These days if you are in business and don't have a website you are missing out on an abundance of customers. Everyone that has a computer in their house will be using one of the search engines (google, Yahoo, Msn etc.) to look for your business. There are over 20 million searches done every hour on the internet in the UK alone. If your business is not appearing on these search engines then you are losing out to your competitors that are looking for what you do.
You will be asking yourself I have done without a website till now so why would I need one? It is a good question If you are currently doing well with your business then that is great but can anyone turn round and say that they don't want anymore business? If you do say that then what happens if your business starts to lose some customers then you will start to try and get new business elsewhere. A website is THE way to generate extra enquiries and more business than any other means of advertising.
More and more people these days are turning to local searches and with broadband the internet is connected in their house 24 hours a day 7 days a week. In all honesty do you even know where you keep your yellow pages anymore? There is really no need as with the internet if you need a plumber in your area goto yahoo and type in plumber ( your area ) and a list of sites will come up with plumbers in your area. If you are a plumber how much would you pay to have your site appearing on those searches above your competitors? How much would that be worth to you in business terms?
The answer is easy... A lot. 5 or 10 years ago that listing in the yellow pages would mean as much to you as the listings you get on the search engines today.
A website for your business could be for several different reasons. You could use your website as a brochure to advertise the products you offer how much more could you show on your website compared to an advert in the paper? Instead of having a few lines in the paper explaining your business you could have 10 or 20 pages outlining what you do and the products you offer and give a more in depth description of all your products. For an ad in your local paper for say 3 lines of text would cost you say £50 for 1 week if you had your own website it would cost say £250 per year and the website would be online and available to view 24/7 365 days a year.
You could also use your website to keep your existing customers in the know on exactly what you are offering. If your existing customers go onto your website and sign up for your newsletter everymonth you could email them any product updates you have. If you don't have the time to email you could also have a news section on your website that can be updated on a monthly basis and that would allow your customers to log into your website and view any updates since their last visit. New business is good to develop but your existing customers are already doing business with you so why not use your website to maximise the sales you get from your existing customers.
All in all a website for your business is an essential to to maximise profits for your business. To generate new business and also to keep your existing customers up-to-date with any changes or product ranges that they could be interested in. More business or not the choice is yours.
Web Site And Design
1. Slow download time - Don't be that site that is filled with the coolest gizmos in the world. You know, animation, music and other "cool" things. Why? Because nobody is going to go to it because it takes too long to download. A nice clean site that downloads quickly will get you much further than a site with all the fixings that takes forever to download.
2. Unreadable text - If a user has to struggle to read the text on your web site, chances are they won't. Here are some common readability issues:
A. Low contrast text and background - Don't use light colored text on a light background. Also, don't use dark text on a dark background. Text is most easily read with extreme contrasts between the background and text. Black on white is about as good as it gets for readability. Red on black is pretty bad. Yellow on white isn't so hot either.
B. Text on a busy background - Text is most easily read on solid color background. Putting text on textured backgrounds can make it much harder to read.
C. Small Text - Text that is really tiny may look cool, but is hard to read. If you must use small text, make sure changing the text size in a browser will change the size of your text. Using style sheets can some times over-ride a browser's ability to increase text size.
3. Unpleasant designs - Designs that use too many colors, colors that clash, or a messy layout, are just plain hard to look at. A site should be pleasant to look at, not a chore.
4. Long pages - Long pages are a problem because your force people to sift through piles of information to get what they want. Pages that focus on just a few topics with links to related topics on other pages are much better. This approach allows the reader to isolate the specific subject they are interested in.
5. Poor Navigation - It is extremely important that a user be able to access all pages of your site from every page. Users will often enter your site from a search engine listing with a link other than your home page. You do not want your visitors at a dead-end with no way to access the rest of your site. You will have wasted the traffic and given the prospect a bad impression of your business.
As you surf the web, you should keep a list of annoying things you find on other sites. Every so often, check your site to see if you have the same problems. Regardless, if you avoid the common web design mistakes listed above, you will stand a better chance of running a successful web site.
Both Peter Hartley & Halstatt Pires are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Peter Hartley has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. . Peter Hartley's top article generates over 22200 views. to your Favourites.
Halstatt Pires has sinced written about articles on various topics from Realestate Marketing, History and Ezines And Newsletters. Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com - visit us to read more articles.. Halstatt Pires's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.
Classroom Library Book Labels Fifth Visit local business and ask them for contributions to books for classroom libraries.Make sure that you let your principal know what you plan to do