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There are good reasons why the layout of some web-sites appears to follow an unofficial set of design rules that guides location of the menus and content.

How visitors use your web-pages
Research into the way that people use websites called ‘eyetracking’ has revealed that users tend to scan in the first instance along the top of the web page from left to right and then down the left hand side of the screen from top to bottom.

These places correspond with the usual menu and headline locations and these would appear to be the places people look to gauge content and navigation links. The obvious place for your branding is in this area so visitors can recognise who the site is about and where the information comes from. The amount of time site visitors spend looking for the thing they want is tiny, measured in seconds, so make it as easy as possible for them to find what they want. Clear and concise link titles mean visitors stay with your site rather than moving on to your competition.

Get their attention with a strong headline
The headline is the next thing the visitor reads. It is the most effective way to grab their attention. Writing concise headlines can help visitors find the information they want quickly and keep them on your site pages.

Use typefaces carefully for maximum legibility
The fonts you use should make your text easy to read, legibility is key to helping visitors actually read the text on your site pages. Don’t mix lots of different fonts on a single page, stick to one or two so that all your pages are consistent and look as though they come from the same source.

Colour can draw attention where you want it
Use colour to draw attention to your headlines, or to pull out quotes from customers from the main body text. However, don’t use too many colours on any one page – it’s visually distracting to page visitors. Stick to one or two colours and consider using tints of them if you need variations. Using clashing colours on web pages make it less likely that visitors will read your text and raises the chances of them choosing to go elsewhere.

The designer’s favourite: white space explained
Incorporate blank spaces around your content so site visitors don’t have to struggle to find what they want in a clutter of things. You don’t want your site pages to resemble a jumble sale where locating the right thing becomes a chore because this will drive away site visitors. Clear space also acts to draw attention to the most important things on the page, for example:

Any paragraph of text with wide margins assumes more
importance because it is isolated on the page.

For more impact, just add images
If you add pictures, choose ones that enhance what your story, illustrate your product effectively and show your visitor the thing they are searching for. Beautiful pictures are attractive but on their own they may not hold visitors on your website unless you happen to be selling the images as art. If your business is in the service industry associate your pictures with people, they could be your staff, your clients or stock images of the kind of people who might be interested in your service. This helps visitors to identify personally with your service and guides them to imagine using it.

Show off your business with the best possible images
A professional photographer will take pictures with better composition and lighting than any amateur snapshot, investment in good quality photography will give your web-pages a professional image for your business to present to potential clients.

Finding images that don’t cost a fortune
If you can’t afford a photographer there are sources of professional quality photographs that can be obtained from stock photography websites. Prices can vary, as can the quality of the images, and it is a good idea to check out several sites and browse the images they hold, before making any purchases. Check the terms and conditions of the site and make sure that any images you buy can be used freely on your website or in your printed materials.

Useful links:
Blogpost: Why you should update your website little and often
Blogpost: Your business is unique, let everyone know why
Webpage: The Create Design Studio Website Design and Build Service

As markets contract businesses need to maximise their promotional activities and make every promotional pound count.

Strategies for updating your website
Our advice to website owners is to carry out modest updates and additions on a regular basis rather than major annual updates and overhauls. This is because search engines, such as Google, love fresh and updated content and making modest monthly changes to your website will heighten their interest. Regular updates will also encourage visitors to return as well.

But don’t fall into the trap of updating for the sake of it.

Making your updates more effective
Whatever content you add or update on your website, it must be of interest to your customers and relate to the problems and issues they face. Unless you are a market leader, it is unlikely web surfers will be particularly interested in you or your business. What will be of interest to them are helpful tips, free advice and solutions to solve their problems, make their life easier or businesses more profitable.

Write about THEM not YOU!

Spread the cost
The little and often strategy can also help your wallet by spreading the cost over 12 months, rather than having to budget for a large bill.

What are your options for updating your website yourself?
If your site does NOT have a Content Management System (CMS)? An alternative solution to adding a CMS to your website is adding a WordPress Blog, for maximum benefit the Blog should be hosted as part of your website under your domain name.

The cost for us to install a WordPress Blog and integrate it into a typical website, following its design and style, is £595 ex vat. (for more information on our blog services see our website.)

Software to help you with updating your website
If a Blog does not appeal, you can buy a web editing software package. We recommend Adobe Contribute CS4, it isn’t expensive and you can buy it directly from the Adobe website. It is very simple to set-up and use, it will allow you to update and create new web pages, including photos, PDFs and media files. When you hit the publish button it will also upload any new photos and PDFs etc to your site.

We provide full support for Contribute and can assist with setting up the software, as well the provision of templates for creating new pages. In our experience it takes no longer than half an hour to teach someone how to update their website using Contribute.

For those site owners who don’t have the time or don’t feel confident about doing the updates themselves, we offer fixed priced packages that are paid for on a monthly basis by standing order.

Call David at Create Design Studio on 01962 737989 for more information.

