What do you think the most important component of a business' website is?
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Over the years, I think that websites have to be designed from the Users perspective. Make a site difficult to navigate, boring, or bury the content they are looking for, or worse, not provide it - they're GONE. With MILLIONS of sites out there, people will abandon a crappy site in microseconds and never leave the home or landing page.
Along those lines, what's in it for site visitors? I it's just an ego exercise for the site owners, or full of dull self-serving corporate speak - users will be GONE.
Avoid like the kiss of death "under construction, coming soon, page/site being re-vamped" notices. Users will be GONE. Don't promise future content, ANNOUNCE NEW CONTENT. A clean and tidy one page site is better than a big site full of unfinished pages.
Modern sites should be responsive - look good and be functional on smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Responsive sites are far less troublesome to maintain than separate mobile sites. - hey Yahoo! Talkin' to YOU. Watch out for the current craze in one-page sites. If you have so much content that the page is as tall as Mt McKinley on Desktop, then scrolling it on a smartphone is like descenting the Mines of Moria, you should probably break it into multiple pages.
Be legitimate. Include legitimate contact and location information. One client refused to have their phone number or biz address, as they didn't want to be harassed by "random internet people." I told them "Then take your site down, you're not really in business." ... you WANT "random internet people" to contact you! And for fraks's sake MAKE IT EASY. Have contact forms, and put your vitals in your page footers.
Last, content, Content, CONTENT. It's literally the ONLY thing that differentiates YOUR site from the MILLIONS of other perfectly appealing business sites out there. The most beautiful, functional, fastest, most polished site in the world is useless without content. Gather it, write it, proof it, get it up there. Use your own graphics and photography, and avoid stock photography. Believe me, your users have seen it. Furthermore, your web site should match and reinforce your company's branding and graphic Identity. If you don't have a good logo, STOP - and go do that FIRST, then think about a web site.
Along those lines, what's in it for site visitors? I it's just an ego exercise for the site owners, or full of dull self-serving corporate speak - users will be GONE.
Avoid like the kiss of death "under construction, coming soon, page/site being re-vamped" notices. Users will be GONE. Don't promise future content, ANNOUNCE NEW CONTENT. A clean and tidy one page site is better than a big site full of unfinished pages.
Modern sites should be responsive - look good and be functional on smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Responsive sites are far less troublesome to maintain than separate mobile sites. - hey Yahoo! Talkin' to YOU. Watch out for the current craze in one-page sites. If you have so much content that the page is as tall as Mt McKinley on Desktop, then scrolling it on a smartphone is like descenting the Mines of Moria, you should probably break it into multiple pages.
Be legitimate. Include legitimate contact and location information. One client refused to have their phone number or biz address, as they didn't want to be harassed by "random internet people." I told them "Then take your site down, you're not really in business." ... you WANT "random internet people" to contact you! And for fraks's sake MAKE IT EASY. Have contact forms, and put your vitals in your page footers.
Last, content, Content, CONTENT. It's literally the ONLY thing that differentiates YOUR site from the MILLIONS of other perfectly appealing business sites out there. The most beautiful, functional, fastest, most polished site in the world is useless without content. Gather it, write it, proof it, get it up there. Use your own graphics and photography, and avoid stock photography. Believe me, your users have seen it. Furthermore, your web site should match and reinforce your company's branding and graphic Identity. If you don't have a good logo, STOP - and go do that FIRST, then think about a web site.
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