If you have owned your own company for a while, you have probably found a routine that has worked for you. As the business grows, what once worked well may now seem to be more of a hindrance than a benefit. Finding the right team of professionals to help you transition your company from a DIY(do-it-yourself) company to one that is managed by another group of people is key to making a successful switch.

As a business owner you need to be able to focus the majority of your time to making business decisions, not worrying about the minute details of the business or the programming of your system. The specific elements of the business that are not related to revenue generation or your core competency are the perfect fit for outsourcing to the right group of people, while you still lead a successful company...

Let’s say you have a beautifully designed webpage that’s full of great content (you do, don’t you?). You spent endless hours designing the main page so it’s eye-catching. The navigation is so easy to understand that a five year old could surf your site with no problem. And the content! You are an expert and you think that your page should be the go-to site for your field. But you’re not seeing results. That spells disaster for a business. Have you ever considered that aside from great overall navigation, your content-rich pages themselves are designed poorly?  

Let’s face it—the average web browser’s attention span has greatly reduced. Blame multitasking and text messages. You average visitor is not going to want to read through mega paragraphs of text and sift through your prose to get to the meaning. That’s why you have to take into consideration these design tips for your content-rich pages.

For the Right Web Design, Turn to a Custom Web Designer

As a business owner you know the value of drawing customers in and grabbing their attention. You also know you only have a small window of time to accomplish this, demanding a strategic approach. This can be done in a variety of ways, including marketing, advertising, sales campaigns, word of mouth or your website. Individuals landing on a creative, customized web page are more likely to take the time to look around and “click through” on that website than if they were looking at a “cookie-cutter” web page that lacks differentiation from other sites in the market.

Standardized Templates

The standard templates for web pages can come in a variety of different styles, yet the word variety implies a wide array of choices. The number of templates available is still limited and every other company considering a template has access to the same choices. Your web page will only be different in the content; the layout as well as the style could easily be exactly like that of another company, or several other companies. These template web pages are definitely cheaper in the beginning, but what will it cost your company to support the website over time? Have you considered the cost when you lack differentiation in the crowded online market?...

Developing your Web design strategy can be a challenging task as you want to ensure the results justify the investment. If you are not tying that strategy to the value of your brand or using it to build brand awareness, you are missing an important step in your quest to dominate the market in your particular industry. This is especially true if you are promoting commodity products as your brand can not only land you at the top of the first page in search results, it can also ensure customers will pay a premium to purchase from you.

One of the top priorities in your Web design should be to drive targeted website traffic. To accomplish this, you need a firm focus on building your brand awareness and driving Internet marketing activities. The latter helps to build the former so that customers and potential buyers do not search for a commoditized product, but instead search for your brand. Building brand awareness online can be a challenge, but it can easily be overcome with the right web design strategy...

               Whether your website is the product of a huge team and a small fortune, or just your skills, there are certain navigation pitfalls you have to avoid. Frustrating, counter-intuitive navigation is unbelievably irritating for the average web browser. If you don’t put thought into your design, visitors will click the back button after just a cursory browse of your page.

The Basics

                You should avoid pop ups at all costs. No matter how important you think the message is, a popup is not the way to do it. It instantly destroys your relationship with the visitor because they think it’s an advertisement. Or worse, that you have no respect for your web visitors. Don’t think this is related to navigation? Your visitor will have to close this window before doing anything else. Wasting mouse clicks will fray their patience.

                While we are on the subject of clicking, do everything in your power to minimize mouse clicks. If you have an entry page that is useless (think, a page with just a logo and a “click here to enter” link), get rid of it. You should also have a menu of all the pages on every page of your website to avoid constant clicks of the “back” button to get to your homepage. Many sites do this efficiently with a menu that spans the top or one side of the page. Make sure that this menu is not only on the bottom of the page. You might think it’s a clever trick for people to have to scroll through your content (or press the back button to the homepage) to get to the navigation menu. But, it is annoying for visitors. It’s a good idea to have a menu with eye-catching images at the top of the page and a minimal, text-only menu at the bottom. Also, include a link to your home page on every page...