Useful links:
Making your website work harder for your business
Create Design Studio Website Design and Build Services

Your website is available to customers 24/7 and it can do more than simply provide a place for people to look up your phone number, address and prices. With planning your website can influence customer perception of your company, differentiate you from the competition, encourage new customers to call you and it allows existing customers to keep in touch by creating a ‘club’ atmosphere to keep customers coming back to you.

How the design of your site affects customer perception
If your website looks as though no thought went into the design, then the impression your customers will have is that your company does not care about its image. Good design improves customer perception of your company and shows you care about your image, your company and hence your customers. It also makes it easy for your visitors to navigate website pages and access information. Look at the website from the perspective of your customer, the site visitor, don’t add bells and whistles unless they help visitors to find what they are looking for and enhance their perception of your company. Sound effects, music and animated graphics that loop endlessly can distract from your content and may annoy site visitors, prompting them to go elsewhere.

Keeping in touch with customers
When did you last update your website? If it was ages ago then not only could your site drop down the search engine rankings but also your customers may assume that you have disappeared and will be less likely to re-visit your site. Updates tell visitors you are in-demand and give customers the perception that you are good at what you do. Tell them about the great projects you are involved in, about your new services and introduce them to new staff members.

If you would like your website to be easier to update and you want to be able to do the job yourself call Create Design Studio and ask about turning your website into a WordPress Blog, it will allow you to update your site whenever you want to. We can teach you how to use the free software in around 30 minutes. Moving your existing site to a WordPress template can usually be completed in less than a week, what are you waiting for? Call 01962 737989 and ask David about WordPress today.

In short we think that building customer confidence in your ability is made easier when you demonstrate your ability by writing about what you do and publishing it for free online using a blog.

What is a blog?
A blog is a collection of web pages that can easily be updated without the need to seek help from a web designer, programmer or use any special software.

Most blog software is free to download and easy to use and once you start writing, unlike on a normal web page, your readership can publish comments on the blog making it a truly interactive communication tool.

Why blogging will benefit your business
There are two answers, firstly it is a no cost option to keeping your website up to date. Secondly Google and the like love fresh content and a regularly updated blog, published as part of your website, will keep Google coming back for more and improve your rankings.

Your blog can also become a stream of links that you can promote using Twitter and a Facebook page for your organisation, spreading your words further than your website and blog can manage alone.

A blog will help show potential customers your abilities
Use the informative, relaxed style, of a blog to give your company a more personal and friendly online voice, than may be appropriate on your website. Build trust as you provide relevant news and views on issues that matter in your industry. You may also find your blog acts as a magnet to draw in new readers who then move on to your company website.

If you want to create an online information resource centre for your company a blog is the perfect tool
Some large companies also use blogs to encourage their employees to share information and expertise with one-another to build a shared knowledge resource. The software used for blogging also doubles as a content management system that allows you to give customers the most up-to-date information on your website.

A blog can help with the SEO of your website
Finally, using blog postings to update your website will cost you nothing (unlike using a web designer) and will boost your search engine rankings as websites that are updated regularly are ranked higher than those that aren’t.

Do you want a unique blog template that compliments your business branding?
We have installed blogs and designed bespoke templates for many of our customers. We can get your blog up and running in just a few days and we are happy to show you how to begin, as well as upload photographs, video clips and create links to other websites.

Do you want to know how to integrate your blog with your main web pages, your Twitter account, Facebook page and any other networking websites you use? We have the answers. Call Create Design Studio today on 01962 737989 to get started.

It’s been about a year since Create Design Studio signed up to Facebook and you’ll find Managing Director David Woodroofe has a profile on Facebook if you’d like to link up with him there. We built our own ‘fan’ page for Create Design studio mainly to keep in touch with our clients who use Facebook but also as a way to spread the news about our networking activities and projects.

Create Design Studio's Facebook Gallery Page

There is one part of Facebook that has really impressed us and that is the photo gallery feature. We use it to display the design work we create for the web, for print and our collection of corporate logo designs. It is usually used for personal photos but could just as easily be used for product photos if you sell your goods online or for pictures of your office, networking activities and pictures from trade shows or exhibitions.

It is possible to ‘tag’ these images so you can pinpoint who is in them. In this way you can link the images to a Facebook profile.

The photo gallery can also be shared with people who don’t use Facebook by copying the link from the bottom of the ‘Edit Photos’ page on Facebook. Here is the link to our web gallery on facebook. This can then be shared on Twitter, on your Blog or emailed to a contact who is interested in what you do.

Set up your own Facebook ‘Fan’ page, we can help you get started. Call David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 today.

Tools, kiosks and software to make handling baggage easier are all provided by Baggage Solutions. We helped them by designing a website to showcase their products to their website visitors.

The sophisticated red and grey colour scheme follows the company logo and branding. Images help to locate their services clearly in the airports, airlines and travel industry sector. To visit the website please click here.

EBS (Elvetham Business Solutions) provide services for Performance Improvement and Interim Assignments for businesses. Their specialities include: change management, working capital management and business analysis and improvement.

