Website design and development

The qualities of an effective website

Building a website is easy. Building an effective website that meets customer needs and promotes your business is another matter. When done properly your website should be a cost effective part of your marketing efforts. Efforts that have the potential to bring in new business, provide support to current customers, and help stimulate return business. But, commercial success requires more than simply providing an attractive website.

Useful content - Customers need a reason to visit your site and "Content is king!" You must provide useful information and/or services. Today the Internet is frequently used in place of the Yellow pages. So, your contact information or company description may be the desired information. However, the more useful information you can provide, the more people will find you. Customers may find your site via a search engine, a link from another website or coordinated print advertising, but valuable content will keep them there. Frequently updated content will bring them back.

Intuitive, user-friendly navigation – User studies show website visitors will quickly exit your site if they are unable to find what they are looking for. Think about your own research practices. How willing are you to dig for information that you are uncertain exists. If your website's navigation system is not easy to use, your website will lose potential customers. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if your grandmother could navigate your website.

Quality design – How important is appearance? Very! Your website may be a new customers first impression of your company. Quality design establishes professionalism and credibility. A website design coordinated with your current branding will enhance your name recognition. Good design can also provide an edge over your competition. There are many companies with existing websites who avoid giving out their website address due to outdated or inadequate design.

Fast loading – Simply put, people won’t wait. Your website pages need to be lightweight and fast loading. Images should be optimized and kept within a reasonable limit. Heavy items, such as sound, video and flash should only be used when they serve a meaningful purpose. Broadband Internet access is increasing. In the United States Broadband usage is reported to be slightly more than 50% (April, 05).

Optimized for search engines – Because, search engines usually provide a majority of the traffic to websites, this is arguably the most important quality of an effective website. A beautiful website with intuitive navigation and the most valuable content will be rendered completely worthless if your customers are unable to find it.

Over the years many tricks have been used to improve search engine placement. Most have been discovered and penalized by the search engines. Regular changes are made to search algorithms in order to improve results and deny dishonest techniques. It is an ongoing battle and causes some to view search engine optimization as an art analogous to voodoo.

Although often misunderstood, search engine optimization is not too difficult for most websites. It starts with the way your content is written and how the site is coded. Therefore, optimization should be a consideration before your site is built, not an afterthought.

Available to all customers – Internet Explorer is not the only browser. Your website should be usable in all popular browsers. It should be made disability accessible as well. Another consideration is WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) devices. As WAP devices become more popular your website may be viewed by a mobile phone, pocket PC, or Palm Pilot. With a little forethought to design and development you can make your website available to all of your customers.