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April 2007 - Vol. 1,
Issue 2 |
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 Developing
your own website can seem like a daunting task at first
glance. As a site owner, you only have a few seconds to
make a great first impression.
No matter what type of website you're responsible for,
the two most important things to keep in mind are that
- It's your responsibility to make it easy for
your site's visitors to find what they're looking
for and to take action (call you, buy now, etc.).
- You must not offend your visitors with an ugly
design.
For now we'll focus on the first topic by discussing
ways to organize content in a meaningful way. The second
will be discussed next month. Hope you enjoy this issue.
Best wishes for growing your business,
Greg Owen-Boger, President
OwenProCo, Inc.
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Trade In
Your Old Website for a New One!
Is your website looking
old and in need of a facelift?
Trade in your site for a new, more effective one with
our new Trade-In service. Just $399 plus hosting.
Click here to learn more.
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Make It Easy for Visitors to
Find What They're Looking For |
We've all been to websites
that don't seem to make much sense. It could be that the
text is poorly written, maybe it's formatted and
organized in a counterintuitive way or worse, the
navigation is inconsistent and difficult to follow.
Every one of these offenses sends a negative message to
visitors making it likely that they will leave your site
to look for another one. Let's make sure that doesn't
happen by organizing content in a meaningful way and
writing effective text.
Organize Content
A great way to begin thinking about the organization of
a web site is to break your site down into manageable
categories. For example your site's categories might be
Products, About Us, Clients, Calendar of Events,
Newsletters and Contact Us. Each of these main
categories should have a page dedicated to it and should
be included as top-level buttons in your navigation bar.
Some of your categories may include a lot of information
and therefore deserve to be broken down into
subcategories. For example you may have several
different product lines that differ from each other, you
may want to go into deeper detail about the clients you
serve by including work samples as well as case studies
and your newsletter will eventually have several issues
that will need to be archived.
We've found two different ways of organizing content for
websites: Outline Format and Flowchart Format.
Using the Outline Format, your site would look
like this:
- Products
--Category #1
--Category #2
- About Us
- Clients
--Work Samples
--Case Studies
- Calendar of Events
- Newsletters
--Issue #1
--Issue #2
- Contact Us
In Flowchart Format, where boxes represent
pages and arrows represent links, it would look like
this:
Click here to download the Website Navigation Flowchart
Template for FREE!
FYI--when we develop new sites at OwenProCo, we use
the flowchart method because it shows the hierarchy of
the site and helps us see the site as an interconnected
system rather than as individual discreet pieces.
Website Text: Less is More
Now that your site's content is organized, it's time to
think about writing the text that will appear on each of
those pages. Less is more, so don't overload your
visitors with too much information. Remember your #1
goal is to get them to take action -- to buy your
product or contact you for more information.
Keep your pages short and to the point and use short
paragraphs. Use headings like the ones in this article
to make information easy to find and break information
down into bullets whenever appropriate.
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Make it Easy to Take
Action |
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Making it easy for your visitors to take the
recommended action is simple, yet so often overlooked.
If you want them to:
- Contact you, make it easy for them by
including at least two ways to do so: (1) Provide
contact information in the footer of every page and
(2) create a page specifically for contact
information. For added punch put your email and
phone number in the header of every page.
- Buy your product, make sure you provide
easy access to your product descriptions and "add to
cart" buttons. It's also a necessity to include a
"show cart" button on your site's navigation so they
can easily check out.
FYI-our
DoItYourselfSTOREbuilder walks you through the
entire process of setting up a robust shopping cart
including shipping, billing and sales tax settings.
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Success: It's Your
Responsibility |
| The most important thing to
remember when developing the content of your new website
is that it's your responsibility to set your site up for
success. Take the time necessary to think through and
implement the ideas in this article and your site will
be one step closer to realizing its potential.
Admittedly developing an effective website can be
daunting. Sometimes it's more efficient for a
professional to help walk you through the process. If
you think this might be true for you, you're in luck.
OwenProCo offers a We-Do-It service starting at $399
plus monthly hosting. To get the ball rolling,
click here to fill out the
We-Do-It form. We'll contact you shortly.
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Did You Know... FREE
Tools to Make it Easy |
This issue is dedicated to
ways you can make it easy for your website's visitors to
find what they're looking for. Here are a few such tools
that are included in OwenProCo's site builders. For more
information on using any of these FREE tools, log in to
your admin panel and click on "help & support."
- Footers: provide contact information on
every page of your site.
- FAQs: provide answers to the questions
most frequently asked by your potential customers.
- Table of Contents: give your users a
snapshot of all the pages in your site, sometimes
called a site map.
- Hours of Operation: let you customers
know when you're open if you have a bricks and
mortar store.
- Maps: help your customers find you if you
have a bricks and mortar store.
- View Cart: allow shoppers easy access to
their shopping cart so that they may easily check
out; this page should be added to your top level
navigation.
- Internal Links: add links to other pages
within the text of your site.
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Just for Fun...
Zuma |
OK, we admit it, we play games during working hours
sometimes. I mean let's face it, sometimes you just need
to clear your head. This month we're featuring Zuma from
Games-O-Rama.com
 The
original trailblazer in the action puzzle genre, with
this game you'll fire colored balls to make sets of
three, but don't let the chain reach the golden skull or
you're history. With more than 20 temples to explore and
2 unique gameplay modes, Zuma is a non-stop never-ending
puzzle challenge. Let the tribal sounds and music
surround you with the world of Zuma. You won't want to
go back to work!
Clear your head at
Games-O-Rama! |
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I hope you enjoyed this issue. Please
let us know if there's
anything you'd like us to address in future issues.
Sincerely,
Greg Owen-Boger, President
OwenProCo, Inc.
OwenProCo.com |
DoItYourSelfSiteBuilder.com |
DoItYourselfSTOREbuilder.com
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