Keep It Simple, Stupid : A Guide To Useful Web Design

Simple website design is a vastly underestimated tool in a web designer/marketers arsenal.

Keeping a web page simple and uncluttered has benefits on both aesthetic and practical levels. The rise of interactive Web 2.0 sites, the need for endless plug-ins and add-ons can often deter less experienced users from a site before they have the chance to make use of anything it has to offer, so it is always important to think of you target demographic before deciding how to go about constructing your site.

If your site relies on returning traffic it may be worth incorporating related features, but if your site is more angled towards one-off visitors it is more worth your while keeping the site fast and intuitive to use.

Maintaining an aesthetically simple and effective site can be achieved by ensuring your pages are uncluttered, your colour schemes are easy on the eye and your navigation is intuitive. Background tools such as CSS can help you acheive this.

The advantages of this sort of thinking in web design includes better accessibility and site recognition which will help visitors easily identify your site and also allow them to access information and services quickly and easily. Put simply, fast and easy to read websites will help retain traffic at your site.

If you have a number of related sites, maintaining a similar design scheme can help visitors to recognise your sites more easily. Familiarity and trust in your sites can help to increase the numbers of returning visitors. It will also make the actual design and construction of these websites easier and quicker with the possibility of sharing resources such as images, templates, forms and style sheets.

'Keeping It Simple' also applies to any scripts you might have in your sites such as information request forms. If a visitor is confronted with a monster of a form it is unlikely that they will take the time to fill it out and a potential client/customer is lost. Simple forms are a much better way of getting leads from your sites, keep the information to name, contact details and a brief description of their enquiry, even if you require more details, these can be obtained later once you have established a dialogue. This should also help to reduce the number of void enquiries.

For many reference based websites, the temptation to over-complicate things is overwhelming as it becomes easier to implement more technically advanced codes and layouts. However, while it may offer a more professional look, it is important to remember that reference websites rely heavily on sensible coding and text layouts in order to make the most out of search engine rankings.

Your visible copy needs to be written in clear and concise prose. While optimised text may bring visitors to your site, it will not help keep them there. Make sure you get the right balance and don't over do one or the other.

The same principal applies to links and banners. Try to place them in eye catching places, such as the top of a right hand column. If you can find banners that match your color scheme they will make your site look more professional and keep attention on the actual content of your site.

Make sure your site is compatible with all of the major web-browsers. Internet Explorer's dominance among web browsers is fading. As such, it is important to make sure that your site is displayed properly in other browsers such as Firefox and Safari.

If you build links to your site, try to enure that they all point to a landing page which clearly states what your site is about, what visitors can get out of it, and clear links to any relevant pages. Don't clutter landing pages with unnecessary information.

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How To Know What To Pay For Web Design

How do you know what to pay for web design? Do you go strictly on what you can afford or what you need? Web design is the creative presentation similar to the printed brochure, but that is where the similarity stops. Unlike a printed brochure, your web site is interactive. It is seen by millions of people. It is not limited to the hundred or even thousand that your sales people send and use as a leave behind after an in-person sales presentation. People visiting your website can respond instantly in ways other than a telephone call. Visitors can buy your products and services immediately. These are just a few of the differences.

Most people know about these differences. But when deciding what to pay for your website, these differences make a good yardstick. Another consideration is to weigh the outcome you want from your website.

1. Use your company brochure as a yardstick.

Let's not make this comparison using an investment in the popular tri-fold brochure. That's like comparing apples to oranges to use a tired old cliche. No, let's use your company's capabilities brochure. Say you ordered copywriting, graphic design and printing for a full-size 8 1/2 x 11 inch, 4-color brochure, 8 pages with a 4-page cover that weighs a bit more than the interior pages. This is a typical format. What do you suppose the cost is for your new capabilities brochure. $500? $800? $1200? If you own a capabilities brochure such as the one I just described, you know that the copy probably ran from $400-$800; graphic design $400 - $800; and 4-color printing and bindery $800 - $1200. Your total cost is from $1600 - $2800 and you haven't distributed one brochure to a potential buyer. Also, you have not factored in in the envelope cost, cover letter cost, enclosed business card cost, and postage. Yikes! It is starting to be clear just what a printed brochure can cost. Now, ponder on the redo costs if you need to make any changes to the copy, such as your telephone number, address, new products. It is a big bite out of the old apple, isn't it. You are going to need a complete redo and reprint. Ouch!

The investment in a website looks pretty good right now, doesn't it?

2. Now, let's look at the outcome you want from your website.

Sales! Most businesses have a website to support sales. Directly or indirectly. A standard brochure web design and development investment less than $2800 is going to have a higher outcome than that capabilities brochure. There's no doubt about it. But if you want to enable your web site to accept payment online, you're going to need a shopping cart. What about a way for people to signup for your mailing list. Do you want to add a newsletter to your site. Articles? Blog? RSS feed? Forum? Chat? Photo gallery?

