-
fyi
FYI is your source for the latest news and information about tourism and marketing from here at home and around the world. Please feel free to download and print any of the articles contained in this section.
- Ten Top Trends Impacting the Hospitality Industry Today
- Study finds online reviews a powerful tool
- Web Tips for the coming year
- Travellers User of the Internet Constantly Evolving
- Why Should You Invest in an Email Newsletter?
- How to Use Social Media for Search Engine Optimization
- Does Web 2.0 Make Copy and Content Less Important?
Read more in our
Maxx Marketing News
Web Tips for the coming year
Dec 21/07 - So what can you do do improve your website?
1. Make sure each page in your website has something valuable to offer.
Though this doesn’t really relate to design, it’s actually more important than design. I know many people reading this page are trying to find out how to make useless pages look pretty, because they think that style is all that really matters. So let’s step back a minute and realize that fundamentally a web page exists to provide something that’s useful or interesting to visitors. If your page doesn’t have that, then fix that problem before you worry about how to present it. If you throw mud at a canvas, then even if you put it in a gold frame, it’s still just a canvas of mud.
If your plan is to make money from advertising, then go for a ratio of not less than 75% editorial to 25% advertising. Amazingly, I see some sites that are almost nothing but ads. Would you turn on the TV if it were just commercials, and no programs? Would you buy a magazine if it were just ads, and no articles? If not, then make sure your web site doesn’t suffer from the same mistake.
2. Put some thought into organization.
Think about what content you have and how it should be organized. This is at least as important as what your pages look like, so actually spend some time on it. You do your readers a disservice if they can’t easily find what they’re looking for if everything is thrown up on your site in a haphazard fashion.
3. Minimize clicking!
Put as few clicks between your visitor and your information as possible. This is so important I’ll repeat it: Put as few clicks between your visitor and your information as possible. The more you force your visitors to click around your site the more likely they’ll abandon it. Even if they don’t leave they might get annoyed, or not view as much of your content—either of which is bad for you.
Is your home page a splash page (a page with no meaningful information on it, that simply welcomes visitors to the site, along with an Enter Site link)? If so, get rid of it. After someone takes the effort to visit your site, give them your site right away! Don’t make them knock on two different doors.
A related idea is to put meaningful amounts of information on each page. If a page doesn’t have at least 400 words, you probably should combine that page with another short page.
Along with minimizing clicking, minimize scrolling, too.
4. Limit page length to 2 screenfuls, or 6-7 screenfuls for articles.
While you should put a lot of info on each page to minimize clicking, don’t go too far in the other direction by putting too much info on a page. You should normally limit a page to no more than two screenfuls of info. Articles (like this one) are exceptions, because articles are longer by nature. But even so, very long articles (more than about 6-7 screenfuls) should be chunked into separate pages.
5. Use a spelling cheecker.
Obviously, people who spell poorly may not notice or care that your site is badly misspelled, but literate people may notice and care, and they’re in the majority.
Yes, I know about the ‘checker’ typo, it seemed so fitting - I was testing you to see if you were still awake and reading!
This information was brought to you by http://www.riverendconsulting , Victoria’s Search Engine Optimization Team relied upon by Maxx Communications for Search Engine Optimization, assistance with Web Design, E-commerce Shopping Carts and Customized Web Applications.