The content for your Web site is written and laid out. Now what?

It’s important, now, to create a site that appeals to your visitors with meaningful, dazzling visual impact. This is accomplished easily, with content-appropriate graphics. Done well, the visual impact will draw in your readers, and hold their interest—long enough for them to read your message, and want to learn more.

First, identify what your business, service, or offering is trying to convey. Who is your target audience? Do you want to portray stable and secure, or modern and cutting edge? Professional and corporate, or fun and lively? Intended for children or teens, or for senior citizens?

Next, decide what colors you want to base your design on, and limit the color family to three or four. Choose colors, designs, and images that portray who you are, and who you want to appeal to. For instance, a children’s site might be visually enhanced with primary colors and geometrical shapes. A real estate consulting service may be done in more subdued colors, and portray images of business-attired professionals poring over blueprints. In general, consider the emotions and impressions that you want to leave your reader with—and which colors evoke them (for instance, red = passion or danger; yellow = happiness, summer, and lightness; green = young, the environment, spring. For more information, check out http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html.

As you begin to add your graphical enhancements, start with your landing page heading. As the adage goes, a book IS often judged by its cover. So it is with your Web page. In this age of information glut and split-second surfing, your site has to catch a reader’s eye—quickly. If possible, and for best results, use a graphics software such as Adobe PhotoShop or Fireworks (http://www.adobe.com).

Finally, take the extra step and ensure your Web pages are reader friendly. Compress your graphics, to speed up the loading time. Web graphics are usually 72 dpi resolution, and most commonly in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format for easy compressing by Web browsers.

Once you’ve finished laying out your landing page, move to your internal pages. Tie your pages together with repeating and associated designs and colors that help to convey your message, tell your story, and keep your reader interested and informed. A well-planned and laid out Web site, with copy and graphics that complement each other, will not only serve you well—it will be a pleasure to visit!

As you start to put your chunks, headings, and subheads together into a cohesive flow, remember these four key points:

1. Web writing is best laid out in an inverted pyramid style. This is accomplished by starting with your conclusion or main point, and ending with the finer points and details of your topic.
2. A successful site is written for many different levels of interest. It’s a tough concept, but the best sites are written from the viewpoints of “there is no interest in my topic,” to “my reader is thirsting for more info.” How do we do this?
3. Avoid promotional, boastful, or subjective writing, or exaggerated claims
4. Keep your paragraphs concise. What’s more, using high quality graphics will help get your key points across quickly, and without belaboring the point with unnecessary text.

As you plan your site, remember: less is more. Plan your page layout so the reader doesn’t have to scroll far down the page. You can accomplish this by presenting one idea per paragraph, ensuring your salient points tell the story succinctly and effectively. If it’s necessary to have a fair amount of information on one page so that scrolling is unavoidable, try to:

• Provide a strong, cohesive flow for scrolling pages
• Provide links back to top if long scrolling (over 1.5/2 scrolls)

Lastly—and perhaps the biggest point to remember as you plan your site—provide all your information within three clicks from the landing page. Usability studies show that if a reader is required to drill down any more than three clicks, you may lose their interest. When your information does require the user to click to another area, use a one-sentence summary for the link. Note: longer links give more info, so it’s fine to create them using:

• associated text as clues
• trigger words to describe content
• different links to same content

Do try to avoid adding excessive links, however, as too much colored, underlined text can be distracting to your readers.

Above all, remember: we only have a few seconds to influence the reader. Make those seconds count!v

Part One: Creating the Content

Web writing is not your typical prose. Why? Because Web visitors typically are looking to zip in and out of a site, scanning and getting their information quickly. In fact, Web readers typically read in an “F” pattern; therefore, you’d do best to create your content in two horizontal bars across your page, followed by a vertical scan down the left side.

Start with your main, or “landing” page. Create a title for it to give your readers a relevant, broad overview of what’s to follow. As you plan your content, keep in mind it should be presented in logical divisions and subdivisions, with bulleted lists, meaningful headings and subheadings, and “chunks” of information (chunks are sections of info that can be accessed individually, like a complete idea.) Be careful, however, not to over-subdivide (just chunk full, standalone ideas and you’ll be all set), and be sure to think about starting your subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with info-carrying words.