These web enhancements turn your site into a unique landing place that people want to visit and buy from. Security features add credibility to further show visitors your business is real and can be trusted.

All these enhancements support your overall outcome to build sales revenue using the web as a new business channel. If that's your planned outcome, spare no expense to create the web site you need to deliver results: Your full-featured web site - loaded with special enhancements - suited for your particular business pay for itself ... easily. It is an investment, not a cost like your printed brochure.

When deciding on the funding you want to earmark for your website, keep in mind that it is a valuable business asset and profit center. Custom web design is an investment in future sales.

So how do you know what to pay for web design? Compare the investment to what you would pay for a capabilities brochure and then weigh the final outcome you want your web site to produce.

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Why Great Website Makeovers Begin With Copywriting

(1) Copywriters can save you money.

Often I (and other experienced copywriters) can save clients money on web design. Kevin didn't need all those bells and whistles. In fact, some Internet marketing gurus claim they do more harm than good.

And Kevin didn't understand HTML, let alone CSS. A copywriter might serve as go-between, translating Kevin's requirements into web design language. Your web designer saves time - which translates into saving money.

(2) Copywriters help you earn money.

Reading between the lines, I discovered Kevin could be a stand-out. He has developed an innovative 5-step process to help clients overcome obstacles and take charge of their lives.

But Kevin doesn't realize why he's unique, so his website reads like five thousand other life coaching sites: vague promises of "take your life to the next level," "discover what's important to you" and "enjoy the work you love."

Naturally I'm disguising the details of "Kevin's" story, but I really don't have to. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of sites sound just like Kevin's.

(3) Copywriting is collaborative.

My clients often think they can show me a few pages of a website and say, "Make it sell!" Copywriting requires energy and planning, whether you're a do-it-yourselfer or a firm believer in outsourcing to a specialist.

My clients often invest many hours answering my questionnaire. As they write, they often realize there's a hole in their business strategy. Or they're sitting on buried treasure.

Until I know what Kevin wants to do with his website and his business, I can't make realistic recommendations - even as a casual ezine reader. I need to evaluate Kevin's copy in the context of Kevin's own goals, target market and unique selling proposition.

Kevin could do this himself. But, like most busy business owners, he didn't want to invest the time. And he wasn't sure what questions to ask.

When clients hire me, we have the luxury (and fun!) of creating a marketing message that hits the target market squarely in the center of the bull's-eye.

Bottom Line: Websites deliver messages. Without a message, a website is a calling card - nice when you have more business than you can handle.

Most of the time, revising copy brings traffic and sales. Websites typically earn back the copy investment with just a few new clients, not to mention saving energy and funds by avoiding a makeover to recover the makeover.

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Why Should I Bother With Optimised Online Copywriting?

It's no good having a creative, individual website with brilliant, informative copy if customers can't find you on the internet. On the other hand, it's also detrimental if you have a website that can be easily found (has a high ranking) but people become bored and alienated reading it.

Producing effective online copywriting is a creative process blending art and science in a balanced technique combining many different elements. This integration of disciplines is required to satisfy both the technical and the aesthetic objectives of a website.

Optimised online copywriting should ensure that your website is:

• highly readable to your viewers
• highly visible to the search engines, and thereby
• commercially successful for you.

Many people and businesses don't have the time to actually write web copy themselves. A professional freelance copywriter can furnish you with keyword-rich, highly original web content to enhance and improve the quality of your website, with the aim of transforming more of your visitors into customers.

Rarely will you get a second chance to engage your customer's attention, so your first shot must be formatted for maximum sales potential, catching the eye of the search engine robots as well. But not too much… If your copy goes overboard in favour of the search engines it can earn a penalty from Google that will negatively effect your rankings. Your website must always have the reader as priority. This makes more business sense anyway.

Search engines provide a way for potential customers to find you on the internet. People type a keyphrase or keyword into a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo or MSN (or one of the many other popular engines) and this returns a page of listings - web page suggestions for that particular phrase or word. Obviously, you want your website to feature highly in this list.

Optimised online copywriting specifically targets the words and phrases people are using when searching for a product on the internet (Search Engine Marketing (SEM), keyword research). You want to make sure your website stays at the top of the listings so people go to your website before others. With targeted copy in place, search engines are more likely to index your web site on page one, than if it does not include keyword-rich copy. This is an ever more important issue when dealing with Google, the leading search-engine today.

