LOVE the idea of a website but terrified of the reality? By Nigel Harding of Amodeo Web Design,
Most of us recognise the benefits that a website can offer for business. To name but a few:

•    You get to maintain your business presence 24/7, 365 days of the year. Customers can find out about your products or services without talking to you in business hours

•    A website is far cheaper and much more flexible than print advertising. Web space  is relatively cheap, your advertisement is accessible for a longer period of time, the content can be changed without having to ask someone to do it for you (if you use a Content Management System) and you can potentially reach a wider audience.

•    A website improves your credibility. You have the opportunity to display your branding and professionalism, you can show potential customers what you are about and why you deserve their trust and confidence. Many people use the internet for pre-purchase research so that they can determine for themselves whether a particular supplier or brand is worthy of their patronage.  

But while many marketeers and business consultants are evangelising about these benefits, I have encountered some concerns or lack of understanding about how these benefits are realised. I also believe that some people enter the web world not understanding the process or steps which should help arrive at owning a successful website and in this article I would like to point out some of the main considerations.

6 Steps for a successful website
A little planning will pay dividends.
1.    What are your business objectives? Your website should perfectly reflect your business  and your ‘calls to action’.  Your pages should be clear, uncluttered and easy for the user to navigate.  
2.    Know your audience. Carefully identify your target audience and offer them what they want in terms of the features and benefits of your product or service. The look, feel, tone and colours on the website should also attract your audience. What is your website ‘shop window’ communicating? What is it's style? e.g. professional, smart, funky, etc.
3.    Research other websites including your competitors.  Find examples of sites that you like. Try to understand why you like them. For a light-hearted look at what doesn't work, visit http://www.websitesthatsuck.com
4.    Carefully assess how often you will need to update content. Is it worth having a Content Management System (more about this below)?
5.    Will you need to invest in web-marketing activities to help drive and increase traffic to your site?
6.    Budget.  Ask your website designer to put together a comprehensive proposal outlining the cost of designing the website as well as the external hosting and domain name registration costs.

Creativity with a purpose
A website should be aesthetically pleasing and at the same time be practical in delivering a clear message and make it easy to find relevant information. For the aesthetics, the website should reinforce your branding and I would suggest that the natural laws of colour theory are your friend here. You should explore harmonising colours or complimentary colours (try a Google search for “colour wheel theory”).
When you consider the content, identify your “calls to action” (what do you want the visitor to do? Pick up the phone? Request a catalogue?) and help your visitor to do this easily – in fact, you should make this blatantly obvious. Make your content relevant and present it in a concise, personal and friendly manner (try to engage your visitor).

Always use good quality images or photography on your website. Everything that you use reflects the quality of your product or service. Poor photography and images will make your site look amateurish.
Fig 1 – colour scheme that harmonises with the photography and corporate branding, clear menu system with some colour panels to draw attention to the key services and messages.

How dynamic will your content be?
With a decent looking website in the making, the next consideration is how often will you need to update the content? Websites that have changing content tend to be visited more regularly. They also offer the opportunity to provide fast-changing information to your visitors and help you to stay more relevant.

How the content will be changed should be one of the prime considerations in developing a website. If you are technically adept and have the ability to edit code (HTML or similar) then you will have the means to update a static website fairly easily.  Alternatively you may have to factor in some cost for your web developer to make updates on your behalf.

Fig 2. A typical Content Management System

Another option is to have a website with an underlying Content Management System (CMS). A CMS offers you the ability to change some or all of the website content by yourself using a private password protected web page. You would login to your private page to edit or enter content, typically you would type into text boxes and commit the updates at the press of a button. It is as easy as that!

Therefore when considering a website for your business, you need to plan for either the up-front or ongoing costs of updating content.

                                                                           

The art of being found
With your website online you will be wondering how others will now find you. This is the art of “Search Engine Optimisation” or SEO. Unless you have some really unique selling point (like a customer of mine who is one of only a handful of Marcos car dealers in the UK) then you are unlikely to automatically figure high in search engine results. Some companies spend thousands of pounds each month on SEO. The more competitive your particular business landscape, the harder it will be to stand out.

This all relates to the objectives of your website, if it is crucial to your success to be found online (such as for an online store) then SEO should be a prime objective and you should consult with web developer. You may decide that yours is the type of business where online search results are not the main factor in engaging new clients e.g. Accountants often receive referrals via word of mouth because a referral builds trust and confidence far better than a website generally can. On the other hand, an accountant might see this as an opportunity and add a strong testimonials section to their website with videos of satisfied customers to buck this particular trend.

You will generally be able to drive more traffic to your site by making sure that your content is relevant to your product or services and by building links into your own site. Link building (adding links from other sites, the more popular the better) can be a real benefit and you can boost traffic to your site with a hyper-linked advert on AscotMatters. Increasingly, businesses are participating in social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and others) to create an interest in their own site and services. You might want to take further advice from your web developer on this aspect of your site's performance.


Time for a change?
The development of a website is often an iterative process. To use a nautical analogy, many people wish to drop anchor to create an initial site but when the storms of business reality or changing market conditions come along then you may need to beef up your boat (website). It is quite common to enhance or refresh the design of your existing website. Perhaps you are not happy with the existing site or need the ability to change the site by yourself? Don't become  too disappointed with your site but resolve to change it for the better. The more that a site changes and develops, the more interesting that it will become and you will tend to see repeat visitors. The best or most popular sites sites often evolved in order to arrive at their current state.

Fig 3. Facebook website - previously and today

CASE STUDY
Amodeo Web Design was asked to create an initial website for the Beanstalk Montessori Nursery.

Project brief:
* Provide information to new prospects and facilitate information to existing parents. * Use the existing nursery logo sketch as a starting point for design and theme.  * Soft, pastel colours were required. Provide a Content Management System to update newsletters, term dates and urgent notices regularly.
* Provide an interactive location map.

Arrange domain name and hosting.
The result: The Beanstalk Montessori Website .........................

Logo retouched and colour added, colour theme uses green and blue reflecting the beanstalk leaves and skyscape.
Website design with a 3 column layout, expanding menu system to easily access content.
Customer's content arranged and edited.
This is what the customer said: “Thank you Thank You THANK YOU!!! It looks absolutely brilliant and I think the result is stunning!“ - Anneli Isherwood, Principal.

Costs:
£1,500 for the website design and build
£500 for the Content Management System
£70 for first year web hosting including administration
£10 domain name registration

Triumph or Failure?
You are now equipped for success. There are many successful websites out there just as there are many that are perhaps under-performing or not meeting expectations. With some careful planning you can own a successful website .

About Amodeo Web Design
Nigel Harding is the owner of Amodeo Web Design, a local web design company providing quality websites at affordable prices. Services include website design, development, copywriting, video production and driving traffic to your site. A free telephone consultation is offered before any commitment. Call 07910 924969 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it