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Audience
You have to be quite sure who your web site is aimed up. This may seem obvious but quite often we find that when the question is asked "who are you intending to read this page" the answer is "everyone".
This thinking tends to weaken a site - or at least individual pages on the site. You need to ensure that each section of your site is addressed to one audience, and that everything you write on that page is for that audience.
And this of course means that you have to know your audience - who they are what they do, what they want.
What else?
- Differentiation: making your web site different from that of your competitors.
- Events: telling your visitors about something new and interesting for them - keep the web site moving
Differentiation
Differentiation means ensuring that your web site is different from the web sites of your competitors, in a way that your visitors will think is worthwhile.
This implies that you must visit your competitors' web sites, see what they are doing, and ensure that you do it better. That doesn't mean spending more money - it means doing something else - something that is not already covered elsewhere.
It also doesn't mean putting in more and more graphics, more fancy sounds, more zap and pow. It means being different.
There is a reason for you not copying your rivals - and that is that they may not know the best way to run a web site.
Web sites can be built by any of the following
Amateurs: the firm has a web site and the owners buy a simple program and build it themselves.
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Professional web builders: people who claim to know everything there is to know about web design, and can deliver a real all-singing all-dancing site.
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People who understand communication.
The advantage of the owners building their own site is that it is cheap. The problem is that when they build the site they generally don't consider the way in which sites work, and the most effective way of designing and running a site. They often spend time thinking about the technology and not about such issues as, how do I get my site higher up the Google rankings, how do I get people to read my site, how do I get people to order.
You might believe that people who are professionals at building sites know all the answers to all these questions, but unfortunately they often don't. They might well be masters of the technology but they are not necessarily masters of the psychology of perception, nor about the different ways of making sites work in the way you want them to. They might be able to show you other sites they have built but that doesn't mean those sites really work well - even if they do look great.
If you do talk to professional web builders, ask them about the aims of a site they have built and how their sites meet these aims. They should talk about the specifics of the audience, what they want, how they behave etc, and the route to sales - making it simple and easy for this particular audience.
People who understand communication might not be professional web designers, but they know how to make audiences behave in certain ways. They know how to get a site up the rankings, how to get people to read pages, and how to get orders.
Of course when designing for a teenage market they know about all the latest approaches that work for that market. But when designing for doctors or teachers, they know how to adopt a different approach.
Whichever people you use to build your web site, the end result should be different from that of your competitors. If your competitors have sold totally on price, and you can't take the price any lower, don't sell on price - sell on speed of delivery, or some other issue. If they have a web site that phases in and out, makes noises, and has pop ups all over the place, give your readers something that is very easy to arrange and organise, and which loads really quickly.
Differentiation should always work to your advantage, and should always generate more sales.
Events
The simple concept of events is one that is often ignored (because it means more work) and yet it can be of great benefit.
The essence of "events" means having something new on the web site - details of forthcoming activities, a questionnaire, a special offer for a limited period, news relevant to your readers... It will be different for different web sites, but the concept remains the same - add some changing events to the site, month by month.
Companies selling CDs or books often have two types of event: Special Sales and New Releases. You might want to use this route, or you might want to go down another route and give some latest news.
You don't always have to have events - for example if you web site is totally information orientated and people come to it for that information, then the event might get in the way.
Also if you have a multiplicity of sites you might change the sites in rotation, having an event on one, then the next.
But when you do put something new on the site, do make an event of it - indicate that there is a change, and without going over the top, do allow the reader to find it quickly.
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