Web Design: Appealing To The Hunter

On an early fall morning a hunter quietly makes his way through the vegetation as he follows the trail of deer. He recognizes the signs and knows that if he is quiet enough he may see one of the elegant beasts. He passed some fine specimen of sagebrush along the way and even a few particularly nice cedar trees, but his mind was on his prey not the particular varieties of flora he encountered.

Website Hunting

Believe it or not the scenario above is very similar to the way many web consumers approach your website. Sure you may have some really nice things to say, but they are on the hunt for something specific and they don’t have time to read everything you place on your website.

When it comes to web design you should always make full use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, but you should also follow that up with several of the keywords or phrases that you used as the target of your site in bold throughout your website and/or web page.

How to Reach Hunters

Since most consumers are ‘hunters’ you might also do well to include increased fonts sizes for headings that help consumers locate the information they are most interested in. This isn’t the only information that is important on your site it is just the information that is most important to your ‘hunting’ visitor.

Your site visitor is likely going to scan through your web pages seeking the information they want. If you make this difficult for your visitor to find they will ‘hunt’ elsewhere.

No Hunting Expected

We’ve all done online searches for a specific topic and then started visiting sites only to discover some with thousands of words and no reasonable way to scan through the text to find the information most needed. It is quite probable these sites have a wealth of information that would be beneficial, but the hunters are few and far between.

Give Me a Trail

Web users are trained hunters. If our web design efforts provide dense terrain with little sign of where the object of the hunt can be found the ‘hunter’ will find other hunting ground.

If our web design strategies can help lead users to what they want they will leave satisfied and are willing to come back again where they know the hunting is good.

If you have content written for you make sure the freelance author understand the goal of the content they are writing. Most freelance writers should be able to provide multiple headings to help visitors pinpoint the information they are most interested in.

About the Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Read more articles by: Scott Lindsay
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=153489&ca=Internet
Article published on May 24, 2007 at iSnare.com

Web Design: Quick Navigation

Many web design professionals tend to forget that not every visitor will enter through the front door. There are millions of site pages that are effectively a dead end. These pages may have content, but absolutely no links to send the visitor back to the home page nor does the page provide a clue as to the purpose and function of the website.

If a site visitor finds a link to your website through a search engine and lands on a page without navigation capabilities it is likely your site will be abandoned as they search for something more ‘complete’.

It is important that each page on your website feature a means of determining what your site is for, what you offer and how to get from one place to the next. If you have pages that are dead ends the chances diminish that your site will be as useful to customers as you want it to be.

Many sites are built with a front door mentality. In this scenario the home page is expected to be the landing pad for all visitors. In truth, search engines rank all site pages making it possible for a visitor to come into your site through a page other than the home page. Sure, you’re happy they came, but you have to give them a map to your site so they can really find what they need. In many cases this is done with a site map or common navigation links on all pages.

Another common web design faux pas is to burden your pages with high-resolution images and data. Most visitors will give your web page one-tenth of a second to begin downloading - if it takes too long to download the site visitor will likely move on.

There have been numerous sites I have visited that insist on placing midi music on each web page. This ‘gift’ increases download time and can be rather annoying if you happen to be listening to other desired online media.

I know the intent is to provide something unique for the site visitor, but as more audio is streamed over the Internet, the less interested we become in self-loading audio. The primary distraction is the lengthy download times these pages require.

The rule of thumb is to make every page navigable and quickly downloadable. These elements of web design can make an incredible difference in the usability of your web site.

About the Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Read more articles by: Scott Lindsay
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=153488&ca=Internet
Article published on May 24, 2007 at iSnare.com

Web Design: Content Procurement

There is a debate among web design experts as to who is responsible for procuring content for the website. Many professionals want the content to be the responsibility of the site owner. The reasoning is simple – the site owner should have a better understanding of the site products or services than the web designer.

