You see there are many ways to design and build web sites that work well. There are also many ways to design and build web sites that don’t work well at all!

So how do we know if a web site is being designed to help improve its performance? How do we make sure a web site can build a level of trust with potential customers so that they provide you with their information, contact you themselves or purchase something from you?
In the picture below I have illustrated how basic a web site layout should look something like… of course it change around a little with creativity, but as long things like phone numbers are clearly noticeable we are good to go. I’ll explain why underneath.

Logo – This obviously is a way to identify who you are. You also want it to clearly and quickly demonstrate what you do. So if you are an acting company, state straight away either in the logo itself or in a sentence underneath that you are an “Acting company for Australian students” as just a quick example.

Phone number / contact details – This information is vital for any small business. Having a contactable phone number first of all proves that you are a legitimate business. Secondly it provides a easy way for people to reach you straight away. If you work from home like many small businesses do and don’t want to use your home phone there are alternatives. You can either sign up with a local virtual office that can provide you with a local phone number that forwards to your own, or give Skype a go (visit www.skype.com). With Skype, you can purchase a local number for nearly anywhere in the world and then either choose to answer it through you computer, or forward it on your mobile / cell phone or even set up an answering machine message.

Links – Less is more! These need to be prominent and easy to follow and understand. A user of the web site must be able to get to where they want on the site with 1-2 clicks, otherwise they will give up and go somewhere else. Users also prefer to not click at all if they have to, so if you have lots of information, you are actually better off to display it all on a long drawn out page. Have you seen those marketing websites that only exist of a single page, taking you through all the reason why you want the latest ab cruncher? There is a reason why these sites exist and work so well.

Free giveaway / newsletter sign up – This side menu is optional and is normally only exists on the inner pages and not on the homepage. This allows you to try to collect the user / potential customer details to build up your database and potential clients. Often giving something away such as a free eBook or free online video will help entice people to sign up.

Content – the content is what people read the most but also skip through the most. This is why you should always keep to the point and keep reinforcing reasons why you are the best or why your product is the best again and again all the way through. Video and images also help to tell a story quickly and easily. Just make sure they look professional enough for your target audience so that you don’t scare them away.

Call to action – this little area down the bottom of the page very important. You want to make sure you use it wisely as this is where most people will look at. If you have a long sales letter type page, the most read area is actually the spot where people write the P.S and P.P.S statements. Here is the call to action area, you want to lead the user into what to do next otherwise they won’t know and will probably leave the site. So let them know if you want them to sign up to your newsletter, contact you or even buy something from you.

This is just a basic overview with some ideas. Obviously there are many, many more elements to creating trust in your site. If you don’t have a website already and would be interested in learning more about our professional services, please feel free to contact us.

This video shows how social bookmarking can be used to help climb positions in the search engine rankings.

The page used in the example of bookmarking sites is www.businesshelpbox.com/socialbookmarker

Please feel free to leave any comment or questions below…