Most people have heard the old saying about that you only have one chance to make a first impression. This is never truer than when it comes to websites. From the very first second someone clicks on your URL, you must thoroughly impress them with the looks, the Website Content, and the layout – in other words, the aesthetics of the website.
No amount of SEO techniques or marketing tricks in the world can truly result in sales if you are driving traffic to a site that does not present a welcoming image to visitors. Take a fresh look at your web pages and consider the following items to determine if your URL needs some revision.
What Not To Include On The Homepage
The most important page of all is the homepage. For most visitors, this is the landing page and the one place for an online marketer to make the best first impression.
A poor homepage is one that is filled with too much, uninterrupted text, has too many advertisements, or takes too long to load due to overuse of flash animation and other pesky code. Text that is overemphasised amidst flashing banners makes a cheap and overhyped presentation to your potential customers.
Conversely, boring Website Content is no more likely to induce visitors to return. There should be a good balance between eye catching colour and design and simple lines and layout that make the page easy to read.
Consider that many people use their time at work to visit websites that personally interest them. It is almost never considered a good idea to include audio that plays automatically because this could create a real problem for employees sneaking in a bit of internet surfing during work hours.
Appealing Aesthetics
In order to create a homepage that is visually appealing to your target market, there are several factors to consider.
Think about colour. Certain colours are soothing, such as light blues and pinks, and are very appropriate for a website selling baby items or relaxing audio tapes. Conversely, vibrant hues of red and purple interlaced with black give a completely different feel, one that is more likely to elicit action. Both types of colour schemes can be used on one site. Pastels may draw people in and soothe them while the bolder calls can be used on “call to action” buttons.
These same considerations hold true for fonts, too. A classic and elegant serif font is appropriate for a site that is traditional. A more chunky sans serif font would work well for a modern site or one that appeals to a younger demographic.
Remember that important information like phone numbers should always use a very plain, non-italicised, easy to read font and certainly not one that resembles script.
Demographics
Think about the type of visitors you are trying to attract to your website. What is their age? Income level? Interests? Education level? If you want to be a top notch Internet Marketer, all of these factors should come into play when you design your website.
Ask for candid opinions, but do not rely on the feedback provided by family and friends, they are far too biased in your favour. If you have a mailing list, send those contacts a link to a sample page and ask them to rate the overall look, ease of use, visual appeal, tone, etc. of the design. After all, if your target market does not like it, then your sales will certainly suffer.
There are many considerations to take into account when creating a website that will appeal to the consumers you wish to target. If you are not particularly creative or adept at gauging what factors are appealing to your market, you may wish to outsource your Website Content and design to a firm that specialises in it. This will be well worth the money if it results in increased sales.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Some very good points Sean
What sort of colors would be best for a general audience?
Hi Sean,
This is great advice. I get a few comments from people who tell me my site is ugly. They always have links to sites where I can get free Wordpress themes. So, I assume that they have a vested interest in telling me my site is ugly and I ignore it. Still, should I change my theme if I’m getting comments like this?
I like how my site looks. My family says it looks okay but as you say, their opinion cannot be trusted.
Those people are known as comment spammers Jazz
It’s your blog and your rules.
The look of a website is very important as I know personally that if I don’t like the look of a site or its hard to navigate around, I leave it pretty quickly. This post gives me hope as my site is a soft blue colour and I sell baby products.
Hi Sean
Thankyou for a very useful and informative article. Yes first impressions do tend to last, that is why I have been very reluctant to publish my blog because it is far from finished. However, It isn’t too bad and I am conscious of the state it is in so can’t wait to fix it up after the comp.
I needed to ‘put it out there’ as a declaration to my own self that this is it, it’s visible now so get on with working on it.
Your tips are really good and I will be using them as a guide as I keep building my site.
Thankyou Sean