Make Your Website WORK For You
Your website is often the first place potential clients go to learn more about what you do, or where your agents go to get info and tools. Is it something that conveys the image of your business like you want it to? Does looking at it make people interested in doing business with or though you?
There are a great many things that can help your image through your website. Here are a few do’s and don’ts of creating a website that is easy to use and creates a positive image of you and your company.
Do: Leave white space. White space is empty space that is just that, space with nothing in it. It creates breathing room that allows people who visit the site to not be overwhelmed and to be able to read what is there.
Do: Make the home page inviting. It should have only the most important information, things that make them want to look at the site more. If your website is for clients, how do they get what you are selling? What is it that your company does in one or two sentences? Does it peak the interest of the person looking at it, or does it have too much or too little information?
Do: Use high quality pictures! Make sure that you have the correct license to use the pictures on the web, and that they are crisp and clear. You want pictures that go with what you are trying to say about yourself. If you are selling a tangible product, get professional quality pictures taken of it. If you want pictures of who works at your company on a contact us or about us page, get them taken professionally! Cell phone pictures and low quality pictures end up blurry and are less classy. Remember, this is how people first see you (and judge you), so make a good impression.
Do: Proofread! Always have a few people look over your text portions so that they are grammatically correct.
Do: Make things easy and intuitive to find. If you have a tool or a product, put it where people can logically find it. Make sure your navigation always stays the same and stays in the same place. If people get frustrated looking for things, they will think twice before returning or doing business with you.
Do: Keep outside advertising to zero or a minimum. While it might be a tempting source of income, for potential clients, lots of pop-ups and click-here ads are a nuisance and often keep them from finding your actual product.
Do not: Crowd your navigation bar too much. If you have too many pages on the navigation bar, it gets overwhelming. Make the user experience as easy as possible. Nesting navigation items is one way to do this, so that the navigation bar is clean and simple, with other pages nested underneath that can be seen when a mouse hovers over.
Do not: Try to be too flashy or loud. Use colors that don’t induce nausea, or seizures. You want to get their attention, not make them hate your website because it is so over done. Also pop-ups, music that plays automatically, and scrolling marquees are turn offs for potential clients.
Do not: Have content just to have content. Be purposeful about what you put on your pages. It is better to have only a few pages with a few sentences about what really matters than to have many pages of “fluff” that doesn’t tell anything about what you do. On the flipside, make sure that there is enough information that people can actually tell what you are selling or what you do, and what/how to get it.
Do not: Hide your contact information on an obscure, hard-to-find page. Email addresses and contact forms provide a good way for clients to get their questions answered. If they can’t contact you or get support for the product, they will find another place that can answer their questions and provide better customer service, possibly your competitor.
IENetwork provides a low cost option for updating or creating your website. See more details here: https://ienetwork.com/products/agency_website or contact our support team: https://ienetwork.com/support