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By Web Designer, June 16, 2013 3:50 am

689

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the word went around that the thing to do on a home page is to heartily and sincerely welcome the visitor. Today, this is unnecessary, cliched and ineffective. Instead, an effective home page needs to quickly orient the visitor to what the business or professional practice offers, distinguish these offerings from competitors’ and direct the web site visitor what to do if they are interested in learning more.

It’s especially importan…

Internet,web sites, websites,design,homepages,marketing,customers,clients

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the word went around that the thing to do on a home page is to heartily and sincerely welcome the visitor. Today, this is unnecessary, cliched and ineffective. Instead, an effective home page needs to quickly orient the visitor to what the business or professional practice offers, distinguish these offerings from competitors’ and direct the web site visitor what to do if they are interested in learning more.

It’s especially important to make a strong and clear presentation on the home page if you want perfect strangers coming from a search engine to spend more than 10 seconds on the site when determining whether or not it is relevant to them. Getting business from such strangers is one of the major payoffs of having a web site, and they lack the patience of someone who has already had contact with you or been referred by a trusted source. Even people seriously inclined to hire you don’t have endless patience to wade through hot air, jargon or superfluous preliminaries.

Therefore, a home page must make it possible to answer these questions within 10 seconds:

* What is being described or sold here? What kind of business is this?
* Why should I do business with this company rather than its competitors?
* What should I do to find out more or get in touch?

In judging web sites for the Webby Awards, I have seen as many rich, large companies as small ones overlook the first essential for a home page – set the context. Orient the visitor. The perfect stranger may need to know things that you assume everyone already knows, such as:

1. What business are you in? Include a commonly understood industry name or the generic name of your primary product or service prominently in the home page copy, if it’s not already part of your business name or in the tag line. When this information isn’t plainly and obviously stated, many visitors are screaming to themselves, “What IS this?” as they hit the back button on their browsers.

2. Who do you serve? So many businesses – banks, restaurants, dentists – leave it unspoken what state or province and even what country they are in when that’s essential to someone figuring out whether or not this business meets their needs. When location plays a crucial role in service, make it unmistakable where the business is. Other times, the answer to this question is more subtle. You need to indicate that you work with Fortune 500 companies, or mostly with authors, or with ambitious fitness professionals and health club owners.

3. Why should someone do business with you? The best kind of answer to this question involves presenting the benefits someone gets from buying your products or services. Indeed, I recommend putting such benefits right in your home page headline. For instance, for a caregiving support site I created this headline: With Support, Caregiving Becomes a Rewarding Journey. For a site about a book on outstanding women scientists and artists, the headline read: Learn From Accomplished Women Role Models How to Create a Fulfilling Lifelong Career. Note the inviting tone of these headlines. Within the paragraphs of the home page copy, refer again and again to what customers get and what makes you different from competitors.

4. What should I do next? Even though you provide navigation links for people to choose where to go next at the site, it’s effective to say explicitly what someone with such and such an interest should do. Your call to action might have more than one part, such as: To learn more about how Hyana Heights Club helps you stay healthy and fit, click here. To book your free tour and complimentary aerobics class, click here.

Use these guidelines to create or redo a home page, and you’ll enjoy a significantly improved response from your web site both from people landing on your site from search engines and those already somewhat interested in what you offer. There’s much more involved in turning web site visitors into customers, but you’ll certainly thereby have laid the groundwork for a reasonable return on your web site investment.

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By Web Designer, June 12, 2013 4:58 am

440

Being present online is more than having a website designed and waiting for clients to come to you. Effective presentation is the key for success and a simple image will not do the trick. You need the help of specialists in graphic design. Working for a creative agency, they have all the right tools and experience to take care of your corporate identity design requirements.

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You might not think much of your company logo, but you ought to know that this is a great way to start strengthening your brand. If you want to reach a specific segment of the market, then you need specialists in corporate ad design. They will put to good use all their years of experience working in the field of graphic design, creating an image for your company that is visually stimulating, thus easy to recognize. In a short period of time, you will be identified with that logo and customers will definitely become interested in your company.¬¬

High-quality artwork is also a desirable concept for those interested in corporate identity. A company’s profile must be an adequate reflection of that company, resulting in sales promotion and increased advertising. With professional corporate ad design, you get a professional business image. If you are interested in corporate identity, then you also should be looking at logo development, logotype design and other business promotional materials. These might include, but are not limited to, business cards, presentation folders and billboards. All are needed for your brand to become stronger and attract the eye of the public.

When you resort to the services of specialists working for a graphic design agency, you should also think about logo design. It genuinely represents the signature of your company, being often posted on business cards and other promotional materials. If it’s not catchy, it won’t stick and your company’s name will soon be forgotten. Thanks to the experts in logo development, you will enjoy a logo that clearly represents your business-one that is custom tailored for you. Potential customers will definitely remember your name after you have your logo redesigned.

If you have taken the decision to work with ArtVersion, the Chicago-based graphic design company, then you shouldn’t expect anything but good results. This firm has only the best people working to deliver the message you desire to the right audience. They know how to reach consumers, and most importantly, they know how to adapt to various preferences. Services provided include web development, encompassing a wide range of specifics such as website design, e-commerce and content management systems

You can benefit from the solutions offered by these specialists, successfully optimizing your business. If you want the right online presence, remember Artversion.com. There is no better resource you can turn to, with professional graphic artists and artwork specialists working constantly to introduce you to the concept of branding. It might take a lot of work and effort, but in the end, you will finally see that it was all worth it.

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