Web Design for Businesses

RSS, CSS, SEO and Web 2.0… Confused? Perhaps you have already heard of these terms but you may still be wondering what they have to do with you. The quick answer to that question – as Steve Raubenstine President and CEO of  of NetObjects Inc tells John Taylor – is “quite a lot…”

Our increasingly competitive world with progressively more sophisticated means of communication has led to a condition amongst the general population of heightened expectations and shorter attention spans. This sharpened sense of anticipation at being entertained at every moment means that those brands or companies that fail to make an impact will lose customers. Fast.

In the world of web design, this means that just having a website is not enough. Now, it is an integral element of your communications that must continually compete with the vast array of other information on the Internet in an engaging, interactive or entertaining way. The WWW is saturated with millions of blogs, networking facilities and online shops that constantly vie for browser attention, consumer traffic and consistently high unique visitor figures.

For the small business, this level of competition can be daunting. With limited access to the big budgets needed to pay for online marketing campaigns and expensive web design consultancies, it can be difficult to create ‘traffic’, let alone hang on to visitors once they are on your site. There are, however, several ways to ensure that your online presence is worthwhile. I recently had a chance to talk to Steve Raubenstine Vice President of NetObjectsand ask him for his to give us his advice on building a small business website.

Looking The Part

For those businesses creating their own website, it is essential to ensure your website looks the part. That means doing the basics well, for example ensuring you have a professional looking template design with simple and effective site navigation. Your homepage needs to look appealing and contain the key information whilst not looking cluttered. Once on the site, guests need to be able to navigate easily and find the information they need quickly. If not, they’ll leave in an instant.

Think of your homepage as a shop window, designed with the intention of inviting customers through the front door. Make sure you keep the information as up to date as possible to avoid user frustration; present the information in a lucid and concise way with pictures, pricing or the ‘benefits’ clearly identified. This will help your visitors to find the information they need quickly, which in turn encourages a response, increases user ‘delight’ and improves the probability of a return visit.

A professional looking website is a sure way of projecting a genuine and trustworthy image, but what really counts is how you market your site to acquire and retain customers.

Marketing

Search Engine Optimisation is the term used to describe your site’s visibility on search engines such as Google. Whilst you can pay to have your site optimised there are several methods to do this yourself. Firstly, ensure your site is developed using clean, industry accepted code (Semantic XHTML); include lots of ‘key words’ in your script as this is what the search spiders are looking for when someone types an enquiry into the search engine; finally, try to link with lots of complementary partner sites to increase the chances of being seen.

Optimising your web site in this way should help to increase your traffic and unique visitor figures. At this point, if you’ve addressed some of the issues I referred to in ‘Looking the Part,’ you are on your way to turning that visitor into a customer. At that stage, you need to think about ways to retain those customers and encourage them to return. Email marketing is a way of telling your customers about new products, the latest offers and site updates. For this you will need their email address and authorisation as well as a database linked to your website to collect the information.

The next steps

There are many packages out there that can help make web design simple but prices and quality vary dramatically. Here are a few tips on the tools to look out for when looking to purchase a web design package:

WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get)

• This helps to simplify the process of web design and means you don’t have to learn the languages of web design (HTML, CSS, Java, Flash, etc.). What appears in your site editor is what will appear online.

Content management

• Select a package that allows for simple content management. This will enable you to update your website so that users will always get the latest information.

Clean code (Semantic XHTML)

• This is the industry recognised standard web code – cleaner code is more accessible and search engine friendly.

Capability levels

• Buy a package that will ‘grow’ and offer advanced functionality as your skills increase. Beginners will want a WYSIWYG, drag and drop, wizard-driven environment whilst more advanced users may look for a built in coding environment and advanced tools.

Database integration

• Your site will need to integrate with databases as you start to collect visitor data and customer contact details. This will also assist with your ongoing email marketing and RSS feeds. Look for one that offers data source XML binding.

E-commerce and site traffic tools

• A strong online presence provides access to a worldwide market place for direct trading. If you’re looking to sell, you’ll need a package that can help with e-commerce and site traffic.

Golbal Presence

• Companies like Host1plus can give your company a global presence by allowing you to choose where in the world the hosting of your site will be bringing you your site closer to your target market.

Additional components

• A component framework suite can be used for easily adding photo galleries, Flash video content, forums, guest books and site maps, allowing users to interact with a site to increase their interest and improve ‘stickiness’ (making visitors want to return).

NetObjects Fusion 11 is a leading and award-winning website design application for both novice and experienced designers and developers. It has earned critical praise and worldwide recognition as one of the fastest, easiest ways to build, manage and update websites.

For further information about NetObjects and to try their web development software, visit www.NetObjects.com.