Here is a snippet from our first book on creating websites, we hope you find it useful.

Do think about usability

If visitors cannot find what they want quickly, they will go elsewhere. Simple menus with easy to understand page titles aid navigation for visitors. They will expect a ‘Home’ and a ‘Contact us’ page to help them find their way around. If your site has many pages set up a site map page and show all the pages grouped under relevant headings. Include text links at the bottom of each page to help search engines and visitors to find major pages. Get an outsider to test your site to see if they can find a specific service, or product, on the site. Can they find out how to buy it and how do they think the navigation could be improved? Try looking at the other websites to compare their navigation systems to yours.

Do good calls to action

Once your site pages have told their visitors all about your great product/service, make sure they also tell them what to do next. Conditional statements can help visitors to move to the next stage of purchasing. If they need more information tell them where it can be found: by signing up to an email newsletter or by telephoning the office to speak to an advisor. They may want to see more examples of the products: inform them they can email to receive a brochure. They could want to buy or place an order, so tell them how to use the shopping cart system so they can make purchases online, or inform them how to download a form they can print out and fax back.

Do consider your information and content carefully

There is no substitute for relevant information on any website. Relevant to: product, service, industry sector, the customer, customer demographic and customer needs.

Do make your contact details visible

Place any phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses and any other ways to make contact (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy) in a prominent place on the website to cater for how site visitors feel most comfortable making contact. Place this information on the header of the website to ensure it will be seen first on any page. Place the information on every page because as search engines find your website people may be sent to the page that suits their search the best, not necessarily the home page or the contact page. Making it easy to find contact information increases the chances of visitors using it.

Do include testimonials

Showing what other customers think of your client’s services provides authenticity for their services. Collect testimonials from every customer and ask them for their feedback. Display positive comments on every page of the site and refresh them as new comments are received, updated comments show visitors the business is ‘alive’ and show search engines that the content on the site is up-to-date, helping the ranking.

Do add special offers & freebies

Use these to encourage website visitors to part with their contacts details or subscribe to the email newsletter. These can include free “How to Guides”, ‘Top Tips’, “White Papers” and widgets that will be valued enough by site users to encourage them to part with their contact details.

Do use images that create the right impression of your company

Create the right impression for your business online. Poor quality images can be worse than no images in that they create a bad first impression for visitors viewing the site. Good photographs do not necessarily have to be expensive. There are many image libraries online where quality images cost a few pounds. Used carefully they can create a professional image on any website, illustrating the kind of people the business works with or the job it does. Great images bring text to life and reinforce the messages in it. A professional photographer could cost more but will provide you with bespoke images of your products or services, your premises and your staff that can be used to present site visitors with an authentic image of your business. Showing customers who they will be talking to and what the premises look like can be a great investment if they are likely to visit in person.

This blogpost is an exerpt from the first Create Design Studio book on creating websites. If you would like to read more visit our website at: www.iwanttobeawebdesigner.com and download a chapter from our book FREE!

Call us today about your website on 01420 549637. If you want a new website designed and built, or an existing website refreshed, we can help.

Photos are a vital ingrediant in most websites because they act as a visual foil to all that text that tells visitors what you do. Getting your website images the right  size, resolution and style will give your website a professional look. Here is the Create Design Studio guide to using photographs on your website.

The techy part
The web doesn’t need the same resolution for your photographs as you need in order to get good printed photographs. Using some photo editing software change the resolution of your photos to 72dpi and save a copy of them so your original file remains untouched.

The web also uses RGB colour, not CMYK as printers do, check your photograph is in RGB colour using your photo software.

Size your photos to fit the space available on the webpage, big photos take longer to download (worth considering if your customers are unlikely to have broadband, work on a shared connection in an office or are viewing the site on a mobile device) and getting your photos to fit snugly alongside your text makes the page look more considered and professional in design. You’ll use pixels rather than centimetres or inches to size photos for your web pages. as a rough guide most web pages will be from 900-1200 pixels across and considering you’ll want to have text to fit in then you may want to aim for  300-600 pixels in width for your photos.

Representing yourself and your business in photographs
Whether you want to have a picture of yourself on the site or not depends on how useful you think it will be to be recognised by customers or site visitors. If you are self-employed and have a personalised business it might be part of your branding to feature your photo on your website and on your other marketing materials.

Feature your office or premises on your website to help customers recognise it when they visit. If you work in a prestigious building or character office showing it on your website can help give visitors an idea of the personality of your business.

If you have company branded vehicles these may also feature on your website and will help customers recognise your employees when they are out delivering or providing services. Your vans can also feature your website address so they can help new customers to find you online.

Product photographs
If you sell products then photographs of what you stock are vital to help sell them online. Make sure these photographs are on a white or black background to isolate them where possible and make sure they are clear and sharp. Include thumbnail sized versions as well as larger ones so that visitors can see details of each product. If it isn’t clear from the photograph what size the item is try including a scale to help visitors see the size of their product. Some products may also need to have more than one image to show different aspects of the item or how it is used. The more information the better where selling online is concerned because visitors cannot handle and explore the item as they would in a shop.

Creating a mood with photographs
It can be useful to use photographs a part of your website to illustrate what kind of company you are, what kind of customers you have or to visually explain an idea central to your business. These ‘mood and style’ photographs may form part of your corporate branding and reflect the personality of your business. It can be worth taking time to choose them carefully and try running them past a neutral third party to see if they spot anything that you don’t. These photographs can be sourced from online photography websites, although prices can vary widely, and consider buying a higher-resolution version just in case you want to use the image later on printed marketing materials.

Choosing a photographer
A professional photographer will give you great results and images that are sharp, well lit and well composed but they may cost more than using stock phtography or taking the photographs yourself. If you choose to take photographs yourself think about not just your subject but what appears in the background of each photo: plug sockets, piles of paperwork, rubbish, unattractive views and so on. Take some test photos and look at the light on your subject, is it flattering? It is possible to get useful photographs by taking them yourself but always be aware that without care you could be giving your business ‘amateur’ looking photographs that do it no favours.

Create Design Studio can help to source and implement photographs into your website and design them into printed marketing materials too.

Like this? Try this:

Create Design Studio’s Guide to the Essential Features for Any Website