As you begin to write, try to use concise, objective language so that your reader can determine—quickly—whether or not he or she is in the right place. This is accomplished if you:

• create major headings/sections
• write down minor points for each section
• put relevant links next to the point
• turn minor points into a paragraph
• bold minor points
• write a one-sentence summary of page
• use the one-sentence summary to start a one-paragraph summary
• shorten the one-sentence summary into an informal title
• work back up through the page for readability
• read at each interest level, from “no interest” to “thirsty for more”
• pick out a word, phrase or idea from the following paragraphs to entice the reader to keep reading

Express your benefits immediately by using hooks like

• quotation marks
• questions (Why use Company XYZ?)
• unusual statements (Not every school district likes children.)
• compare/contrast (What we do—and what we don’t—for you.)
• promise of conflict (Why our competitors hate us.)

Pick out individual key words in your text, and bold them, or otherwise call them out

• Highlight key words, salient points
• Handle minor points as:
  • topic sentences
  • bold typeface
  • bulleted lists
  • useful points, without their surrounding text

No matter what, always employ good writing. Use spell check, use proper grammar, and be sure to proofread prior to posting. Your writing is best read on the Web if it’s in an informal and personal style. Use simple sentences, and factor out repetitive words. Write in active voice, and avoid cute clichés, stale jokes, overly familiar wording, ambiguity, overstatement, and emotion-laden comparisons. You might even consider a Table of Contents at the top of a page, with links to your subsequent sections.

For starters, the word blog comes from Weblog. A blog is typically a series of entries on a Website, and often a commentary on something important to the author and/or the author’s customers (if the blog is associated with a business). Blogs can cover any and every type of subject including: information on a specific topic, market, product, service, or group of people; a daily diary of someone’s life; the progress of a project; the blogger’s stream of consciousness; a commentary on social, political, or other issues or viewpoints; or any other manner of topic. Generally updated with regular (often daily or weekly) entries, blogs can be located on a specific section of an author’s Web site, or be the sole point of the site.

So why should you blog? In a word: connection. Blogging helps us stay in touch with our readers, and readers have come to expect it. What better way to get in touch with your readers on a personal basis, and keep them informed in a friendly, up-to-date, and informal way? Establishing yourself and your personality in a blog opens the door to easier communication. (In fact for businesses in particular, social media is being considered as part of current customer service.)

What’s more, blogging keeps your content fresh. As we discussed in our blog entry, Fresh Content for Discerning Palates (November 21st, 2008): Web visitors and search engines…prefer to visit sites that have fresh, new, rotating content. Web search engines… look for the signs that a site is dynamic—and that is largely governed by how often your content is updated.

So blogging is the easy and perfect way to ensure you have up-to-date, fresh information on your site. Some key components to keep in mind:

• Make sure your blogging is relevant to your site/services/business
• Be real, honest, and consistent
• Make sure your content is keyword-rich words—in other words, it contains words and phrases that are important to what you do.  Search engines will love you, and will pick up your site more readily.
• Be sure to add good enough content, and add it often enough, so your readers want to keep coming back

Follow these simple guidelines, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how fun it is—and your readers will appreciate it.

Need help getting started? Check out these do-it-yourself blogging sites—and have fun!

• www.blogger.com
• www.thoughts.com
• www.wordpress.com

Consider Google Analytics. It provides you, a Web site owner, invaluable help in finding out what keywords attract the most desirable prospects, what advertising copy pulled the most responses, and what landing pages and content make the most money for you. It offers the best of high-end analytics, and is tightly integrated with Google AdWords. And the best part? It’s absolutely free.

With all that power, is it hard to use?
Nope. Google Analytics is designed as an easy-to-use tool for all levels—yet delivers like you hired a Web analytics professional.

Will it work for my smaller business needs? What if I grow?
Google Analytics is a hosted service that handles all types and sizes of sites, from large, high-traffic corporate sites to small sites. And, like Google itself, Google Analytics delivers consistent service.

I also use Google AdWords. How does Analytics work with AdWords?
Google Analytics is accessed directly from your AdWords account interface. It’s that simple. What’s more, Google Analytics calculates Return On Investment metrics for you, from automatically imported cost and keyword tracking data.

What if another search engine is used?
Google Analytics tracks all online campaigns, from emails to keywords, regardless of search engine or referral source.

How safe is my data?
Google pledges to safeguard the privacy of your corporate data. They provide an in-depth privacy policy, and promise data integrity and protection.

