Spyro Interactive: Blog http://blog.spyrointeractive.com Creative thinking beyond imagination. Sat, 03 May 2008 12:46:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 en Ten Easy Steps to a Useable Website http://blog.spyrointeractive.com/2006/05/19/ten-easy-steps-to-a-useable-website/ http://blog.spyrointeractive.com/2006/05/19/ten-easy-steps-to-a-useable-website/#comments Thu, 18 May 2006 20:04:47 +0000 Arun Gupta Development http://www.spyrointeractive.com/blog/2006/05/19/ten-easy-steps-to-a-useable-website/ Building a useable website can seem daunting. Here is a quick guideline to help you on your way.

1.It’s all about your content

To get your website listed appropriately the content of your website needs to be nested between the tags. This way it gets read by the search engines. Your content also needs to be unique and get your point across.What is it about your product or service that is better and different from your competitions. This is called your usp or unique selling proposition and should be conveyed clearly and immediately upon hitting the page.

2.Make effective use of your title and description tags

These are your two most important tags when it comes to referencing your page content. Meta keywords rarely have any impact what so ever on your pages listings.

3.Make sure content is well formatted

It is very important to break up your content with italics, bold text, bulleted lists, etc. Well formatted content makes your pages more accessible to visitors but the search engines also. Visitors scan across your page rather than read it so it makes sense to format your page so it can be browsed yet still convey your message.

4.Proper code

Having proper progamming in place is quite simply a must. Web standards have changed substantially over the years and it is important to make sure your pages validate both html and css. Think of it this way. How effective could you get your point across if you were talking swahili. Your code is no different. Why make it difficult for the search bots to index your content.

5.Do not use Front Page, Dreamweaver, or any other WYSIWYG editor.

While accurate, MS Front Page, for example, makes it easy for just about anyone to throw up a web page it doesn’t take W3C compliancy into account Hence the code it outputs is an absolute train wreck. This is terminal for your website as you need a strong code base (foundation) or your site will never stand up to the competitions.

6.Don’t design in Flash

Seemingly technical in nature or “neat” perhaps flash animation only serves to distract visitors from what they came to your site for in the first place, your product or service. Your services are what visitors are interested in not a blinking, noisy, website. Flash also creates major problems with getting it properly indexed. There is no way for the search engines to extract content from your website as it is all contained with in the swf. If you absolutely must have a flash page it is imparitive to offer an html version as well.

7.Easy on the eyes

Graphical elements play a huge role in a website design as well. You need to make sure you don’t have any extreme contrasts between colors and that you don’t use really bright colors as they are quite hard on the eyes. Your logo or brand should be clearly displayed on the home page and in more than one place.

8.Instill a sense of well being with ease of use

Make sure you have all legal documents in place such as privacy and return policies. It is also important to have all of your contact information pricing etc. displayed in a manner that conveys legitimacy. It should be very easy to contact you for any questions your visitors may have.

9.Include an opt-in newsletter

A great way to generate return customers is to offer an opt-in newsletter. This allows for direct marketing to people who you know are already interested in your product or service. What better way is there to keep customers abreast of new products or changes in the services you offer.

10.Use a trademark or tag line

In our case we trademarked the manipulated at symbol with the phrase bringing e-solutions to you, thereby effectively increasing the strength of our brand. We are now able to effectively convey who we are but give a good creative idea as to what we do.

]]> http://blog.spyrointeractive.com/2006/05/19/ten-easy-steps-to-a-useable-website/feed/ Improving Your Sites Look and Feel http://blog.spyrointeractive.com/2006/05/19/improving-your-sites-look-and-feel/ http://blog.spyrointeractive.com/2006/05/19/improving-your-sites-look-and-feel/#comments Thu, 18 May 2006 19:58:36 +0000 Arun Gupta Design http://www.spyrointeractive.com/blog/2006/05/19/improving-your-sites-look-and-feel/ Driving traffic to your website is important. But it is likewise important to ensure that your web design makes your visitors stay. After all, what is the use of spending thousands of dollars and wasting lots of effort and time in creating a unique product, securing top rankings on search engines and creating a hundred page site if your visitors don’t stay once they found your page?

There are a lot of factors to consider in creating a successful site. First of all, your site should be easy to navigate. Don’t make your visitors click on ten links and scroll down each page just to find what they are looking for. All pages on the site must not be five clicks away from the homepage. Visitors will enjoy surfing your site if it is easy for them to find the information that they want.

Second of all, your site must load fast. This is often one of the biggest problems on the Internet. Some sites take more than twenty minutes to load and some visitors don’t have the time and patience to wait for a long time. As a result they click away from your site. One of the best ways to make your site load fast is to use more text and fewer graphics. Keep in mind that not all visitors have fast connection so you have to design your site the way everyone can view it quickly.

Third of all, always remember your purpose in designing your website. Ask yourself, do visitors say wow when they see your site and then click away? Or do they stay and surf your site for a while? Does your site sell or just impress people?

It does not really matter is your visitors are impressed by your graphics and animations. What you have to keep in mind is your purpose. If you want your site to sell you have to design it in such a way that your visitors get interested in your offer and are encouraged to buy.

Fourth of all, use the right colors. Color is a very important to your website. When they are used correctly they can highlight important points and add clarity and impact to your message. But when they are used incorrectly, it can confuse your visitors and compromise your message.

Keep in mind that current trends play a big role in color schemes. A good strategy is to design your site in such a way that if a color change has to be made, it can be done so easily.

If you are able to follow this tips you will not only attract many visitors but you will also encourage them to stay for a while and maybe you can turn them into paying customers.

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