Etips is a publication of:
Your Guide to Professional Web
Site Design and Development
Hello,
Welcome to this week's edition of Etips.
Do you know what the difference is between a good website and a
great website? In this week's edition of Etips, Dr. Kevin Nunley shares
his thoughts on making a good site great.
I hope you'll enjoy this week's edition of Etips.
To Your Success!
 How to Take Your Site From
Good to Great
By
Kevin
Nunley
In the past decade I've seen more
websites than I can count. Plenty of them were terrible, and a small percentage
of them were excellent. But for the most part, what I've seen are a lot of
mediocre sites that are just, well...good.
But if people knew how simple it was to take a site that is just mediocre
and make it great, the Internet would be overflowing with phenomenal sites.
So, what makes a website great? Is it the content? The navigation? The graphics?
Well, those elements factor in. But what really makes a site great is its
ability to cater to the needs of both the visitor and the owner. Those needs
include content, graphics, navigation, and whole lot more.
I heard from an online business owner recently who was having much less success
with his site than he'd expected. "My site is everything I wanted it to be,
but it's just not pulling in any visitors," he explained. I took a look at
his site from the perspective of a visitor and saw the problem immediately.
What he said was true: his site did have everything he wanted it to have.
The problem was, it didn't have everything visitors would want it to.
To create a truly great site, you have to know what your visitors want. Most
site owners rely on a few paragraphs describing their target demographic,
and then assume they know what their audience wants. That is exactly why
there are so many mediocre sites on the Internet today.
You can't assume your visitors want this or that; you have to find out first
hand what they want. In order to do this, you have to transform that bunch
of web pages and graphics into an interactive experience, so you and your
visitors can communicate openly with each other.
The point of a website is not simply to put up pages and graphics in an attempt
to sell products or get people to subscribe to your newsletter. You need
to communicate ideas and concepts to your visitors, but you also need to
listen.
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I recommend adding an email form
and guest book, or even a forum, to give visitors an opportunity to tell
you what's on their mind; what they want from you. Because when you know
what they want, you can give it to them.
Encourage questions and comments from visitors so you can get involved in
online communication. When you have an open communication with your visitors,
you take that essential step toward knowing who they are, which enables you
to provide them with what they want and need.
Once you've wooed your visitors with open communication and shown a genuine
desire to help them in any way you can, a "tell-a- friend" feature will come
in handy. Word of mouth is one of the most important elements of successful
marketing. But on the Internet, we don't have mouths. We only have words.
With a "tell- a-friend" feature, you capture the essence of word-of-mouth
by enabling visitors to pass on their positive opinion of your site. If people
have a good experience with your site, or see that it would benefit others
they know, they will share that experience with others.
If you want to take communication a step further, include a message board.
People will come to your site to post messages for each other, answer questions,
and discus subjects related to what you're doing. And while they're there,
if they just so happen to purchase your products, subscribe to your ezine,
or donate money to support your cause, all the better!
If you want to find out even more about how visitors view your site, use
polls and surveys. If someone feels strongly about your site, they will take
the time to fill out the survey. But if you want to motivate them even more,
try offering a free report or a free subscription to your newsletter, anything
to make them consider filling out the poll.
There is no one thing that will make your site one of the best: not the best
graphics, or the most informative content, or the most in-demand products.
There are plenty of sites out there that have some or all of these elements,
but they still aren't making it to the level of excellence they could.
If you really want to take your site from good to great, you have to know
what your visitors want. In order to do this, you must communicate openly
with them. Give your visitors many different options for communication so
they will be more likely to visit and communicate with you. In no time you'll
see your site go from good to great, and your sales will come along for the
ride.
About the Author:
| Kevin Nunley
provides marketing advice, web site analysis and copy, and copy writing for
businesses and organizations. See his full-service press release package
at
http://DrNunley.com/.
Reach him at kevin@drnunley.com or
603-249-9519. |
|
| Tip of
the Week |
 |
If you've ever wanted to set
up a directory, this great script will make it simple. It is modeled after
Yahoo and inspired by The CGI Resource Index. It can be completely customized
to match the look and feel of your web site. You can find it
here.
Today's tip is an excerpt from the highly acclaimed
Web Design Mastery series.
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