Web Site Design Pages

Beginners Guide to Websites

Website Content is Everything

What is Good Web Design

Beginners Guide to E-Commerce

My Approach to Web Design

Content Management Systems

Other Web Site Services

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Disability Accessibility

Hosting

Domains

website Content is everything!

.... to your website visitors and to the search engines!

Your website needs to create a positive impression with visitors - to do this visitors need to easily find what they are looking for.

So what is your website designed to do and who is aimed at?

Know your customer. Your website content should be on well written and focused to meet the needs and requirements of your target audience. It should speak their language.

Focus on the benefits you can offer them. Explain them clearly rather than include superfluous marketing hype.

Search engines love good content, you can make a big impact in your ratings with well considered text, as well as getting the message across to your clients.

Be Informative

• What do your customers want to know?
• How can you use your website to help them?

Quality and Quantity are both important when it comes to content. The world wide web has been around for a number of years now, it has matured and most website visitors are quite sophisticated. Your customers and prospective clients are now likely to want detailed information especially if you want them to revisit.

Views and opinions of independent third parties go a long way in gaining trust for your business. People like to see what others have to say - it is only natural to consult other sources before making a decision. Help them by providing user feedback and third party validation.

There are millions of websites in existance. Most of them leave a lot to be desired. Your website needs to stand out in the crowd.

Ideas for creating good content for your website:

• latest industry news and features
• product reviews
• fact sheets
• reference documents
• user guides and manuals
• hints and tips
• FAQ
• troubleshooting guides
• newsletters
• awards
• press releases

All of which can help make your website more interesting and worth re-visiting again and again.

Search engines rank large quantities of quality content highly.

Well Presented

The web is a very different medium to print and website design is a different skill. The messages and information may be the similar but the presentation is likely to be very different.

Good presentation is important. Unfortunately everyone has a different views on what is good and what is bad when it comes to design. It is personal taste. Therefore clear and clean presentation is more important than the actual look.

Images and photos can enhance the presentation but they are not normally the main focus of the website - this is the role of the content. Images are not normally a suitable replacement for text content (and where they could be, disability accessibility requires that a text version is also provided).

The look impresses people for a few seconds but then it is on to the bit that matters - the content. Graphic design can be taken too far - a nice exercise and ego stroke for the designer - but don't let too much effort go into design and too little into content. Animated content and advertising banners are distracting and detract from the main content of the website. Most mature websites avoid such distractions.

Brand image can be important. Your logos, brochures and other branding materials can be used to create a complimentary design for your website.

Up to date

This is where the web does score over all other forms of broadcasting.

Keeping your website up to date can be a challenge but it adds credibility and new content will help bring visitors back and keep the search engines interested.