What should my website contain?
The golden rule has always been that "content is king" on a website. This rule definitely still applies! ECS has significant experience in organizing website content in order to create websites that are rich in information, yet accessible, logically consistent and easy to navigate.
Grab their attention
Your website's home page is the most important. While it is important to have an attractive and well-designed website, it is equally important to have a home page that draws in potentially interested parties so that they will dig deeper into your website and contact you for more information.
Your home page is usually what visitors will see when they first visit your website (although they could find other pages via search engine queries). You have about five to ten seconds to grab their attention... and keep it. The most important part of your home page is the part "above the fold" - the portion that they can see without scrolling their browser window.
This is not to say that people will not scroll down on your home page. They will - if they are interested - and in fact, "below the fold" is a perfect place to present more information about you or your organization.
It is also worth noting that a good webdesigner will be aware that browser window sizes vary widely; with today's large monitors, one can resize their browser window to any size that they want, so there is no uniform "fold" that all users will consistently see. You can encourage viewers to scroll down by using visual cues like textual content that continues toward the bottom of the page, and images that the viewer must scroll to fully view. Of course, this is a deviation from "clean" design, and a good webdesigner will know when to best use these techniques.
Call for action!
For commercial, nonprofit, and political websites, the most important thing that your website needs to do is generate action on the part of your visitors. What do you want your visitor to do? Contact you? Purchase a product? Vote for your candidate? Practically every page should contain a "call for action" and a way for the viewer to contact you for more information.
The depth of content (or "copy") on your website will impact how visitors react to your site. If your website contains too little material, they may not be convinced of the value of your product (whether tangible or intangible). If the material is too lengthy and too complex, they may lose interest before you have a chance to convince them to act. An experienced website designer will work with you to streamline and organize the content of your website.
Once a visitor contacts you, you will have their demographic information such as name, email address, as well as phone number, postal address and additional information (if you asked for it). You can now make follow-up contacts with the visitor in order to convert a potential customer into an actual sale.
An excellent way to follow up with people who contact you through your website is with email campaigns, such as a "drip" campaign that will send periodic follow-up emails to an interested party. ECS offers state-of-the-art email campaign management that is extremely easy for you to use.
Formulate your design requirements
Here is a questionnaire to help your formulate your design requirements, and here is more information on how to organize a website and its contents.
ECS specializes in creating attractive websites that are well-organized, internally consistent, and user-friendly. ECS has a proven track record of working with our customers to give them exactly the "look and feel" they want, while ensuring that their website is easy to navigate. Contact Elbel Consulting Services for more information on creating or redesigning your website.