If you have a website that attempts to pitch or present too many unrelated products or services, put some thought into separating these out into micro-sites. (A micro site is just a smaller website that focuses on a few products / services)

Remember, a website is for it’s visitors, not for the person that owns it (I harp on about this quite a lot).

intelligent grouping is the key to successful websites

A website devoted to one (or a few very closely related) products or services can sometimes be a far more powerful selling environment then one that over diversifies.

A website focusing on a smaller category of products or services will give the following advantages:

Customers are more likely to find the information specifically relevant to them

Focused products/services websites allows you to create content and branding appropriate to that item. You can often end up with conflicting messages when you are trying to sell to many things.

In creating sites dedicated to a smaller group of subjects, it will be obvious where the gaps in your sales supporting content are. These can be missed in larger sites.

You have just a few seconds to convince a visitor they are in the right place. If your site doesn’t focus on the things that are important to them and communicate this quickly, you can bet your pet monkey that the next site in the Google listings will.

I have used this tactic very successfully for many years, and unlike many trends on the internet it is timeless as a concept. At the time of writing we launched another micro site for a business today.

This tactic is fiendishly valuable when you are using Pay Per Click marketing to promote the sale of a product or service. If you have ever researched the concept of landing pages, I guess you could consider using focused micro sites as the logical and ultimate extension of this.

OF COURSE this tactic will not suit all.

If you are heading down the organic route, you’ll probably find there is a stronger case to create one larger more powerful website.

Photos courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons license from users L.Marie

We often tell clients, “we don’t build websites for you, we build them for your customers”. In effect, you are not our customers, your customers are (you just get to pay the bill! – doesn’t life stink sometimes).

If you can think of your website as not yours, then you’re off to a great start.

consider the "wants" of your visitors

Customers are selfish creatures, all they care about is themselves and their own needs! With this in mind, structure your information and wording to talk directly to the needs and wants of the customer.

Example:

“Edge of the Web have a combined 30 years experience in building websites for our customers. We have worked with clients ranging from internationals to one man bands.”

_____________

Boring huh?

How about:

You need a website that communicates effectively, enhances your image and most importantly gives your potential customers the confidence to pick up the phone. Edge of the Web can help you achieve this.

_____________

OK so maybe that’s not perfect either, but I’m sure you agree it’s far more relevant and compelling to a first time website visitor right?

I suggest you go through your own website (or proposed text) and look for every instance of the word “we” or “us” or “our” or “I” or your company name, and consider how this could be turned into a statement of benefit for your customers.

Note: Your “about us” page is the place to let rip with the “we” and “our” sentences.

Think also about the information architecture of your website, and particularly your navigation bar layout.

How many times do you see websites with a navigation bar structured along these lines:

Home | About Us | Our Approach | Products/Services | Contact Us

Once again, this is a very self centric structure that is very unlikely to appeal to your customers, both in terms of the order of the items, and the language used. Try to position the elements in order of priority to your customer.

With that in mind I’d strongly recommend you bring your product or service to the fore and move all the information about yourselves to the back of the queue. In the scenario above I would suggest:

Home | Products/Services | Approach | About Us | Contact

It’s more succinct, and certainly more relevant.

NOT CONVINCED?

Well consider this: When you go looking for a product or service on the internet, do you start by looking for a company that impresses you and then figuring out whether what they are selling satisfies your requirements?

I doubt it.

Most people want to identify whether you tick the purchase boxes first, and only then they will start researching whether they consider you to be trustworthy, experienced, ethical, friendly, etc etc etc.

Of course this advice does not apply literally to every single instance of a website in the world, but I’ll bet it applies to you!

Photos courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons license from users amylynne

One of the most important (scratch that…THE most important) aspects of building a website is to construct a wireframe.

What is a wireframe?

"put the meat on the bones"

A wireframe is in essence the skeleton of your website. As my old history teacher would say, once you have the skeleton, you can start to put the meat on the bones. Too many web designers just start throwing lumps of flesh around and whilst you may be able to make pretty websites like this, they will likely have very little structure.

A wireframe contains no pictures, and usually no body text either. Once you start puzzling over colours, images and wording, you can totally lose the plot with a wireframe.

So a wireframe is a blueprint of how a site will be laid out, and where your links will be placed, and where important elements of each page will be structured. The point of the wireframe is to create a structure that focuses on how you want information to flow through your site and how you want your website visitors to travel from one page (or piece of information) to the next.

If you can be disciplined enough to construct a wireframe, you’ll find that the design and wording fall into place much more quickly later on, and most importantly your site will become a ruthless selling machine. After all, there’s nothing worse than visiting a website that provides a service you would like, but you just can’t figure out how to get in touch, or enquire, or find the next piece of info right~?

The biggest problem for a web design company in using a wireframe model to correctly plan a website, is that it can be a little under-whelming for the customer. The exciting bit is seeing your website come to life with imagery and colour and content. We understand that’s when the project starts to feel reel and everyone can get on board. Sometimes I can see the disappointment in a clients face when we present a text-less, colourless, image-less model of their website. It’s a particularly brave thing to do for a web design company when pitching for new business, but time and time again we’ve proved it’s the only way to build a site of any substance.

Note: the larger your website and more complex your proposition, the more important a wireframe becomes.

So before you whip out that colour wheel and start looking for metaphoric pictures of seedlings, take a while to plan your site. Sure it’s dull, but the benefits are profound.

Photos courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons license from users METROgrl

Have you ever been speed dating? Here are some useful tips you may wish to consider:

• Remember, you are not the only option for each potential mate
• If you look a mess, you’re going home alone
• If you don’t have anything interesting to say, you’re going home alone
  

  speed date your way to success

• If you do have something interesting to say, but don’t say it quickly…you’re still going home alone
• If you don’t differentiate yourself, you’re going home alone
• If you aren’t memorable, you’re going home alone
• It’s not possible to be attractive to everybody (unless you’re the Fonz or Alba), so don’t try. Be proud of who you are.
• If you pretend to be something you’re not, you’ll get found out eventually (but you may not go home alone that night)
• If you only talk about yourself, you’re going home alone

Think of a search engine as a speed date.

A speed date offers you a number of very brief opportunities to connect with people looking for something you wish to provide.

Your customers are of course potential mates, and your website is you!

Now revisit the above list and look at what’s letting you down. The same rules of engagement apply.

Photos courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons license from users Urban Mixer