Web Design, Website Development and Internet Marketing - One Page Expert Guides

Your website represents you and your entire company to any person who views it.  If your website is sloppy or unprofessional a potential customer may conclude that your business is sloppy and unprofessional as a whole.  A customer's decision of whether they may make a purchase from you is made within the first three seconds of viewing your site.  Therefore you must understand the 7 key decisions that will turn your website into a salesperson.  Of course, your website actually has the power to be a complete sales force and that is why choosing the right web design company  is so vital.

In fact, choosing the best web site design service is the first key decision you must make to turn your website into a salesperson.  A design company like 7 Strategy understands the importance your website design has on the impression you make to viewers and they know how to help you turn "traffic" into customers.  By creating web solutions that fit your business and a website design that is eye-catching, unique and functional, your web design company is the most vital part of turning your website into a salesperson.

Your professional web design will incorporate the other 6 key decisions into your website to help it become your ultimate sales force.  Key decision number 2 is choosing the right headline for your page.  Split testing has shown that both the text and font used for your headline can have a dramatic impact on your conversion rate (the percentage of viewers your website turns into paying customers). 

Key decision number 3 is your color scheme.  Your design company will be crucial in helping you understand how the color scheme sets the tone for your site and influences a person's decision to purchase from your website.

Images can create a strong impression that leads to a purchase decision and that is why key decision number 4 is what images to place on your website and where to place them.  Having an image that compliments your headline close to the top of the page can increase conversion rates much more than you may think.  Your web site design service will be able to determine the right images and placement for your business' needs.

Take for example these Award Winning Web Designs:

The landing page is key decision number 5.  Your landing page aka sales page can be a place where you focus on selling one particular item or you may focus on selling them the idea of buying from your website.  Either way, the sales page is designed to get the viewer to take an action either by clicking a link to your full website or hitting the "buy now" button.  Professional web design is a must for getting the most out of your sales page.

Key decision number 6 is your content.  Your web design company can help you determine where to purchase custom made SEO articles for your website to maximize your search engine exposure and encourage your viewers to become customers.  The design of your site is created to get the viewer to read your message and the message compels the viewer to take action i.e.: purchase your products.

Finally, key decision number 7 is understanding what products to include on your website.  Your web design company can help you develop a strategy that will make the most of your website and turn it into a super selling machine.

Despite the recent, sharp downtown in the economy, many experts say now is not the time to cut back on search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, with online shoppers saying they plan on cutting back on spending this holiday season, now may be the perfect time for you to optimize your site to attract every prospective customer you can -- and keep your current customers coming back for more. Best of all, optimizing your site, giving it a pre-holiday facelift, needn't be expensive or time consuming. And the return on your investment could (and should) more than offset the cost.

Determining When It Is Time for a Redesign

 So how can you determine if your site could benefit from a pre-holiday facelift? "Our suggestion is to look at the site from the customer's point of view. And if you think your site is inviting, represents you well, is easy to get around, and looks good, then we don't think you should do a redesign".

But, if you don't feel confident about any one of those elements, a website redesign, focusing on search engine optimization, is almost definitely in order.

"With the limited amount of customers and the limited amount of dollars that are going to be spent [this season], you want to make sure you can get every single customer you can". And if your web design isn't attractive to the search engines and/or to your customers, you could lose out to some other site that is.

By the way, don't be afraid to ask or survey your customers to see if they think your site could use some updating or new features. The results might surprise -- and help -- you.

How Much Should You Spend on Optimizing or Redesigning Your Site?

While the price of a website redesign and/or site optimization will vary depending upon the site, the number of pages, where you are located, and what you want to accomplish, you don't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars.

"On average for an enhanced Custom Web Design, without super fancy features [like Flash and/or custom video], you're looking at around $2500".

The best way to figure out how much a website redesign will cost you? Make a list of what's really important, or what you hope to accomplish. Then get at least three quotes and figure out if you will be able to recoup the money you spend on the redesign via sales. If the answer is yes, there's no reason not to do it.

