Category: Web Design

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Why Not Put Just a Wee Bit of Content on Your Home Page

I get asked this question a lot “Why do big companies just have a wee bit of content on their home page?”. There are several reasons why a website owner would want just a wee bit of content on their home page but nearly all reasons will not help you to garner search engine placement.

  1. Mistaken idea that the home page should be “pretty” and not have much content but lots of images.
  2. Mistaken idea that the home page is not important.
  3. Missed opportunities to introduce the depth and breadth of the website.

When I first started in web design 10 years ago, splash pages were the rage. A splash page  is where you had a graphic intense home page that had little if any content and was very different in look from the inside pages of your website. We have now moved away from this model as an industry. Now nearly every SEO and web design expert consider the home page crucial real estate for search engine placement.

You simply cannot garner the organic search placement you need to be competitive in today’s online marketplace with images or Flash components (that search engines cannot read) as key factors on your home page. For small to medium sized businesses the best plan is to have a keyword dense, web authority focused home page.

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Are You Trashing Up Your Website?

After a new website is launched, we do encourage all clients to routinely add to their website as it should be considered a work in progress. However sometimes in an effort to improve the site over time, the client ends up adding too many peripheral items that can impact the look of the site and the reader’s experience.

Particularly I have seen sites move from a “clean” polished look to a jumble when an indiscriminate amount of items are added to right or left side bars. Typically adding new content in the middle body section does not impact the overall look, but when you add to the sidebars, watch out!

It makes sense that if your page design has a left sidebar for features that you rotate features, but when you add, add, add, and never remove the site can start to look overly busy and become distracting to the reader. Add moving or animated graphics to this jumble, and suddenly your site takes on a “junky” look. I recommend that if you feel that you will have special promotions or features that you want in a sidebar location that you have these items integrated into your website design layout ahead of time, then stick with the number in the original design and rotate as needed. You can even have a features page linked from the sidebar and use the actual features page to highlight even more items.

The key here is to have smart growth, consider adding pages instead of sidebar features, add to your navigation instead of creating graphic boxes or highlights that site only on your sidebars. Keep your website looking “fresh” as your designer intended and don’t “cheapen” the look over time.

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Getty Images Sues Users of Template Websites

Not only did I read about this on the Web, but one of my new clients has been sued by Getty Images for over $17,000. Here the full listing on Google.com if you are interested in reading more people’s comments on this topic. Many are calling it a scam, but use of licensed images for unlicensed purposes puts you in a very tough spot.

The person who I know who got sued, used a pre-designed template from another resource. Unknown to them, the template they selected used an Getty Image. Clearly the template designer had not purchased a license to resell the image and that is why Getty Images sued this person.

What ended up happening was the client on advice from his attorney, shut down his website, closed his business under that name, abandoned his domain, and had to open a new business. Wow, that is pretty harsh action to be forced to take. What if this happened to you and you really didn’t want to close up shop?

I guess the big takeaway on this is, if you use a template design, you now need to confirm that the template you buy has bought the license to any images in the design and has transferred the license to you. It is not good enough that a license has been bought by the original designer for their use, but that you must be covered as well. In most cases this means the original designer must purchase an extended license particularly for resale and boy those type of licenses are expensive.

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Is Your Website a “One Night Stand”?

Nancy McCord will be back blogging on Monday. This article is one of her reprints.

Do visitors hit your home page and stay less than 10 seconds? Do your visitors rarely return for a second visit? Is your your home page bounce rate over 90%? If so, you may really need some help to improve stickiness and your visitor’s web experience. Your website may be one of the Web’s “one night stands” — never good enough for the “second date” or return visit.

Put your website to work for you by concentrating on providing great informational content. If your website is just about you and your services, and does not provide any interesting, conversation building content, you are missing the boat when it comes to what moves customers to contact you. You will never get the “second date” or sales call from a client or prospect when your focus is not on them, meeting their needs, and working to exceed their expectations.

It used to be that a website was like a brochure, but now we have gotten jaded by the “Web experience”. We want, crave, and demand interaction. Every website needs to engage visitors into conversation. Set the stage to become the authority for your clients and prospects and be their ”go-to person” with excellent content and transparency of what you do and how you do it using your website as your platform.

Don’t fall into the rut of being a one visit website. Break out and become the voice of your industry and watch your business grow!