| BRINGING YOUR WEB SITE TO LIFE
by Nick Butler
If your site were a person, who would it be? Here are a few
tips on how to bring your Web site to life.
The trick is to create a personality for your site. You
want a site that stands out from the crowd and one that makes
your target audience feel right at home.
The good thing is that if you've gone to the effort of creating
a credible Web site you're well on the way. Think of a Web
site as a mirror. It reflects you, and it should also reflect
your customers. Cred-building features such as testimonials
and case studies are a good way of reflecting your customers
and their needs just as photos and About Us pages reflect
you.
Here are some things that reflect the personality
of a site:
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The Language. Avoid Frankenstein writing.
Too many sites cobble together their content out of dead
phrases and marketing cliches from the graveyard of English.
Use your own words and your Web site will stand out. Talk
to your customers in the kind of language they would use
and they'll relate to your site. And if you do have to
use jargon, make sure it is jargon that your target audience
uses and understands. |
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Images. If a picture is worth a thousand words what
does your imagery say about your site? Inappropriate pics
can really put off the punters. The cartoon that rulez
on a kidz site could ruin a corporate page. Think of visual
cues that reflect your message. |
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Fonts. Are your site's types right for your type of
site? |
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Colour scheme. Colour combos can have a powerful emotional
effect. A woodburner Web site might use reds, oranges
and yellows, while an air conditioning site would tend
towards blues, whites and grays. |
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Style to substance ratio. As a rule content is king
but in some industries (design, technology) you can afford
to show off a bit. |
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Interactivity. How chatty is your site? The nice thing
about the Web is that you can interact with your customers.
Ask them questions. "Would you like to subscribe
to our newsletter?" "Has this page helped you?"
And if a visitor answers make sure you have a thank you
page. |
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WEBSITES OF INTEREST
Interested in what were the most popular searches made in
2003 on the world wide web? Search Engines have now released
their summaries of the most popular searches of 2003. Here
are links to a few of the most popular Search Engines and
their results:
* Google:
2003 Year-End Google Zeitgeist. Contains Search patterns
and trends based on more than 55 billion searches conducted
over the past year by Google users from around the world.
* Lycos Web’s
Most Wanted Awards The Top 100 items of the year 2003
* Yahoo
Top Searches 2003 The Top searches made in 2003 using
Yahoo.
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