8 Things You Must Know To Build A Great Website
Tim Knox
Last week we talked about how a bad website can do your
business more harm than good. That column brought several
emails asking what is the key to building an effective business
website. I replied with the same answer I always give: building
an effective business website is a simple matter of definition.
Before the first graphic is drawn or the first line of code is
written, you must define the website’s budget, purpose, target
audience, design, navigation, and content. And when that’s all
said and done you must define the marketing that will bring
visitors to your site.
It sounds easy, but you’d be amazed at how many really bad
business websites there are out there. Yours might even be one
of them. If so, listen up. For nearly ten years now my company
has been building and rebuilding websites for every kind of
business you can imagine: from mom-and-pops to multinationals.
We’ve designed (or redesigned) a couple hundred websites and
along the way I have come to the conclusion that most business
websites do a pitiful job of working for their owners.
What’s that, you didn’t know your business website should work
for you? You think it should just sit on a server somewhere
taking up digital space and collecting digital dust?
Wrong. Every website, business or otherwise, must serve a
purpose, and that’s usually where most websites falls short.
They serve no purpose because the website owner never gave much
thought to it. It’s not the website’s fault. A website is
inanimate. It is only what you make it. The only life a website
has is the one given to it by its designer and owner. If the
human element doesn’t do a good job of defining the building
blocks, the website will serve no purpose and eventually die a
digital death.
Building an effective business website isn’t brain surgery,
thank goodness, since that’s how I make a nice percentage of my
living. Building an effective, well-designed website that works
for its owner, that actually serves a purpose, is all about
definition.
Define the Budget
Every website, no matter how large or small, must have a
realistic budget, with “realistic” being the key word. I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve sat with a potential client as
they listed off the eight million cool things they wanted their
website to do, only to find out that their budget was just a few
hundred dollars. I always feel like saying, “Well you just
wasted three hundred dollars of my time, so here’s your bill…”
Define the Purpose
Every website must have a purpose. Purpose drives everything:
the audience, the design, the navigation, the content, and the
marketing. I could do an entire column on purpose, but suffice
it to say that there are five categories of purpose under which
most websites fall: the purpose to inform, to educate, to
entertain, to generate leads, to sell, or a combination
thereof. If you fail to define the purpose of the website, all
else is just wasted effort.
Define the Target Audience
Your target audience refers to that segment of the public that
you hope to attract to the site. For example if you sell shoes,
your target audience would be anyone with feet. Taking it a step
further, if you only sold women’s shoes, your target audience
would be women (with feet) Why is defining your target audience
so important? If you have no idea who your audience is, how can
you expect to design a website that will appeal to them? Your
target audience could be customers, investors, job seekers,
info seekers, etc. Define your target audience, then figure out
how to serve them.
Define the Design
Website design theory has changed over the last couple of
years, primarily because the search engines now ignore graphic
heavy websites and give preference to those that take a
minimalistic approach to design. If you look at some of the big
boy websites like GE, Oracle, Raytheon, HP, and others you will
see that in many cases the only graphic on the homepage is the
company’s logo. Search engines now give higher preference to
websites that offer keyword-rich text over flashy graphics.
Don’t fight the design trend. You will lose.
Define the Navigation
Bad navigation is the number one reason website visitors
abandon a website. Navigation refers to the chain of links the
visitor uses to get around your site. If your site has an
illogical navigational hierarchy or too few or too many links
or is simply impossible to get around, you’ve got problems. We
live in a microwave society. We stand in front of the microwave
tapping our foot and glaring at our watch wondering why it takes
so damn long for a bag of popcorn to pop. Why can’t a
three-minute egg be done in thirty seconds? If it takes a
visitor more than 3 clicks to get to any page on your site,
your navigation needs improvement.
Define the Content
Content refers to the information on your website, be it
graphics, text, downloadable items, etc. Since the top search
engines no longer use HTML Meta tag data to index websites, it
is vital that your website content be text heavy, succinct and
well-written to appeal to the search engine spiders.
Define the Build Method
Next, who will build the website for you? Will you do it
yourself using one of the point and click website builders or
will you hire the kid next door? Will you hire a freelance
designer or a professional firm? Budget usually dictates the
build method, but be warned, when it comes to website
development, you get what you pay for. Sure, the kid next door
will throw up a site for you if you buy them a pizza or make
your daughter go to the prom with them, but you will end up a
with a website that looks like and performs like it was
designed by the kid next door.
Define the Marketing
If you build it, will they come? Not on your life, at least not
without a good marketing campaign. Your website should become a
part of all your marketing efforts, online and off.
Put the website address on your business cards, brochures,
letterhead, and all collaterals. Include the address in your
ads; print, TV and radio. If you prefer to do online marketing,
figure out where your target audience surfs and advertise there.
If marketing is foreign to you, do yourself a favor and call in
an expert. Many businesses fail because they simply do not know
how to market their products and services effectively. This is
also the downfall of most business websites.
Here's to your success!
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