People are visually oriented these days and you must stun and amaze them with your website design. Slapping a few pretty pictures on your Home page is not going to do the trick. There are tools out there that help you create an enticing experience that will keep your visitors on your front page and encourage them to click through to your other pages. How your website is set up is the first step in creating a user-friendly space. What people see is your second consideration.
Navigational Structure
When mapping out your small business website design, the first thing you must do is consider your navigational structure. Your home page is key here. When people enter your URL address or click through to your page, they want to see something that is user-friendly. If you do not present quick and easy links that are visible to the other pages on your website, your visitors will hit the back button and move to the next website in the search results. How to get from Point A to Point B must be obvious to your visitors right away, but that’s not all.
Point A should take your visitor cleanly to Point B. If your visitor clicks your About Us link from your Home page and he or she is taken elsewhere, you’ve just guarantee two back-button clicks to get out of your website altogether. Your navigational structure must be concise: A click on a product picture to the product page with the description, and then a click to the shopping cart to purchase it. Don’t muddle your navigation with confusing landing pages that don’t take your visitor where he or she wants to go.
Enticing Your Audience
You must also entice your audience. Your goal is to get people on your page and keep them there, so they’ll be more inclined to shop and make a purchase. Part of your navigational structure can be to direct users to your About Us page and then tell a compelling story. Explain why you do what you do, what got you into your business, and how you conduct your business, especially if you’re doing something that makes a difference in the world today.
Also stimulate them visually. You want to catch their eye with your website design, so infuse a lot of visual cues. For example, instead of writing out what you do, tell people what you do using video. If you do write it, make certain to include a ton of pictures to guide them through the story. You can also demonstrate how your product is manufactured or how people use it. The bottom line is to entice your audience visually and use these videos and photos to help them navigate through your space.
This is a lot of programming, so make certain to enlist the help of a web builder. If you are strapped for operating funds to hire a professional website designer, you can use a less expensive website builder to help you design your pages. If you have the cash, enlist the help of a professional, because once you have a website that amazes your visitors, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to grow your business.