A Quick DIY Review of your Web Site
Got a web site but you are not sure if it is any good – well here are a few things you can look at to give you a better idea:
Home Page – good text content or an “intro” page?
This is your most important page – this is where you get the opportunity to capture the interest of visitors or turn them away.
- Not so good – Little or no real text, just some images or words in the images. Or a pointless animation with “click here to enter our site”
- Good - Your home page should have a good amount of text covering what you are offering pointing clearly to further useful information focussed on what your visitors would be interested in.
Don’t tell visitors about you – concentrate on what you do. Leave about you type information to your “about us” pages. Think about what you are offering, interesting items of news or events, special offers or promotions etc.
Good quality text content and plenty of it
People visit websites to get information – so provide plenty of well written content that will interest your target visitors.
Have good ‘signposting’ to more relevant information (perhaps a recent newsletter, an event coming up next week, a special offer) and ‘calls to action’ (a request for the user to do something such as click on a link, fill out a form, join a newsletter, or add a product to the shopping basket) to guide and engage the visitor, throughout the website.
Search Engines - plenty of well written text content is also the raw material for getting the most out of search engines. There are no hard and fast rules about how much text is the right amount. As a guide the more the better, think in terms of at least 250 words on a page but above all the text should be written for human visitors (probably with slight amendments to get the best out of the search engines). Have you thought about the Keyword Phrases people are going to search for to find your website? Do your web pages focus on these "Target Keyword Phrases"?
Clear and consistent navigation
People expect navigation bars at the top or left hand side (or both) of the page. They expect to be able to find what they want quite easily and be able to move from page to page easily. A consistent, logical and comprehensive navigation system is essential. Supplementary navigation aids such as sitemaps and searches (if the site is very large) are also a help as are relevant links throughout the content.
Search Engines – like text based links. Links hidden in javascript code or flash animations can stop a search engine navigating your website.
Regards
Michael Spencer, Managing Director.
michael@epsilis.co.uk
Epsilis - Website Designers
47 Farthing Drive
Letchworth Garden City
Hertfordshire (Herts)
SG6 2TR
UK
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