Web Site Design Resources

Choosing the Perfect Domain Name

Get this one wrong and you could be sending customers to the competition.

Choosing the right domain name should be an essential part of any business marketing plan. Here's why:

Every day, 60 million Americans use Internet search engines to find information about everything from health topics to new products, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit research center studying the social effects of the Internet on Americans.

Before you head to the online registrar, know that you could be in for a shake-down if you don't know the ropes. Here's a rundown of the most important things you need to know:

Use your business name. That is, of course, if it's available. If your company is Southwestern Web Design, your domain should be "southwesternwebdesign.com." That may seem obvious, but it's a point worth reiterating. Customers will automatically assume your domain is YourBusinessName.com and type it into a web browser. If they can't find it that way, it will make it harder for them to find you.
Be prepared for a challenge. By this point in the game, many of the best domain names have been snapped up, years ago. Generic names like cars.com, web.com or art.com were among the first to go, and are now worth millions of dollars. Unless your company has an extremely unique name, you may be in for lengthy brainstorming sessions with your business partners as you consider alternatives.
Always use a dot com. Having a dot com (.com) at the end of your URL is not only expected for companies, it also indicates a degree of professionalism that extensions such as .org, us, .info, etc. don't carry.
Keep it simple. Shorter names are easier to remember than longer ones. They also lend themselves better to radio and televisions advertisements and are less prone to typing errors. You'll get tired of repeating "MyOverlyComplexDomainName.com." Also, avoid dashes and other symbols, as well as obscure acronyms. "Consider how your domain name sounds when you have to read it over the phone to a customer. If you have to explain special characters, abbreviations, or spelling, then you've got a problem".
Register alternatives. Consider other URLs that potential customers might type in for your business. Doing so will keep customers from stumbling across a competitor's website. Most registrars forward secondary domains to your main URL for free.
Register your trademarks. If your company makes a hair product called "CurlNGo," buy the domain name CurlNGo.com (as well as CurlAndGo.com, for that matter).
Consider keywords. Buy additional domain names containing keywords that reflect your line of products or services and redirect them to your main site. This will improve your search engine rankings and bring you new customers. When doing online research, users tend to type in generic keywords such as "barbeque restaurant Atlanta" or "hair gel." To find the best keywords for your line of business, try Overture's inventory or WordTracker tools.
Use it. Let everyone know your URL: Incorporate it into mailers, television spots, business cards, and letterhead. The more you use it, the more people will remember it and visit your site.
Don't lose it. This is the most crucial point of all. If you run a successful business and fail to re-register your domain name on time, chances are good that a prospector will snap it up as soon as it expires. If this happens, you may be forced to buy back your domain at a high price from the domain squatter. To avoid this scenario, register your domain for as long as possible — Network Solutions sells 100-year registrations — and choose to have the registrar automatically renew your domain each year by keeping your credit card information on file.

Key Ingredients of Successful Websites

Grab the web surfer's attention! People move quickly from site to site so catch their attention with striking images, graphics and headlines.
Navigation should be simple and intuitive. People will leave a website quickly if the navigation is confusing in any way.
A well designed site with quality graphics will boost customer confidence. If a visitor perceives your site as amateurish, they will move on.
Place important information “above the fold” so people do not have to scroll to read it. This term is borrowed from newspaper publishing where lead stories are placed in the top half of a page or “above the fold”.
Images should be optimized so they download quickly on the web.
Ecommerce websites should make online ordering fast, easy and secure.
Respond to messages and orders from your website quickly. Usually within 24 hours.
Give people a reason to come back by providing fresh content.
Tell it up front! Explain who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how they can contact you on the home page.

How to build a successful website in 5 Steps

Whether you are hiring a professional or doing it yourself, these steps will help you organize your web design project. Creating a successful web site may not be as easy as it appears.

