If you were to compare your company’s website design to famous baseball players, would your site be emblematic of Mark McGwire or Babe Ruth? While these players did not compete or play during the same era, both set and broke amazing home run records.

As we know — today, Babe Ruth had some unhealthy habits. Back then, baseball players could down a couple of hot dogs and slam a few beers, before hitting a homer. That’s how Babe played the season he came up with 60 home runs. Nevertheless, the wins were genuine, free of any superhuman inducing powers. Mark McGwire didn’t down any hot dogs during the season that he set the new 70-home run record. In fact, he went the other way with steroids.

As for  website design, who do you prefer to emulate, Mark McGwire or Babe Ruth? Organizations who are concerned with protecting their legacy generally mimic Babe. While, their site may have a few flaws, they conduct business above board. When Google indexes their site, it is free of the steroid-esque qualities.

• Door way pages
• Misleading meta tags
• Stuffed Keywords
• Misleading title pages
• Link exchanges

In the end, it’s up to the Major League Baseball organization to determine how to document the history books about baseball players, who broke records under the influence of steroids.

Unfortunately, Google is not so forgiving. Although, Google will never question the legitimacy of the company Website developed using ethical website design and SEO programming, websites not meeting appropriate design standards can be penalized, and potentially  excluded  from their search engine results.

Is your website design developed using ethical programming? Contact The Net Impact for a site analysis.

On the Internet, a business website is merely an organization’s virtual domain. Aside from clean website design, accentuated in a visually engaging layout, the primary purpose of the site is to generate leads and to close sales transactions. The business website also acts as a mechanism to initiate dialogue with current and prospective customers. Not limited to layout, fonts, and the color scheme, the contents of website design consists of influential information, crafted to influence the reader to make a consumer action.

Website Design Content Overview:

Home Page

On the home page,  the  navigational structure should depict the contents of each site  page. The home page is an overall cover page, highlighting provided products and services. The home page includes the underlining advantages the organization offers its prospective and current customers. More importantly, the home page should make it clear what products and services are offered, tantalizing the visitor to learn more.

To accommodate mobile technology (iPhone, BlackBerry, Smartphone), the latest home page website designs are crafted of page links, which lead to the product and service pages.

Products and Service Pages

The site is comprised of information, pertaining to how your business benefits the target audience why your services outshine the competition and the underlying advantage of doing business. Products and service pages should provide a succinct overview of core competencies, highlighting benefits.

Each page of the website should consist of keywords related to the product and terminology appropriate for the marketplace and target audience.

About Us

The “About us ” page is a mini-executive biography, validating why your organization is the trusted provider (Includes licenses, code of ethics and other credibility supporting data).

An extension of the website, blog design is a  a collection of articles, video, and content crafted to entertain, edify and demonstrate an organization’s expertise and leadership in the marketplace. 

Contact a company, who knows web design.

Regardless of the medium, everyone has unique design preferences. But, just because website design is one of those subjective issues in the eye of the beholder, it does not compromise specific stylization features, necessary to achieve specific tasks, -such as generating leads and selling products. Best Website Designers compiled a list of basic features to analyze rudimentary website design.

Does the website design have adequate white space? The foundation of good web design allows the audience to identify the promotion without being visually overwhelmed by too many images, call to actions and other design elements. Remember the purpose is to capture the visitor’s attention without compelling site abandonment.

Is the type legibly, displayed in an easy-to-read layout?
Microscopic fonts are counterproductive to the purpose of the web design – to motivate site traffic to take action.

Are the headings and titles accentuated in bold typography?
Fonts tend to emphasize structure, delineating space, capturing the reader’s attention.

• Is the objective of the website design accomplished?
• Is the objective to generate leads, referrals, or to sell products?

Rudimentary website design accomplishes four tasks: Attention, interest, desire and action.

• Is the design captivating enough that it draws in the audience / target market?
• Does the design feature any benefits (as in Interest)?
• Are there any design attributes, which instill trust (Desire) to buy using money-back guarantee, testimonials?
• Is the call to action and the design simplify the consumer’s check-out transaction?

If you would like more information about website design to improve your site’s conversion rate, contact The Net Impact at 888.629-4672.

Does your company covet the site designed using flash animation? Have you ever watched he classic Twilight Zone, episode titled, ‘The Eye of the Beholder’? It’s the one, where a bandage-faced woman lays in wait for the removal of her surgical dressings. Enduring the eleventh reconstructive procedure, she yearns to look like everyone else on her planet. In actuality, the others’ faces bear a resemblance to the swine species.  “The Eye of the Beholder” is analogous of Web design. Not saying that companies want their site to be branded using the icon of a pig, flash has its place in web design. 

If you click on the following link: “Website design,” you will see a home page void of photos, colors and layout. From a first impression, it seems like the company Web site lacks the design qualities that The Net Impact preaches about. However, upon a close assessment, the page is designed to accommodate all platforms: desktops, personal computers, Mac, and mobile technologies.

Rather then overwhelm visitors with a flash presentation, the site accommodates all operating systems, making it easier for anyone to find and click onto interest specific information. Moreover, market research suggests that most business-to-business prospects prefer the traditional HTML presentation than flash.

Next, upon the click of content management system, the visitor is taken to a page, where, each Web page features Web design continuity. In other words, each page has the same site navigation, layout and design features.

And while, the home page is not comprised of all the bells and whistles, which bellow “super-slick” web design, few site visitors abandon the site because they were unable to find specific information or the animation took too long to load.

So, in the eye of the beholder, user-friendly, SEO driven Website design  appeases every end-user.

Ask The Best Website Designer

Q:

My business partner and I are compiling a list of web design features for the development of our new site. We have different tastes in design. Could you provide any design tips about sound and animated characters?

________________________________________________________

A:

Audio and animation are so subjective. Market research suggests that most online users consider animated images and noises to be sensory overload. These distractions are not the types of Website design tools that inspire sales conversions. In fact, flashing characters and ambient clatters are tantamount to being in a meeting with an obnoxious salesperson, who makes inappropriate jokes and gestures.

The best way to test these design accessories, is to leave it up to your site visitors. After all, the ultimate goal of the company Website is to procure new client relationships.

There are two ways to test the  “appeal” of sound and animated images.

A.    The first method involves the design of two landing pages, using the same copy, but one with the audio-visual and one without.  So, whichever converts the best traffic or endures the longest visits is the winner. Your site’s statistics will provide this information.

B.    The easiest tactic is to design a site that allows your visitors to select the extra sound and site visual embellishments. And again, review your site’s statistics to determine how many visitors are downloading these features.

Let us know how your test goes. If you need help, be sure to contact us.

Post your Website design questions and comments below.

Read more on Website design.

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