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The most popular uses for web sites are to attract new customers, to show potential new
customers what you can do or what products you have, and, in some cases, to actually sell
things to your customers directly from the web site - known as 'e-commerce'. Clubs and
other organisations may just want to tell the world who and where they are to attract new
members.
Content, content, content!
Think of your web site like the pages of a magazine. Some pages have interesting articles,
some have advertisements, and some advertisements have prices and order forms. You will
probably want to describe your business, what you offer, and emphasise what you believe
you do better than your competition. Clearly this is something you can do a lot better
than any web designer and Abbeydale would expect you to provide most of this information
- even if you only fill in our questionnaire style form.
Contact information is one of the most important items to include in your site - and opening
times or a map to find your premises. The internet is an strange, anonymous place and
many users of you web site will need to be given confidence in your business if they are
to become customers. Providing a telephone number and an address helps here and a
photograph of your premises can also help give an idea of what sort or size of business
you are.
Pictures
Illustrations and photographs will liven up your web pages just as they would a magazine,
and if you can provide photographs, either as prints or as digital photograph files, then
we can include them in your site. If you don't have any we can arrange a photographer who
specialises in digital photography for the internet. This can cost from as little as £40
if you just want a few staff and product shots but obviously would rise the more photographs
you need.
Logos and trade marks can be included too. Those from your suppliers and trade organisations
are usually available free of charge. In fact many organisations will be only too happy
to supply you with free photographs too - it's cheap advertising for them! Your own logo
and/or trade mark can be scanned from literature or recreated as a graphic if necessary.
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Lights, Camera, Action...
There are lots of other types of content you can put on your site but be very careful before
using animations, sound/video clips, or other items which might take a long time to load.
Most web surfers will look elsewhere if your site, particularly the home page, takes more than a few
seconds to appear! (How would you feel if, when you visited a shop, you were whisked away and
made to watch a promotional film before being allowed to do your shopping?) Sometimes of
course a video or sound clip might be useful but make sure your site viewers know what they are
letting themselves in for - showing an estimated download time might help.
Some very eyecatching effects can be created with a small number of graphics or photographs and some
'scripting' (ie. web site programming).
See www.roodbar.co.uk,
www.jeanettedawson.co.uk or
www.cadar.co.uk for some ideas.
Forms and Email
Your web site can provide two way communication where that might be useful. This
can be a simple email link so a prospective customer can easily send you an email with a single
mouse click, or it might be an enquiry form to be filled in to ensure you get all the information
you need to provide your customer with what he wants. Don't forget to check your email
regularly tho. Web site users will expect communications to be dealt with quickly -
within 24 hours at worst.
Active Content - Databases
Most simple websites are 'static' - they don't change unless the web designer makes a change.
Some sites, however, are active and can react to visitors in some way - perhaps to allow
them to create user names and passwords so they can log on to a personal or restricted section
of the site. Many e-commerce websites maintain a stock list so that they can show whether an
item is in stock when you order it.
Almost all such active sites have a 'database' in which changeable information is stored and can be
used to modify the web pages seen by visitors - a page showing items in stock will change from
one day, or even hour, to the next. Using a database will allow you to have active content too -
guest books, message boards, news items, uploadable adverts for items for sale. Clubs can let
members log on and upload information about meetings or other events.
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