Introductions & Web Design – Part 3

Making a good first impression with your Web Site visitors is an important factor when it comes to developing a strong reputation for your business online. In the first two parts of this 3 part series I gave you some quick and easy tips to help you increase the effectiveness of your Homepage image, findability, and content. In this last part of the series I’d like to conclude with some simple steps you can take that go beyond your Homepage and into your site subpages.

A subpage is basically the more detailed elements of content that your site contains which has hopefully been properly summarized within your Homepage. I think a good way of looking at is that your Homepage is basically what gets your customers interested, it gives them a taste of whats to come. The subpage then is essentially what seals the deal. It should offer all the important information you want to express to a potential buyer/visitor and do it in a clean and professional way that leads to some sort of call to action with as little mouse clicks as possible. The subpage should include all of the tips I previously pointed out for your homepage but the focus needs to be on details and what exactly you think your visitor is going to want to see within that particular area. The design is still important and should try to be somewhat different in layout compared to the homepage so that the viewer doesn’t get easily bored but all emphasis should be on maintaining rich and compelling content that gives the viewer the info quickly and easily.

Making your subpages identical to your homepage is a big no no. I think anyone would agree that if they came across a business site that had the same layout structure 100% of the time their opinions of such a business would be effected in a negative way. The main reason for this I think is that its just plain cheap and lazy. Your site needs to captivate your viewer and then guide them to the areas they want to be at without losing their attention at any point in that process. This requires a strong commitment of time and money to ensure effective execution. If its done properly not only will your visitors be impressed when they first visit your site, they will be interested in what you have to offer and will make contact with you because of how easy you made it for them to do so.