Determine who will be involved

Who in your office will be the person in charge of the website? Will someone in your office build the website or will you hire outside help? Will someone in your office update the website? What people will have initial input and review the new website? What company will host the site? Will a consultant or advertising agency be involved with the project?
Define the purpose and layout of the website

Is the goal of your website to expand your customer base? Provide information to existing customers? Support company marketing activities? Will you sell goods on the website? If so, will you accept credit cards? Do you need databases? Do you want a content management system? Get out a yellow pad and start making a list of pages. Draw a flow chart to help visualize the layout of the website.
Build and test the website

Create the home page and get everyone's approval on color, graphics and layout before building more pages. Assign several people to check parts of the website if your site is large. Have people "test surf" the website to make sure they can find information. If visitors have an unsatisfactory experience, they won't come back. Spell check the site. Misspelled words will erode your credibility. Ecommerce websites must test online order forms to avoid costly and embarrassing situations.
Promote the website

Even if you are familiar with some web marketing techniques, a web marketing professional can determine the right strategy for your website. There are many web marketing options available, selecting those that will be most effective for your website will save you time and money. Be sure to put your website address on your business cards, letterhead, brochures, advertising and all other marketing material. You should also create and use an email signature which includes your website address. Send out a press release announcing your new website.
Maintain and update the website

As your website evolves, pages will be added and removed. Regular maintenance should include looking for broken links and missing graphics. There are software programs to help you with this. Old price sheets and outdated articles will destroy your credibility. If you want to keep people coming back, you'll want to regularly update the website and add new information. No one will be interested in returning to a stagnant website.

The Most Common Website Design Mistakes

Stale content that never changes.
Obsolete or outdated articles, price sheets and other information.
Poor spelling, grammar or punctuation.
Website graphics take too long to download.
Poor image quality. Pictures aren't clear or look amateurish.
Incompatibility. Your site won't work on all browsers or needs special plug-ins.
Confusing navigation or lack of navigation.
Excessive scroll. Pages are too long forcing visitors to scroll excessively.
No clear message or purpose. Visitors can't easily determine what a website is all about.
Sensory overload. Too many bells and whistles including: flashing graphics, audio clips, animations, numerous type styles, busy background patterns, and inappropriate use of Flash.
Inconsistent style. The visual scheme of your website should be consistent throughout all pages.
Being pushy! Don't force visitors to register or provide personal information unless necessary.
Broken links will reduce the credibility of any website.
No specific person is assigned to oversee web site maintenance.
Website is not scalable. Preparation has not been made so navigation buttons can be added to meet future needs. Web pages or other content cannot easily be added or removed.

Search Engine Optimization 101

Search engines are the primary way Internet users find web sites today. That's why web sites with good search engine positions will see a dramatic quantity of traffic.

Everyone wants a good search engine position but submitting web sites is only part of the challenge. Because many web sites fail to consider how search engines work, many will have a poor search engine rank or may not be listed at all. That's why it is important to prepare a web site using search engine optimization techniques.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of making a web site rank higher in the search results of major search engines. It ensures that your web pages will be found by search engines and are optimized to take advantage of the criteria search engines use to rank web sites.

The task of search engine optimization is made difficult because every search engine uses its own criteria or formula for ranking web sites. And, to make things worse, they change their criteria frequently, especially if they suspect a method has been found to fool their system.

How Do You Optimize Your Web Site?

The term search engine is often used to describe both directories and search engines. A directory, like Yahoo, is human powered. A real live person looks at every web site submitted and decides if it should be added to their directory.

Search engines, on the other hand, use programs called spiders, crawlers or robots to index web site information. Examples of major search engines would be Google and Bing.

There are many search engine optimization techniques that can be employed regardless if you are submitting your site to directories or search engines.

The two most effective methods of search engine optimization are:

Link Popularity - Increasing the number of quality links to your web site can boost your search engine rank and increase traffic to your site.
Substantial Content - Content is king! More web pages containing real content will improve the search engine position of your web site. Search engines won't be fooled by bogus content such as illegible pages that do nothing but repeat keywords.

For specific strategies on increasing your web site link popularity, adding real content to your web site, and many more search engine optimization techniques, contact Wilcox Graphix.

8 Ways to Make Your Direct Marketing Copy Work Harder

In direct marketing campaigns - the kind designed to provoke a response of some kind - creative often takes a back seat to other factors. In the 60-20-20 rule (or any of its countless variations), Audience is essential … Offer is Everything … Creative is merely Compulsory.

Fine. Nevertheless, Copy is still King. Here's why:
Without good copy, your perfectly-targeted audience might never understand that wonderful offer of yours - or, even if they're suitably impressed, may not summon up the energy to do anything about it.

So whether you're penning an e-blast yourself, or reviewing your agency's draft of an upcoming self-mailer, it pays to know the difference between highly effective copy - the kind that commands high response rates - and the kind that just speeds your campaign's journey to the recycle bin.

Nailed your lists? Got an irresistible offer? Great. Here are 8 ways to make sure the copy does its job, too.