The website has a refreshed colour scheme and plenty of space for EBS to detail their services to their visitors. To visit the EBS website please click here.

TekTanks is a company that specialises in the design and manufacture of plastic tanks suitable for boats and vehicles. Their range of tanks and fittings is expanding so they needed a website where their customers could find exactly what they want and use the website to buy it.

We designed a clean site with a clear menu system and simple page layout to make it as easy as possible to find just the right tank by it’s application. Each tank has a written specification about that particular model to help customers decide on their purchase. Customers can buy from the site knowing they have exactly the tank and fittings for their needs. The website also have a potential to expand whenever a new product needs to be added. To visit the TekTanks website please click here.

This fresh and classy website was designed for Lifestyle Manager Joan who can help you with all those everyday tasks that prevent you from doing what you really want to do.

We were able to get together with Joan and discuss the kind of style she wanted for her website and enable her to update it herself by putting the design into WordPress. Now Joan can blog to her website visitors about the kind of tasks she can help them with whenever it suits her. If you would like to visit the website please click here.

A common mistake that many business owners make is to pigeon hole their website under IT. In actual fact designing a successful and profitable website has very little to do with IT,  today web design is about good old sales and marketing, IT just makes a website run NOT sell.

Learn to think of your website as more than just code and make the most of the potential of the web to find customers and make sales.

Is your website working effectively to grow your business?

A great website is like a salesman working 24/7 on your company’s behalf: always providing information and reassurance to customers who are looking for goods or services. Making your website more effective means:

• helping visitors to find you easily,
• getting visitors to stay longer once they arrive,
• making visitors more likely to initiate contact or leave their details with you,
• and, reassuring visitors to make them more likely to buy from you

Finding your site:
Search engine optimisation means using keywords, meta tags and including appropriate text on your site pages to enable searches to identify your website as a good match. Use Google Analytics to find information on what customers are really looking at on your site and to identify pages that are working well and ones that aren’t. Always promote your site in any way you can. Use online directories, referrals and reciprocal links to publicise it and add your URL to social networking profiles or business networking websites to increase your chances of being found.

Getting visitors to stay:
is all about relevant, interesting and useful content on your website, for driving sales nothing beats finding exactly what you are looking for online. Try to understand what motivates your customers to buy your product or service and orientate your content towards it. If your site is easy to use well designed and has great content it will encourage longer visits as people browse the pages. Try to use appropriate imagery to represent what you do and the kind of customers who buy from you so that visitors can feel that they ‘belong’. Get a neutral third party to test drive your site and tell you if it is easy to use and easy to find your contact details and easy to make a purchase. This exercise often reveals problems we would not spot on our own.

Get in touch:
Provide articles and newsletters in exchange for email addresses so you can contact visitors who are already interested in your site and contact them with relevant information on a regular basis. Make sure your contact details are clear and concise and easy to find on every page so that visitors can call, email or fill out a form to make contact, include your Twitter or social networking details so that visitors can make contact in a way that suits them.

By demonstrating your skills and expertise and providing plenty of relevant information on your service or product, orientated towards what your customers want and keeping in touch with them you are giving yourself the best chance to make sales from your website.

Keep in touch with your customers and benefit your business by generating more enquiries and leads to get more sales

Email-newsletters allow you to keep in touch regularly and cheaply with your customers. Publicise company news, useful information and details of your services straight to interested customers. A newsletter to customers puts your contact details into their in-box regularly and builds confidence in your abilities. By keeping in regular contact with your customers you can receive prompt feedback on your offers and gauge which ones will be successful in future.

Show your clients what you can do for them using a blog

Blogs are websites that you can update yourself by writing your own articles. Visitors can post comments back and ask questions, so a blog is a truly interactive website.

The software is free and it functions like a content managed website so you can amend your articles or add to them when you like. Update your technical information, product ranges or services and publicise company news and events quickly and easily.

Blogs are great if you are an expert because you can build up a comprehensive collection of your knowledge online, share it with others and get feedback or share ideas with your readers. You may have picked up ideas, expertise and ways of working that you could share with others. Your customers may want to know that you are an expert before they will buy.

A lot of our clients use them for business blogging, building up confidence in their readers that helps them to make contact and eventually make a purchase.

Don’t forget old fashioned promotion of your website, newsletter and your blog

Using your business cards, stationery, invoices, brochures and flyers. When you are networking, direct marketing and attending exhibitions ensure your URLs are at customer’s fingertips. Direct marketing will drive customers to your sites where you can give them more information to help them decide to buy.

Social networking isn’t just for students, use it to promote your online activities

Whenever you update your website, write a newsletter or post a blog article promote it on Twitter, LinkedIN, Facebook and any other social networking or business networking sites you belong to and help people to find quality content online.

Think connections and always try to direct people towards helpful, useful or interesting content on your website, blog or newsletter.

Create Design Studio can help you to plan your website, design your website and build the pages. Call David Woodroofe and Charlotte Lamb on 01962 737989.