To rank highly in the search engines the words on your web pages should never be an afterthought, but should be included right at the beginning in the original design of your website. Content development is the most valuable asset web developers can utilise in the bid for productive, successful search engine optimisation and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Hiring a professional copywriter is a wise investment in your business future. Even if you don’t want to optimise your site you should make sure that the words on your site are reasonable, enticing, spelled correctly and artfully arranged to engage attention. Just because you can type letters or write some emails doesn't mean you can write the copy for your website. The writing on your homepage is often the way people determine whether the website is a scam or the genuine article, good quality or a shabby affair. Your website’s credibility takes a nose-dive if the spelling is wrong, the grammar incorrect, or it just reads like bad, clumsy English. People will be disinclined to trust your content.

Within the search engines new technologies and algorithms are being developed all the time to make search methodologies smarter, more astute. It's never a coincidence when someone types in a search phrase and your website is indexed highly on the page. Keyword rich online copywriting is a significant and critical component in gaining high rankings on the search engines.

Recently, Google has been pioneering a new trend of intelligent search engines which are not attracted by mere repetition of words throughout the text, but which look for meaning, attempting to make grammatical sense of the information, trying to understand what the web page is actually saying. This is forcing webmasters to improve the content on their web pages or suffer the consequences.

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Winning Freelance Work: Beat The Skeptic

I’ve spoken to hundreds of editors, employers, and project managers about how they choose a freelancer for a job. Whether they were reviewing job applications or considering project bids, they all had one thing in common. As every one of them started to look at the applications, they had their skeptic’s hat on.

How a Project Manager Thinks

Here are a few quotes from project managers and employers to show you exactly how they think.

1. Jaime, Editor – “The First Elimination”

My process of judging proposals is one of elimination. The first step is about a general impression. If it’s vague and unconvincing – eliminate. If it’s fluffed up but with no substance – eliminate. If it has real details and seems credibale – keep. Many times this process only leaves one person. That’s how easy it is to get a job – be credible and convincing.

2. Jacob, Project Manager - “I only believe what I see for myself.”

I read every proposal while questioning what I’m being told. Some people make things up. Most people exaggerate. Many people think they’re better than they really are. I’ve been working with contractors for a long time and I’ve found that the only way you can judge a person is by what they do.

3. Randy, Project Owner – “Don’t Tell Me, Show Me”

Don't try and impress me with ramblings. Lots of positive words strung together does nothing for me. You know, "I am keen, reliable, prompt, easygoing, articulate, generous, kind, competitive, athletic..." I have no reason to believe you’re any of those things. If you want me to pick you for the project, you have to do more than just tell me. You have to prove it to me.

How to Beat the Skeptic

It’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it. Three small changes will make all the difference to your credibility and will get you more work more often.

1. Use Real Evidence

It’s always better to sell yourself with a real example.

Not so good – “I am reliable.”

Much better – “You will never be left wondering how the project is going because I will provide timely updates to keep you informed.”

2. Use Your Results

Telling project managers about your past results is also a good way to sell yourself.

Not so good – “I write effective web site copy.”

Much better – “With my new and improved content, my last client increased their sales by 120% in the first month.”

The second statement clearly communicates the quality and effectiveness of the work. And at the same time, it’s likely to excite the project manager into thinking that the same result could occur for them.

3. Be Specific

If you can use facts and figures to make your point, do so.

Not so good – “Most of my business is repeat, showing that my clients are happy with the service I provide.”

Much better – “96% of new clients have returned to use my services again.”

Not so good – “I have completed various similar projects.”

Much better – “I have completed 19 similar projects in the last year.”

Make these three simple changes to your bids and job applications and you’ll win more clients, jobs, and projects.

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Web site copywriter in the 21st century

The process of keywords search is well-known. However large the company can be, whatever industry it operates in there are usually some persons at the company who can perform this task. However, once the keyword search has been performed one should start working these keywords phrases into the text of your web-site. The person who performs this task is a web site copywriter.

Apart from being creative and have an aptitude fro producing appealing, memorable and attracting content the professional web site copywriter should be able to write the text in easy-to-read, convincing and action-driven style. He should also be able to perform thorough web site analysis and understand how the web site maintained by you should be changed or adjusted in order to get higher conversion rates. But even if he has these qualities it may not be enough. It today’s highly competitive and ever-changing online world it is indispensable for him to understand current marketing trend, what customers want to purchase as well as what expectations they have. Apart from this he must also analyze marketing and advertising strategy of the main competitors of the company and propose effective adjustments in the content of the web site to countervail them.

If you are hiring experienced web site copywriter it is advisable to look through his portfolio in order to get an insight into his experience. Experienced web site copywriter who has already provided some copywriting service should indicate what type of copywriting he has been working on and what results he has achieved. Moreover he must also understand modern marketing techniques such as writing press releases and writing article. The web site copywriter should always keep himself abreast of the latest changes in marketing in order to produce high-quality content. If the web site copywriter you intend to hire matches the above mentioned criteria, than he will be able to bring high results for your company.

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