Make your copy approachable. Even great copy won't work if people don't read it - so present everything in digestible, "bite-size" chunks:
- Split up any paragraph that exceed 3 lines in length ...
- Present key selling concepts as series of bullets ...
- Use ellipses ("…") - both within sentences and at the end of serial bullets - to keep the reader's eye moving ...
- Sprinkle the page (or screen) with subheads (preferably bold or underlined, unless you're working in text-only e-mail).
- Add more bold and underline treatments wherever important ideas lurk (remember, some readers skim ONLY the big-and-bold; others may decide to read more, but only if these highly-visible ideas draw them in).
Ultimately, your page or screen should be at least 45% white space (and more is almost always better). Does this mean you'll spend more on paper? Maybe, but the increased response rates will more than cover any additional costs. Worried about forcing online readers to scroll? As long as a call to action and hyperlink are visible at all times, physical copy length won't hurt you. It's the readability that counts.
Present the call to action early - and often . Most audience members won't read your entire piece; and many skim, or skip around. It's critical to tell them what to do, then, as soon as possible (in a letter or e-mail package, no later than the 3rd paragraph). Briefly describe the offer, then tell readers to respond (and how to do so).

After that first call to action, give readers a few more reasons to respond - then tell them again (and tell them how again). If your copy is long (multiple pages or screens), always keep a call to action in sight. And because many readers look first at a letter's opening and close, always use the P.S. to tell readers precisely what to do.
Benefits first. Let's assume you're already sold on the value of communicating benefits over features. In direct response copy, there's an important trick that has to do with the way people skim these pieces: in nearly every phrase or sentence, express a benefit (of responding, or of using your product or service) - and write that benefit first.

Wrong: "Graphical, point-and-click user interface saves hours of your valuable time."(feature mentioned first)
Right: "Save valuable hours on a wide range of tasks, thanks to an easy-to-use, point-and-click interface." (benefit mentioned first)
Sell the offer, not the product. Whatever your campaign offers the target audience - a free information packet, an instructive Web seminar, a gift for visiting a trade show booth - concentrate on selling the benefits of responding and receiving the offer. (Why? Because your goal of your campaign is getting the person to respond, period.)

Selling the product may or may not be achievable (or even advisable) in the space your piece allows - especially if it's a big-ticket item. If you can just get someone interested enough to respond to the offer, you can then leave the real selling to your sales force. Plus you can always include your product brochure in that free info pack.

Wrong: "Send for your free packet and discover the powerful benefits of the Acme Integrated Infrastructure Miracle Suite." (selling the product)
Right: "Send for your free packet and learn how companies like yours are already trimming costs, boosting morale, and earning higher test scores for their kids." ( selling the offer )
Voice: be the helpful colleague your reader has been looking for. Most people like to take positive action, but many need encouragement. Everything about your copy should provide that helping hand. Here are two ways to find the right "voice:"
- Use second person ("you") language. Don't talk about yourself, your company, or its products - talk to the reader, about the reader.
  
  Wrong: "Our matchless products and services can help you increase productivity..." (talking about you and your products)
  Right: "You'll eliminate hours of tedious labor every week, simply by..." (talking about the reader, and benefits to the reader)
- Keep it action-oriented. Repeatedly describe the reader taking action ("Call today and find out how..."). Communicate concepts and benefits in active terms:
  
  Wrong: "These tools can really improve your bottom line..." (this is about your tools)
  Right: "You can rake in more revenues and slash costs..." (this is about the reader)
- Stick to active language (it's easier to read, and it works to stimulate the kind of action you like: responses to your offer).
  
  Wrong: "Our product is used in more than 300 companies in 20 countries." (passive voice invites drowsiness)
  Right: "Call center managers are already using the Acme Solution to crank up productivity in more than 300 companies worldwide." (active voice plus action-oriented words)
- Use the Shampoo Formula. Okay, it's a little more complex than lather, rinse, repeat, but it's a proven winner - and it works in direct mail letters, brochures, broadcast e-mail messages, even on splash pages for e-newsletter ad and banner campaigns. Structure your copy as follows, and you'll reel in the widest possible range of respondents.
  
