In just the last couple of years we've started to see some standardization on the Web. There are certain key things your site should have in order to meet these standards.

Clear Look and Feel: When the Internet first started, it was geared more toward technical people and many of the websites reflected that. Today, the standard requires websites to have a clean, understandable and consistent look and feel. Companies must make sure their website looks more professional and less 'techy.'

Updated Content: Every business should update their website content at least quarterly if not more often. One of the worst mistakes to make is to allow your site to become stale with no change. When someone in your target market visits your site and sees that the information remains unchanged, chances are they will not come back a third or fourth time. To create a professional website you need to show your visitors what you are doing today.

Simple Navigation: Imagine you are lost in a town that isn't listed on your map. Chances are you won't be buying another map from that company or recommending their maps to friends. The same holds true for websites. If you make your navigation difficult to follow, visitors will not only get frustrated and have problems finding information on your site, they won't return. Over the last few years online users have become accustomed to a certain style of Web navigation and site structure that avoids confusion and allows them to easily take full advantage of the information on a site. Gone are the days when visitors will put up with 'clever' navigation. Site navigation needs to be held to a consistent standard so online visitors will not get confused and go elsewhere with a click of the mouse.

Not Just Text: When the Web first started, people were just linking documents together and the pages were very simple. Today's standard requires you to have a hook to keep visitors entertained and coming back. This can be accomplished by incorporating some of the newer technologies into your website such as Macromedia Flash, news feeds and other innovative ideas so that each time a visitor comes to the site they are getting what they need and the site never gets stale. Companies can also incorporate their databases into their website so that visitors can do online ordering, membership enrollment, login to membership areas, participate in online auctions, look up maps, make travel reservations or do inventory searches.

Make it Interactive: The days of static websites are over. While some companies may be fearful of the maintenance that is required for an interactive site, there are ways to provide some interactivity with little maintenance. This can be as simple as creating a member portion of the website for newsletters and forums or creation of a database for visitors to log personal information.

Optimize for Search Engines: One of the most important parts of the website is the part that isn't visible. It's the coding for the search engines so they know to list your site. Most websites aren't properly coded, so the search engines spiders never find the site, and neither do the visitors. It is important to pay attention to the coding when sites are redesigned.

Now if you've read these basic standards and realize you need to redesign your site, the redesign shouldn't be a matter of just fixing the problems. Companies need to approach the site redesign just as they would approach the redesign of their other marketing materials, with strategic planning.

Continue...

Contact Us for a Review of Your Website

Orange County Web Developer is a division of My WebTeam, Inc. an Orange County California Web Developer