” section of my website (www.emergemarketing.com) . She then emailed me, seeking my permission to reprint the article, just hours from her deadline. The more accessible your website is to the media, the more your company will be written about.
Follow these twelve tips and you’ll be well on your way to a standout website design.
12 Tips for Standout Website Design - To learn more about this author, visit Jay Lipe's Website.
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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