What else can Google offer me besides Analytics?
Google Analytics is part of a comprehensive Google system that includes AdWords, AdSense, Website Optimizer, DoubleClick, Internal Site Search, TV Ads, Audio Ads, Analytics for Blogs, Checkout, Webmaster solutions, and more. Check them all out, and decide for yourself how Google can optimize your Web site experience.

Incorporating a few basic navigation rules into your Web site will make it easier for your visitors can get around… and the better their experience, the more likely they’ll come back. A few key pointers will keep them on the trail and heading in the right direction.

Be Sure to Leave Breadcrumbs
Having a visitor get lost in your site is equivalent to lost business. So, leave breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs is a standard Web design and navigation term used to describe the links back to where you started. They typically appear horizontally across the top of a Web page, below the title bar or header. They provide links back to each and every previous page that the user navigated through in order to get to the current page. In other words, breadcrumbs provide a trail for the user to follow back to the starting/entry point of your site.

Keep your links consistent. Every Web site landing page needs a consistent menu—one that lets you drill down the same way every time, and brings you to the same main menu. Whether you use drop-down, tree, tab, or other menu style, be sure the menus and overall layout of each page follow the same format.

Standards. Yes there are navigation standards, and Web users have gotten used to having them.  For instance, put your logo in the upper left of the site—and be sure to link it to the homepage.  Every page needs a footer that links your key information—your “call to action” and FYI items such as contact, sitemap, index, and so forth. Use established naming conventions such as “Home” (for your main page—and be sure to link back to it from all the interior pages), and “Contact” for your e-mail/phone/address info. Keep your standards consistent with the industry standards, and you’ll be set.

Simplify the Clicks. Please, please—don’t go link crazy. Users tolerate a couple of clicks to get where they want to go, but much more than that and they’re annoyed.  Keep your menus organized—even group items in main and subgroups—to further your intuitive navigation. An extra click here and there may not seem like much, but add them up over a large site and they begin to be seen as wasted time to your site visitors.

Provide Search Capability. Searching for information is a necessity—even within your Web site. Adding a search link or a search box to every page of your site is the first step. Adding a search engine like the free plug-in offered through Google completes the process.

Organize your Content. Create a navigational framework that chunks information into fairly broad categories—categories that are succinctly and appropriately named. Web users are happier (and thus stay on a site longer) with less menu options and a more meaningful naming structure. Best practice for naming your categories is using simple, concise language that says what the link is—and what it means to your visitor

Let’s begin with a basic premise: every company needs to define their value proposition. Your value proposition explains your raison d’être, and lets people know why they need to hire you, buy your products, or use your services. Remember, though, it’s not just your reason for being that’s important, but how you are an important element in the success of your clients and customers. According to Joe Marconi, author of The Brand Marketing Book, “Ultimately, successful brand building involves identifying with the customer’s desires and giving what he or she wants as to value (price and quality) plus the characteristics of image being sought, aspired to, or accepted.”

So in a word, brand identity is the VALUE to the consumer, customer, or client. It’s your significant point, your offering, and your integral benefit to someone else. Simply, it’s how your business helps someone else’s business, life, garden, health, wellbeing, focus, bottom line, reputation…whatever your product or service intends. That’s why it’s so important to consider your brand identity, or your core value, as your pivotal point from which to create your Web site, design your logo, create your advertising campaigns, and deliver your products and services. It’s how you communicate to your audience that your business, expertise, focus, delivery, and so forth are their best option.

Consider Coca-Cola®—there’s hardly a person in this universe that doesn’t know that name, and equate it with the bubbly, caramel-colored “must-have” pop that revolutionized the soft drink industry. The popularity of Coke virtually spawned a cultural movement of soda drinkers that’s continued for over a century. Coca-Cola’s brand identity, in fact, has evolved to the brand pinnacle it enjoys today: a world-recognized name for the product and the company itself, as well as a representative icon for the values it touts—real, refreshing, American, cool, hip, “the wave,” and “it.” In short, Coca-Cola has wildly succeeded in its brand identity because it has positively met both its consumers’ desires (why I think I want it—it quenches my thirst and tastes good) and image needs (what it means to me—by drinking Coke I am cool, etc.).

So we see that brand identity is a successful mixture of human interest, psychology, financial analysis, value proposition, and pleasing presentation. In our next article, we’ll share with you a few tips on how to begin identifying and researching your own unique branding.

So let’s do it! Why? You’ll get more hits—and that means more visitors—and that translates to more business for you.