  1. Acknowledge pain or opportunity
  2. Offer benefit (ease pain, grab opportunity)
  3. Call to action
  4. Offer description & benefit(s)
  5. Call to action ( Note: repeat steps 4 & 5 until you're out of compelling offer benefits - or space )
  6. Product mention, brief benefits
  7. Sweetener (a reason to respond NOW, such as a giveaway or limited-time discount) 8. Summarize benefits of responding (keep it punchy!)
  9. Call to action

Every word counts - but no need to count words. In direct marketing we can't afford to waste words - but we shouldn't unnecessarily withhold them, either. Stop writing when you've exhausted all the most compelling reasons to respond without being repetitive - and no earlier.

Hold back a few key benefits just to satisfy someone's idea of "ideal copy length," and you risk losing the reader who was on the fence, and needed a little more convincing.

Take the skimmer test. Finally, go back to the top and read only the headlines, subheads, and underlined or bold phrases. These words alone should tell your story - if they don't, adjust as necessary.

Why bother? We already admitted it - the audience, lists, media, and offer make the greatest impact on response. So why bother with all of this? The best reason: money. You'll spend a sizeable chunk on media, design, and production. Why wouldn't you want to maximize the return on your investment?

Choosing The Best Web Designer

Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have web design experience within your company. Building your web site will take time and a little homework!

To create a web site for your business, follow these simple steps:

• Establish your goals
• Determine your budget
• Pick a web design company

Establish Your Goals

Before you begin looking for a company to help you design and build your web site, take the time to understand the goals of your web site. This will be extremely important to help set expectations with the web design company you choose.

In order to set your web site goals, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why do you want a web site?
• Are you selling something?
• Do you have a catalog of products that changes on a regular basis?
• Who is your target market?
• Do you already have a brand?
• What is your industry?
• Who are your competitors?
• Do they already have web sites? If so, what do they look like?
• If you're selling something, will you accept credit cards over the internet?
• How soon do you want your web site?
• What happens if you never create a web site for your business?

Take the time to answer each of the above questions and if you have time, write the answers down on a sheet of paper. These are the same questions most web design companies will ask you before they begin to create your site. If you have these questions answered up front, you will have some criteria for choosing the right web design company. For example, if you are a real estate agent, and want to publish listings on your web site, you should seek a web design company that knows about the real estate business and has created web pages for other real estate agents.

Determine Your Budget

How much do you want to spend on your web site. Web sites can cost you anywhere from $500 to $100,000 depending upon what you want it to do. Know your spending constraints before you begin negotiating with design companies. Whatever you do, do not tell a web design company what your budget is!! Always get pricing based on your needs, not you budget.

Pick a Web Design Company

Your choice of a web design company is a very important step. Take your time to investigate all of your options. Here are some important items to consider.

Creative and Technical Ability

Developing a professional web site is a very creative and highly technical process. Many firms specialize in web site design and do not necessarily have any technical skills, and vice versa. The process of creating a web site is similar to the process of building a new home. Before you ask a construction company to start building, you first seek out an architect who creates a blueprint of your house taking into account what you want (number of stories, square footage, etc.). Creating a detailed blueprint before construction begins can help you accurately estimate the final price. Without the blueprint, you may end up paying a lot of money for a house that does not fit your needs.

Evaluate Experience

Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience? As with any services company, choosing someone that has relevant experience. If you want to sell products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience doing just that?

Review the Portfolio

A well established web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Ask for links to other site the design company has created and review each one. Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you? In addition to reviewing web sites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the web design company. Were they happy with the results? Did they get what they paid for? How much did they pay? Would they recommend them? How long did it take? What didn't they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions?

Compare Prices

Pricing for creating a web site can vary. Typically, web design companies will charge one of three ways:

• Time and materials: price is variable based on the actual number of hours spent working on your site. For example, a web design company may charge you $75 per hour. If it takes 100 hours to create your web site, your price would end up being $7,500.
• Fixed Price: some design companies will charge you a fixed fee based on a fixed set of requirements. If you outline your requirements very carefully, many web design companies will quote you a single price.
• Component Pricing: some design companies will charge "by the page". By creating a price based on the number of pages, you can control the cost by designing a specific number of pages. Buyer beware: some design companies will charge by the page but will have "special pricing" for components such as custom graphics, animated images, and the like.

The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal unless all of the costs are well understood up front. Also make sure that you understand what "done" means. Try and structure the payments such that a significant portion of the fees (20%) are not due until you "accept" the final web site. Include the agreed-upon dates in your contract and provisions for what will happen if these dates are not met.

There are thousands of web designers across the country. If a web design company dismisses any of your questions regarding their design process, pricing, or client references, take your business elsewhere!