The idea behind web page design:
Why do people come to your web site? Do they want to see how great you are? Do they want to see how fancy your graphics are? No. They want information. If they don't find the information they need to benefit them they won't stick around. That means no sale or other benfit you were looking for when you built your web page. A web page needs to satisfy your customers desire for information or solve their problem. If someone else does it better than you, that's were the money will go as well.
Four seconds: That's how long you have to sell yourself! If your customer hasn't figure our who you are in that amount of time then your site has failed and they will move on.
Good design!
A good design will be usable and easily navigable. If your customers can't find their way around then all your other pages don't really matter. Navigation must be simple and consitent.
Keeping your audience!
If you're going to keep your audience, your web pages must load fast. There are still people out there on dial up with no other option. Knowing how to make good looking pages that sell your business without getting bogged down with fluff that makes things load slow will also detract poteniail customers.
When a visitor wants to find information it must be within a couple of clicks on your site. If it takes 5 clicks to get to the right information they will give up and look elsewhere
Marketing Strategy!
Your web site is only a portion of your marketing strategy. Don't count on it to be your main marketing tool. Continue to use your current marketing tools but include your web site and email addresses in these. Now, if you're closed for the day or the weekend you're still open!
Lance Otto
30288 260th St
Redwood Falls, MN 56283
507-342-5488
