Website Design
Websites are the new storefronts of the 21st century. And unlike bricks-and-mortar storefronts, a small business can appear equally as valid as their corporate counterparts. In some cases, more so. Corporations have been slow to adapt to the new media, and often rely on outdated techniques of marketing – splashy, synthetic, and generic.The most important aspects of a great website are functionality, clarity, and depth of information. Just because your website plays music does not make it sophisticated – on the contrary, it’s distracting the browser from their original reason they came to your site: can you solve my problem? Can I find the information that I’m looking for easily? And if I decide to do business with you, can I easily have my needs met?
A good website needs to be well-organized and well-written. And then you can worry about how good it looks.
E-Commerce
For businesses that sell products, and are looking to sell those products over the internet, an e-commerce site might be right for you. There are, of course, other methods of selling, via 3rd party vendors such as eBay or Amazon.com, but there are obvious pros and cons. The downside for these options is that they take a large percentage of your selling price, but they handle some of the logistics you may not want to deal with.
E-commerce sites are, however, fairly self-contained and easy to manage, and shipping has been made easier by improvement in logistics companies like FedEx or UPS. And best of all, you don’t have to share your profits with anyone else.
Media Rooms
Perhaps the most important section of your website in terms of marketing and PR is your Media Room, also known as a Press Room. Not only is this the first place journalists tend to visit, but many potential customers as well, for ostensibly the same purpose – to learn more about who you are, and what is current about your organization. People who are looking to see what you’ve recently done will inevitably visit the media room, curious to see any news or stories. Write-ups in respected journals are always fantastic, but even standard releases or short videos can inform others about your business in a way that resonates more than your copy. Often, a quality media room will be the most trafficked page on your site, and the highest ranked.
Like good websites, good media rooms are well-organized and dynamic. News releases are made easily accessible, multimedia content is available, as is detailed information about the company, and of course contact information for journalists and bloggers is highly visible and explicit.
Aesthetics
The first impression any business gives is visual, and the aesthetic representation of your storefront must be pleasing to the buyer persona you are courting. In this case, your storefront is virtual. It should reflect the style of the business itself. It should be a visual representation of the values your business espouses.
Aesthetically, my perception of many small business websites is that they lack any personality, and often contradict the brand of craftsmanship and expertise that most small businesses have as a natural asset.
Animation
Site animation, sometimes referred to as Flash (after the software that creates web animation), means any movement on your site, from the changing of colors on your browser buttons to small “movies” happening somewhere on your site.
Businesses often request Flash animation, as they feel it adds a level of pizzazz or class to their site. But functionally, and in terms of Search Engine Optimization, it does more harm than good. It slows down the loading time, eats up bandwidth, and prevents pages from being indexed by Google, resulting in less-than-desired search results. Worst of all, it could be distracting and unappealing.
That said, Flash can be used to great effect, especially when used sparingly and tastefully. For creative or dynamic professions, it can enhance the chosen style. It is best to determine your business’s brand, and whether Flash adds to or detracts from that brand.
Music
A word on music – many people ask us: should we have music on our site, to spice up the site? Our answer is a thunderous no. Here are some reasons why:
- It's obtrusive: Having music playing in the background can interrupt whatever is currently coming through the user’s speakers. Many people use their computers as media stations that play music and video. It's forcing something down the users’ throat they didn't ask for. Users expect web pages to contain useful information, not carry a tune.
- It cuts off when you click around: Unless you've got some kind of hidden frame (if you do, you've got bigger problems than music right now), the sound will cut off every time they click from page to page.
- Not all browsers and operating systems support multimedia content: There are a lot of older browsers out there on the net that might not support multimedia or will have serious issues playing it.
- It slows things down: Having music playing will decrease the performance of the site, especially on slower machines.
- Not everyone may like your music: What some people consider ambient and pleasant, others may find to be annoying, elevator music.
- It uses up bandwidth: This is hardly an issue nowadays, but if it's a high traffic site having music may run the risk of putting it over its traffic limit and costing extra money.