Whether you have a Web administrator, or you create and
maintain the site yourself, try out these tidbits of information. We think you’ll be surprised at the results.

• Break up or “chunk” long passages and pages into smaller sections, and update the information often
• Start a blog section, and add to it at least every other week—more often if possible
• Add news items that are relevant, and update them continually
• Post current articles, ensuring your site has substantial and  meaningful content—and be sure to refresh that content often
• If you don’t like to write, look into online reprint directories for articles
• Buy single or “packs” of written pieces called “private label rights” articles
• Hire a ghostwriter to write content for your Web site
• Change the images, banners, and front-page information by replacing them, or rotating them to another location or page

As you begin to create a dynamic, refreshing site, be sure to include current-event and local information—even helpful hints. For instance if your Web site is geared toward families, create your site “menu” accordingly. Post content or blog about cost-saving tips, safety standards, local family-friendly attractions, and/or holiday-appropriate information. Include a link to a pertinent article, hint at soon-to-be-posted updates, and talk about your new content subjects in any e-mail notices or newsletters you send.

Again, one of the golden rules of Web site best practices: Keep your content timely, ensure it’s dynamic by changing it often, and ensure it’s up-to-date. It’s a proven way to boost traffic to your site—and that, of course, is icing on the cake.

We’re all familiar with the old networking protocol from “back in the day”. Done over a two-martini lunch or on the golf links, it started with a formal in-person introduction and was cemented with a handshake. It could take years to build a network of associates, partners and business liaisons. Today, thanks to the lightening-quick world of the Internet, you can build a focused, powerful network in a matter of days—thanks to social networking Web sites such as FaceBook and LinkedIn.

Originally created as a forum for Harvard students, FaceBook has exploded into a multi-generational hot spot for meeting and greeting. LinkedIn, primarily geared toward businesses networking and job searching, is used by corporations worldwide. Each site reaches thousands upon thousands of global users—by using similar widgets, blogging platforms, feeds, powerful matching opportunities, privacy options and other tools—to make networking fun and easy. Both offer more traditional (by referral) and “cold” (by matching you with potential connections) introduction options—and you can request recommendations from your trusted colleagues to further enhance your business presence.

It’s clear—Internet social networking sites have become a great way to meet, greet, and increase your visibility on the Web. So take a minute, set up a free account, and watch your social network community grow!

As always, iBec Creative recommends using all Internet networking sites judiciously.

Consider that if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much would a streaming video be worth to your message? Recent pundits claim that half of all Web readers will tend to click on a video before reading text. That being said, your Web site video could begin garnering “hits” for you in a short amount of time, and like never before. At any rate, be sure to create a video that you’re comfortable with and that meets your prime objective:

• An “introduction” video showing your facility or your products and services
• An infomercial, highlighting a specific product or service through an interview or on-site demonstration
• A subject-matter video, where you discuss something that is important in your industry or to your potential customers
• A case study, showing how your product or service is being used and how it made the customer’s life or business easier/better/more visible/more lucrative

One example of how you can create a credible, meaningful, low-cost video is seen here in PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ discussion of “relevance”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3xTp5hOync

So, once you’ve created your video content and posted it to YouTube, then what? And, for what gain? Well, for starters using an established, powerful tool such as YouTube vaults your visibility. Search engines such as Yahoo and Google rank YouTube postings higher than video postings on other Web sites. What’s more, YouTube’s internal search function is very similar to, albeit less complex than, the search function used by major search engines. And in this case, the less complex the better—because it means that you, as a video marketer, can easily control the YouTube search results through pertinent keywords in your tags and titles. So in the time it takes someone to type a search word and hit enter, your visibility is instantly increased.

Finally, many Internet marketers are just discovering the increased traffic—and subsequent sales—that can be gained through using YouTube. Purchased by Google in 2006, YouTube is the most popular of all the video sharing sites. By posting videos to YouTube that are relevant to your market, you’ll direct your viewership demographics to better represent the audience you need to target. From viewed-video comments to requests for additional video postings, the information and leads you generate from YouTube can be huge to your bottom line. So make it informative, make it funny, make it a documentary—it doesn’t matter as long as you make it memorable, and do it well.

All in all, if you’re looking for low-cost production and vast information dissemination, combined with fast and relevant feedback, posting to YouTube is the way to go. It can help you get your message out cost effectively and quickly, build a viable list of customers, and provide valuable feedback…all at your fingertips. So here’s to happy YouTubing!