Foundations are important in every area of business and of course website development, implementation, and management is no exception to the rule. To get right to the point, the following foundational principles are critical to the endurance and long-term success of your web-marketing strategies. Pleasing Appearance. Always make sure your website looks clean, crisp, and professional. People, including business professionals, place subconscious value on the aesthetic value of your website. For example...if you were to visit a clothing retailer online with the purpose of buying a pair of shoes, you would first look to see if the site was well developed, presented with care, and the product pictures looked professional. In this example, if the site was not put together well, bad color use or unreadable fonts, etc., you would instantly hit your back button and browse until you found one that illustrated a professional look and feel, because it would give you a sense of trust in their brand as well as their overall business ability. A clean, professionally designed website gives the appearance of a trustworthy organization. Be careful to take the necessary time to clean up mistakes and correct imperfections in order to present a well orchestrated website. It is not enough to just repair obvious flaws that are readily seen, I would encourage you to also be cognizant of minor imperfections as well, such as a structural component being one pixel off, an animation that is almost perfect but not quite, or a photo that is slightly pixelated. Never forget, we are a SIGHT and sound influenced society and are moved to action by what we see that moves us!
Always, always, always work to ensure that your site looks the best, feels the best, and exhibits the best information.
Updated Content. Content is usually undervalued as a web commodity. Well...let me rephrase that. Good content is usually undervalued. What do I mean by that. Simply put, putting content on a website and leaving it for all eternity means nothing and does nothing...well except cost you a monthly hosting service charge. It's like a mediocre movie...you watch it once, say "hmm...that was all right", stick it on a shelf and forget about it, there is no need to go back to watch it because you have absorbed all the movie content. It is the same with web content. The rule of thumb in web development is: design will get viewers to your website, updated content will keep them coming back. As a communicative society, it is pertinent that we see and hear what is being communicated to us. But if that information remains stagnant, over time the visual becomes irrelevant. Changing content, keeping it fresh and exciting will keep people coming back to your site as they have genuine interest in what is coming next. Imagine this visual...a carrot in front of a donkey, same concept. We are a society that lives and moves around change...it is becoming more true with every passing day and it's important for a website to offer that sense of change to the browser (in effect [subconsciously] it is like giving milk to a baby...it is exactly what they need).
Without new, relevant / pertinent, or exciting web content you become website history!
Navigation. Also important to the success of your website is the navigational system. To go right along with the principles of the second paragraph, change is a constant with our society, from which we conclude that our attention span doesn't last long generally. What is the solution? A quality website will employ a navigational system that allows the browser to get the "the final destination" within a matter of 2-3 mouse clicks. This ensures that your viewer does not become impatient while "traveling" to the final destination". Of course the navigational system is usually figured out and implemented in the beginning phases of web development so do yourself a favor and put in the effort to get it right the first time. Don't forget to make it expandable either...there's nothing worse than having to go back and reconfigure a whole navigational system because you didn't give thought to expansion. The navigation should also be easy to read and follow and give clear direction as to where it is taking the browser.
Easy, clean, and precise navigation will ensure web viewers for the future.
I am pleased that you have read this article and I hope that it has proved to be enlightening and educational. Before you go however it is important that you understand one more very important principle. It isn't a website success principle, but it is the bases of which all the aforementioned concepts are built around. We are all trying to sell something to someone. Everyday. Whether you are a sales professional or not, you always have a product to sell...even if it's selling personal ability to a potential employer or educational understanding to a professor, the art of selling is one that will always influence your direction...for the rest of your life, in all aspects of your life (think of asking your lady to marry you...I hope you have learned good selling techniques!). We must sell to survive and succeed. On the whole, the manner in which you present yourself directly correlates with the probability of a "sale". It is no different with the foundations of website success. A please appearance, updated content, and a good navigational system enhances the salability of your product, whatever the product may be: information, technology, emotion, physical product, etc.
In review...three very important principles to employ in web success. Visual...Changing Content...and a great navigational system! If you take care of these three foundational website categories...the possibilities are endless to who you can reach, and what you do once you have their collective attention.
I hope that you have enjoyed this article and I would love to hear your feedback on how it has helped you to increase web productivity. Please contact me at info@e-vision.info.
Written by Dave Trombley Envisage Design Agency - www.e-vision.info Principal | Creative Director
www.e-vision.info
