Planning your Web site
Web sites are a great way to showcase your business for potential and existing customers. They are also a great way to present important information that just won't fit in a phone book listing or newspaper ad. Before you start designing your site, there are several things to think about. A little bit of planning before you create your pages will make your site easier to use and easier to expand in the future. This article will help you answer the key questions you should ask yourself when planning a Web site for your small or medium business, it will also assist you in setting up a low cost website design.

How do I figure out what I want?

An easy way to answer this question is to look at other business Web sites — both in your specific industry and in your business category, such as retail sales, manufacturing, or services. As you view these sites, ask yourself:    

• What do I like about this Web site? What do I dislike about it?
• Does the page hierarchy (also called navigation) make sense?
• What information can I link to from the Home page? How is the information organized?
• Do the categories and subcategories of information make sense?
• How are the pages laid out? Are they using one or more columns?
• Is the page easy to read? How does the page use headings, lists, and links?
• How much information is on each page? Is finding information easy? Is the information complete?
• Would a page like this be useful on my site? If yes, what would I do differently? 

 

What Web site pages do I need?

  You must decide how much information you want to present to your Web site visitors before determining the number of pages that you need. Make a list of the information you want to present.  Be general and be specific. Listing broad categories as well as specific information helps you to determine how to organize your site. Such organization also helps you to name your pages and to think about how visitors find those pages. Present one idea per page.  Statistics show that site visitors spend less than 10 seconds looking for specific information before they go somewhere else. The idea can be a large category of information, with links to more specific information, or one specific set of information. For example, a manufacturing company has a Products page on their Web site, which gives an overview of all the types of products that they manufacture. This page serves to provide the product overview. Descriptions of each product type are found on subsequent pages. These pages are reached by links on the Products page and the main idea for these pages is to give a detailed understanding of the individual product. Make your page names easily identifiable.  When you create new pages, you give them both a page title and a name. The page title appears in the browser’s title bar, and the page name is appended to your Web address. The page title can be changed at any time but the page name cannot. It is recommended that you use a page name that reflects the content of the page.

What should my Web site look like?

  The Web design tool included with Office Live Small Business makes designing your overall Web site easy. Using Site Designer, you choose the theme, style, and color so that all of your Web pages will have the same look. Your header and footer is used on every page of your site. You can, of course, individualize each page. Create a meaningful header.  The content that you put in your header appears across your entire site, not just on your home page. Think about all of the pages you are creating and ask yourself “does my header make sense for each page?” The header can include just your company name, or it can include your company slogan or a description of your business. You can also add a logo. Less is more.  Too many colors, too many font changes, or too much content will confuse visitors to your Web site. If there are too many design elements competing for attention, nothing stands out. Be consistent.  Stick with one heading style, font, and layout, if possible. If you change the look on every page, your visitors may not associate what they see on the site with your business.

How will visitors get around my Web site?

Unless your Web site has only one page, you need to decide how visitors will navigate to other pages to find the information that they need. When you make a list of all the information that you want on your site, try to group the larger categories of information with the related categories underneath each category. You may find that some information fits under more than one category. There are several ways to direct your Web site visitors to other pages on your Web site. You can use links in the navigation bar, inline links, and links in the footer. Create a useful navigation bar.  The same navigation bar appears on every page on your Web site. The links on this bar are always available to your visitors. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than six main links in your top-level (or parent) navigation, and then a similar number of subcategory (or child) links under any parent link. Include all of the pertinent pages under the a main category.  As noted earlier, you may find that one page really belongs in several different categories. Go ahead and include that link under each link for the category to which it applies. For example, for a site advertising apparel, a page containing a sizing chart may be pertinent to the Men, Women, and Children main categories and to each product subcategory. You can include the page link for the sizing chart in each of those categories Use links in your content.  Inline links can be some of the most effective ways to drive traffic to other pages on your Web site. These links are used in context, so the user knows exactly what they will find. You can use both text links (ones that are embedded in the written portion of your page) or picture links (pictures that, when clicked, open a new page). Use your footer to link to other pages.  Because the footer is used on every page on your Web site, it is a great way to send your visitors to useful content. Typically, footer links go to pages that visitors use frequently but may be buried in the page navigation. You can, for example, link to a careers page, the site map page, business hours and location information page, and a Contact Us page.

What about my content? 

Most people do not read every word on a Web page; instead, they scan it. With only a few seconds to grab the attention of your visitor, you have to decide what information your visitors are looking for, and make that information prominent. Make each page “scannable.”  Using large, unbroken blocks of text is a sure way to lose your visitors' interest. Break up your information into smaller chunks by writing short paragraphs using only one or two sentences, creating bulleted lists, or bolding important information within a block of text. Use pictures.  A photo or other graphic can communicate lots of information quickly. The picture should be immediately recognizable and convey your message at the same time. And don’t hesitate to use the picture as a link to more information. Speak the language of your customers.  Don't let industry jargon or highly technical terms that your visitors may not understand appear in your content. Answer your visitors' questions.  Make sure that the content on each page addresses the information your Web site visitors expects to see discussed. For example, a Contact Us page should have all of the ways a person can find you: phone numbers, e-mail addresses, street address, driving directions, and when you are available. Redundant links are okay.  If content is pertinent to several areas of your Web site, be sure that visitors can access it. Include links to the information, either on the navigation bar or through an inline link. Your goal is to make sure visitors can find what they need, when they need it. That could mean, for example, having multiple links to the same page from different areas on a single page (a navigation bar link and an inline link).