How to Save Money on Site Optimization: DIY Tips

There are many different ways to economize -- and still get results -- on a redesign/site optimization. Here are a few suggestions:

• Make a list of priorities and tackle them one or two at a time instead of all at once.

• Focus on which changes are going to directly impact your bottom line, not those that will look nice. For example, something like adding a 'Recently Viewed Items' feature to pages makes it easier for customers to see where they've been and return to previous pages, and often leads to increased sales.

• Write as much content (e.g., product descriptions) as you can yourself, or have an employee do it. And, be careful about only using manufacturer's descriptions. You can use them but make sure to add your own copy. The search engines have already indexed the manufacturer's copy, so you need to add something new to get noticed.

• Completely re-write the copy on your home/front page -- and do it again every month or so or when you have something new to sell, are running a promotion or have big news to announce.

• Every month, re-write the copy on at least one landing page.

• Have someone on your team submit your site to all the major search engines (or do it yourself) whenever you make a major change/update the site, instead of paying someone to do it for you.

Final Thoughts

"Search engine optimization is by far the most powerful thing you can do," in terms of attracting customers to your site. "It's also the cheapest thing you can do -- and by far the most ignored thing, the thing that people forget about."

So to get your business noticed online, particularly these days, you need to make search engine optimization and search engine marketing part of your long-term business plan and redesign efforts.

Yes, SEO can take time. And if you are looking for quick hits, you should probably supplement your SEO efforts with some pay-per-click advertising and e-mail marketing. But over time, if you do your SEO homework, the hits and sales will come and you can decrease your spending on pay-per-click advertising and e-mail marketing. And while you're mulling over whether to redesign or not, do have some coffee cake. (According to a number of sources, sales of comfort foods, like coffee cake, tend to go up during hard economic times.)

New study finds that as customer expectations rise, online businesses neglect user experience at their own peril.

Online shopping is more popular than ever, but a new study has concluded that many ecommerce web sites provide a poor user experience, causing many customers to abandon their transactions and head to a competitor's site.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, was commissioned by Tealeaf, a web company that provides Customer Experience Management (CEM) software to online merchants.

Of the 84 percent of online adults who shop online, nearly nine out of 10 said they have had trouble completing a transaction. Forty-one percent of the people who reported having problems said they either navigated to an alternative site or simply abandoned the transaction altogether.

"The Web has changed business -- web companies both large and small compete for the same customers," Tealeaf CEO Rebecca Ward said in a statement. "Now, competition is just a click away and customer expectations continue to grow."

Indeed, in a sign of how ecommerce web site design is moving into the mainstream, the survey found that more than one third of the respondents said they prefer to shop online, and that 84 percent said they expected a transaction to be processed on the first try. Perhaps even more surprising, a significant minority (22 percent) said they expect a higher level of customer service when shopping online than when they go to a store.

The survey also highlighted the importance of online companies maintaining a reputation for quality service, given how people tend to share horror stories about their shopping experiences.

On the heels of a poor online shopping experience, 84 percent of the survey respondents said they would be likely to share their grievance with others. Of those, 82 percent said they would air their complaint in some offline channel, like phoning up a friend to vent. And that's not to say that those same people wouldn't also register their frustration online, say in the form of a review or blog post that would become a part of the company's permanent record.

Chief among the customer service pitfalls Harris identified was the failure of businesses to integrate their offline call centers into their e-commerce platforms.

Of the nearly half of online shoppers who have contacted a company's call center regarding problems with the website , 64 percent reported that the service representative didn't know much about the online store. Thirty-eight percent said their issue went unresolved.

Nearly three quarters (72 percent) of the people who received poor customer service from a call center when trying to troubleshoot Web issues either scaled back their business with the company, stopped associating with it altogether, or filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

"Businesses must take definitive steps to differentiate themselves by understanding and improving their customers' site experiences, and equipping their contact centers to truly meet the needs of online customers," Ward said. "web firms that do take action will be the ones to claim a greater share of this billion-dollar business opportunity."