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Published Article
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| Ten Basic
Steps For Building A Web Site That Works |
| 1. |
Assemble
a web site development plan that is integrated with your
overall marketing processes; the content should be
consistent with offline materials, the graphics/images
don't have to be identical with traditional media, but
should be consistent with your overall branding, style
guide, usage of colors etc.
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| 2. |
Hire a
web site design firm that understands your market position
and one that won't get "geek crazy" - meaning
they are so in love with their own design capabilities,
your site gets bogged down with graphics, plug ins, GIF
garbage, etc. But, conversely, check your ego at the door
when you work with your design firm - I've see so many
good web site designs get ruined by clients who can't
or won't listen to what we tell them!
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| 3. |
Pay attention
to "load times," how long it takes a web site
to load on a 56 KBPS modem (this is an industry average),
if its more than 12-18 seconds you may experience the
"click of death" - the site doesn't load quickly
and the surfer is gone. Of course, if your targeting broadband
customers who are reaching your site via ISDN or DSL then
you can build a site that incorporates multimedia-ready
content that may include streaming audio or video, or
Shockwave or Flash capabilities - go ahead and let those
digital geeks get carried away with cutting edge content!
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| 4. |
Dare I
say it, "keep it simple" - make your site easy
to move around in, build a menu structure that is
consistent with industry standards, local menus (for a
page or section) on the left and global menus (overall
site navigation) at the top and/or bottom of each page,
keep as much information "above the fold" (above
the cutoff point at the bottom of a monitor), don't make
people use horizontal scroll bars unless absolutely necessary.
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| 5. |
Inculcate
"digital speed" into your overall site design,
your client/customers should be able to get to their desired
area of your site within one or two mouse clicks; they
will quickly get frustrated if they have to click-through
multiple menus to find information they are seeking.
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| 6. |
Develop
content that is web-enabled, people don't read web
site content like they do offline media, keep your paragraphs
short no more than two to three sentences, build in white
space with your content, include links in your pages -
don't try to tell your whole marketing story on your site
- get people to call you (hello the telephone still works!),
e-mail or fill out a profile form (see below).
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| 7. |
Make your
site permission-based marketing ready - I love Seth
Godin's "Permission Marketing" book, http://www.permission.com,
and we recommend it to all of our clients - he champions
building a long term relationship with a customer by asking
their permission to continue to market to them and incorporating
value/information in all marcom processes.
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| 8. |
Ensure
your site is optimized for Search Engines by identifying
8-12 keywords that people will use to find your site,
then incorporate these keywords in your site content (to
drive relevancy with s/engine spiders/bots) and then manually
submit your site to the top ten search engines. We don't'
recommend most of the free or $19.99 specials available;
yes, all will get your registered with the s/engines,
but getting listed on page 75 of 350 pages (for example)
won't really drive qualified traffic to your site, you
need page 1-3 listings on the top ten engines to really
drive qualified traffic.
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| 9. |
Delve
into your log server files to uncover "digital tracks"
made through your web site - your log files are raw
files that show how and from where (in most cases) people
accessed your web site, where they went on your web site,
how long they stayed, etc. Web Trends is the defacto industry
standard, http://www.webtrends.com/default.htm,
but we use and recommend a market-experienced firm in
Europe, Fantomaster, Ltd. to our clients http://www.fantomaster.com
- they have a suite of Search Engine products that can
be downloaded for free or purchased.
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| 10. |
Think
global in your overall site design - the greatest
Internet growth is occurring outside North America, so
it is essential to build a site that can be accessed easily
by people around the world. What issues do you need to
look at? Load times are very important (again), develop
content that avoids colloquialisms that may not be understood
by others who may not speak the same language, you may
want to make your site content available in diverse languages,
there are a number of emerging applications that will
facilitate this process, ensure your e-commerce capabilities
can be utilized by all.
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Lee Traupel has
20 plus years of business development and marketing experience.
He is the founder/CEO of a Northern California based,
privately held, profitable Interactive Marketing Agency
and Software Company, Intelective Communications, Inc.,
http://www.intelective.com,
and can be reached via e-mail at Lee@intelective.com.
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