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When developing a website, consideration should be given to the following.
1. Attractive Look And Feel
It is no different to the offline world. People expect to read attractive magazines and enter well-designed outlets so the users experience online should be treated with equal importance to how you would treat your customers offline. Consideration should be given to:
* Page design
* Content design
* Structural design and implementation.
As suggested earlier, the new version of the site should be more colourful, with less use of the colour grey.
2. Low Ongoing Maintenance Costs
Have low ongoing maintenance costs. Often the cost of developing the business is eventually exceeded by maintenance costs. Affordable CMS (content management systems) are now available that can drastically reduce your website's maintenance costs.
3. Consideration for your audiences' technical infrastructure
Consider your audience's technical infrastructure. There is no point having mind-blowing graphics and content if it takes your visitors 15 minutes to download. They will lose interest and go elsewhere. The whole point of going online is the convenience and speed factor.
4. Getting The ".Com"
Think globally and get the .com if you can. The Internet makes the world very small. It offers a virtual level playing field, which means anyone can do business on the web, regardless of size... however, '.com' gives the impression of 'beyond Australia'.
5. Relevant And Current Information
People will not keep coming back if there isn't something new or useful to them. As a rule if you wanted people to visit your site weekly then you should ensure that the sites content is updated weekly.
6. The Ability To Easily Add And Edit Content
This allows you to make simple content changes to the site without having to pay a web developer to do it. Often the cost of developing the site is eventually exceeded by maintenance costs so paying a little more upfront to have these features built in will be worth it.
7. Adaptability
Allow for further content development and editing. This is critical to ensure the site is always dynamic, allowing for changes in your business and industry. A low cost, flexible Content Management System (CMS) should be considered during the initial stages of the redevelopment process.
8. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO or the practice of optimizing your site for Search Engines is a powerful tool for delivering more visitors to your site on a relatively small budget. Technically this is a marketing tool however it is worth mentioning in the context of the building of your web site as in order to fully optimize your site, consideration needs to be given to this prior to commencing development.
9. Performance
Broken links and bloated images can drive visitors away from your site. Put simply, the longer the page takes to load, the more likely the visitor is to get restless and leave. Broken links also destroy the professional image you have worked hard to create.
10. Competitive Analysis
Analysis of your competitor's site will give you vital information on what works and what doesn't for your chosen business type online. This would include analysis of everything from the interface design of your competitor's sites through to how they market their site. Comparative analysis sites such as Hitwise (http://www.hitwise.com) are a great place to find information on your competitors and their performance relative to yours.
11. Branding.
Place your company name and logo on every page and make the logo a link to the home page.
12. Well-Structured Menu
Along with search functionality and fast loading graphics, a well-structured menu will allow the user to find what they require... fast. It is important to prompt the user and direct them to areas of the site you want them to visit.
13. Site Structure
Instead of cramming everything about a product or topic into a single, infinite page, use a starting page that provides an overview and several secondary pages that each focus on a specific topic.
14. Proof Reading
Spell check and proofread your content.
15. Contact Details
Include relevant contact details and information on your company, preferably available from all pages.
16. Users With Disabilities
Where possible (and practical), consideration should be given to users with disabilities (such as the vision impaired). The use of highly readable fonts and simple layouts will help make the site more accessible. Also, try to avoid a high density of text and images and use a minimal number of contrasting colours.
17. Browser Compatibility
Develop your pages for multiple types of Web browsers--to provide trouble-free access to the widest possible audience. The World Wide Web is a multi-platform, non-browser specific medium. Test your pages with as many browsers and platforms as you can.
18. Interesting Features
If your budget can afford it, you should add features to your site that will both attract new users and entice repeat visitation. Features that will create more page impressions and keep users returning to your site include… - Daily Updates - Chat Areas - Discussion Forums - Free Email - More Site Content, in a well organised and archived format (if the site is large) - Notification facilities where people can email others about an article or feature they have found on a website. E-cards or mail a page to a friend are good examples of this. - User/member Areas - Regular newsletters to members/users.
19. Do The Same As Everybody Else
If the most popular websites do something a certain way, then try to replicate the elements of their site that you feel contribute to their success. Remember the average user visits upwards of 30 web sites a day so these other web sites will shape their opinion as to what to expect when they visit your site. Things to look for in popular sites include typography, use of colour, image density, navigation structure and general usability. Before addressing any of the issues outlined above, it is important to do a full website audit to establish what is and isn't working with the current site and to get a better understanding of what should be done with the next version of the site.
To this end you should consider the following…
1.Statistics Review
By reviewing the current statistics of the site (using your ISP's server logs with the appropriate software) you can find out what pages are the most popular, what effect (if any) marketing activity has had on the site, where your visitors are coming from (country and specific websites), the navigation paths your visitors take and the last page they visited within the site (very important).
2.Customer/Staff Questionnaire
Either formally, or informally, ask staff and customers to tell you both what they liked about the current site (if you have one) and things that they would also like to see included (that aren't there currently). You could also shape some of the questions so as you could get a better understanding as to what role the website played in getting the various clients both to review the 'option' of using your business and what influence the website had on them making their final decision.
3. Marketing
When re-designing any website, special attention needs to be given to both how the website's redevelopment will effect its marketability and what part will it play in the overall marketing of the business. As an example, a website designed to get people to book or purchase a service online would be very different to one that was designed to get people to 'phone' for more information.
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