The other side to the argument is that the web designer needs to assist the site owner in obtaining original knowledge-based articles to compliment the site. In this scenario the web designer also works with freelance writers to develop all site content. This includes everything from “How To” articles to the “About Us” and “Home Page” sections.

Many web designers are interested in developing the ‘look’ of the website without being responsible for what the content says. However, more and more web design experts are beginning to offer full content services as part of their monthly or annual contracts. Obviously the customer bears all costs related to the content, but many entrepreneurs enjoy less work in site management.

One element to this that you should consider is that the web designer will charge you a content fee. The content request is assigned and purchased from a third party freelance writer at a lesser amount. You could pay 100% more than you might if you had worked with a freelance writer on your own.

From this standpoint it makes sense for web design professionals to provide the service because it provides an added revenue stream for them.

If, as an ecommerce business, you can write or have someone write original content you may actually have greater options you can consider when it comes to web design.

One of the most readily available forms of content is free-to-use article directories. These articles can be used provided you make sure to place all content on your site. This will likely include a brief author biography along with a link to the author’s website. In most cases this is a reasonable exchange for the use of the article.

A secondary source could be adaptable content from a supplier. This information is generally provided at no cost due to your partnership with the supplier.

A third source is to go directly to a freelance writing source to gain your own original articles.

If one or more of these options is workable you may find a template rich web design/host is an alternative that is cost effective and empowering.

You’ll notice I said empowering. This comment was made because of the satisfaction of being able to immediately addressing and altering multiple aspects of the site on your own and without the need for knowledge in html or other coding language can help you take ownership of your own site.

Perhaps it all comes down to your budget and to your willingness and ability to manage the content requirements of your website.

About the Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Read more articles by: Scott Lindsay
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=153486&ca=Internet
Article published on May 24, 2007 at iSnare.com

Web Design: Give Me Bullets

Did you know there is an essential difference between the way web designers look at the way they design a web page and the way the consumer evaluates the effectiveness of a web design.

Comparisons

* Web Designer: Interested in every subtle nuance of color, graphic and texture.
* Consumer: Interested in how fast the page loads.

* Web Designer: Includes links throughout the design for a variety of locations within the web design.
* Consumer: Clicks on the first promising link and hopes it’s something interesting.

* Web Designer: Interested in the color coordination and presentation of design.
* Consumer: Searches for bullet points to help gauge whether the site will be useful.

Content over Creativity

In many web designs the site is built on the premise that the beauty of the site is what will win customers. The consumer, on the other hand, has seen hundreds of sites and is often only curious to know if your site is going to help them or not.

The average consumer will only read knowledge-based articles that catch their attention. Consumers often determine an article’s usefulness by scanning. If they lock in on material that connects they will stick around, if not they go back to ‘clicking for gold’.

Get to the Point

Unlike a television commercial, the consumer doesn’t have to wait to find out what they most want to know about your company. They can skip to the best parts, the end parts or they leave-whenever-they-want parts.

It may work to your advantage to use multiple bullet points as well as multiple sub headings in an effort to help the consumer gain a quick understanding of what is in the article or page content and to find out quickly what they want to know.

For many consumers if you can’t provide these bits of detail they will keep searching until they find it.

Hurry, We’re Losing Them

Obviously not all consumers are like this, but many have grown up in an MTV society where the attention span is used to quick bits of information. So, the reality of web design is you may need to work to provide quick, segmented bits of information that work as a quick index of page information that can help consumers connect with your website.

Solutions

You may find you can actually reach consumers through a template rich web design/hosting option that allows you to develop content that is geared more toward the consumer and less to the sensibilities of a web designer.

Whatever method you chose for web design make sure you attempt to gain an understanding of how consumers actually ‘view’ your site. This understanding may help you discover the best ways to really connect with those who want a reason to stick around.

About the Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Read more articles by: Scott Lindsay
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=153485&ca=Internet
Article published on May 24, 2007 at iSnare.com