Make your web site Super-Sticky
More Web Design Articles
The long and short of GIF and JPEG
The 2 misused file types Do you oftentimes feel confused what to use for your web images-- GIFs or JPEGs? And more importantly why? Great. You deserve kudos as confusion leads to comprehension. Here is what you have been looking for all the way! Essentially, they are formats in which web images are created in.
Real Estate Websites for Agents: Beware of Template Sites
Having a top-notch real estate website can help you stay competitive in today's Web-driven economy. But before you leap in and make a large purchase, you need to be aware of certain things -- namely, the various drawbacks of template websites. About Website Templates A template is a pre-built website "shell" that you buy (or subscribe to) and then customize with actual content and graphics.
Improve your website with these simple steps
Once your website is up and running, it is important to review and update the web site from time to time. This will ensure that you keep the content fresh and relevant, and of course can also make changes to improve the content in the light of feedback and experience gleamed through running the site.
Planning and designing the perfect website
Building a new website can be both exciting and daunting. The opportunity to communicate to such a large audience is exciting whilst the work involved in getting a site ready for launch can indeed be daunting. However, with a structured and logical approach, it can be made quite painless - and in fact quite enjoyable! Website Purpose Before even thinking about design and structure, the first decision to be made is with regard the purpose of the site.
How to ensure your website is accessible and usable
Having an accessible website is not just a nicety, but a must have. Although there are still issues with inconsistent display of content across browsers, matters are much better than they have been in the past. This means that there is no excuse not to bear in mind accessibility when creating and updating your site.
The Favicon, an untapped image promotion trick - Animated favicons?
A favicon is that little image that most browsers display on the address line and in the favorites (bookmarks) menu. Tabbed browsers like Firefox and Opera extend the functionality of favicons, adding them to their tabs. The name was coined based on Internet Explorer (the first browser to support it) and derives from "Favorites Icon".
Tips to build an attractive search engine friendly website
A good Website is something related to user experience. This experience is the "effect" (the wow factor) your site has on visitors, and good effect means something, which becomes memorable in the visitor's mind. To make it memorable we require good content, graphics and user-friendly navigation. A Website experience is great when it is useful, desirable and impact.
With web sites being more common than ever, people are turning to the web to find products and services where they may have used other mediums previously.
In such a cluttered on-line world (and getting busier every day), you need to have something on your site that grabs people's attention and more importantly keeps them coming back again and again.
The first thing that you need to make sure is that the content you have is current and if possible updated regularly (regularly may mean different things to different businesses, from daily to monthly). This may mean text, pictures or even a seasonal redesign or makeover. Google do this well by simply changing the graphic of their logo to represent different events.
Once content is being refreshed, it gives your customers a reason to come back. For many, the products or services we sell are not commodity items and so return business is less certain due to the infrequency of the purchase.
If your content is changing (and obviously worth reading) then your customers are going to return to keep up to date with the developments.
To increase your stickiness, you are going to need something extra, something that can entice the visitors to your website to return, something SuperSticky!
This elusive element of your website will be different depending on your business and the target audience.
Some possible options are:
- Discussion Forums - Auctions / Classifieds - Picture Galleries - User/Customer Reviews Let's discuss each in turn.
Discussion Forums
Discussion Forums, depending on your business and audience, are one of the best ways to keep your customers coming back for more. The key here is that your customers are generating your sticky content for you. Just think...every time one of your visitors to your website posts a comment in the forum, they are pretty certain to be back to check on the responses to it.
You can develop this format into questions and answers. You the expert can answer the questions of the visitors and hopefully your answer to people's problems generates more and more traffic to your site, as you become known as a place to come for advice.
Auctions / Classifieds
Auctions and classifieds are another way to get people to return to your site. With the success of Trademe in the New Zealand Internet space, online auctions have become well known. Offering your own niche auction site could also benefit from this surge of interest.
If auctions are not your thing, then classifieds can be something that you can employ to offer visitors and customers a place to trade good and services. Again your visitors are generating your content and locking themselves in by using the service. A word of advice...do not attempt to dabble in any money matters relating to these services. You are there to bring people together; it makes it much simpler and less fraught with peril.
Picture Galleries
You will find picture galleries on many websites, you may even have one on a site that you have now. Having one is SemiSticky, but having one that people can submit their own photos is Sticky! , And having one that people can rate and comment on is SuperSticky!
You may not want people to comment on pictures in your gallery, but again it comes down to the fact that if you can get your visitors involved in generating the site's content, the more likely they are to come back.
User/Customer Reviews
Similar to the galleries are reviews on products and services. You sell the product and have compelling sales copy to say it is great, but nothing says it better than endorsements by fellow customers. A testimonial on your site is good, but having them in such a publicly accessible place as a review section can give them even more authenticity.
However you may not want your customers to review your products, they may say something bad about them.... But hey, isn't that a great way to improve your product or service?
Summary
In summary, great websites are not usually the prettiest looking (although it helps); they are the ones with information that keeps the visitors coming back.
You may not have the time to update your site every day, but by implementing some of these options, you may get your customers updating your site for you.
You will need to think about your audience and determine whether these ideas promote your site in the right way. Also talk to your web designer about how they can be implemented. There will be a cost, but you may find the return visitors make it worthwhile.
So the answer is simple...Make it SuperSticky and make them want to come back.
About the Author
Steven Gardner runs DeepWeb Web Design, a web design business that caters to all businesses looking to get an edge with their presence on the Web, providing web design, maintenance and consulting services. You can find him at www.deepweb.co.nz
Source: Web Design Articles on ArticlesTree.com
Recent Web Design Articles
5 questions to ask before you talk to a web design agency
So, you're thinking about going on holiday. You walk into a travel agency and you tell them how much money you've got to spend, what type of holiday you want, what sort of hotel, whether it should be near a beach, how many people are going, and what time of year you are planning to travel.
How to Choose Your SEO Web Designer
Web designing and search engine optimization (SEO) seem to be two very different concepts. Nevertheless, you need to be able to combine both these elements in your business website for two reasons: good design will drive traffic to your site while excellent optimization of your webpages will increase your rank in search engines.
The Benefits Of Choosing A Free Template To Use For Your Website
Make no mistake about it - building a great website costs money. Or does it? Luckily for those who can’t afford to foot the bill that can run into thousands, there are alternatives if you want to get your own website up and running.
The Intricate Website Designing
Web site is the most useful resource on the World Wide Web. With images, texts, animations, audio-video and other elements, the messages conveyed over web pages are more meaningful than on any other shared platforms.
Website Creation Made Easy With Wealthy Affiliate University
Website Creation Made Easy With Wealthy Affiliate University Building a website can be quite a difficult task for the beginners of the Internet world.
What to Expect from a Good Web Development Company
Over the past years, the Internet has expanded drastically and brought about a complete change in how it can be used in hundreds of new and exciting ways. Now all the companies with an online presence prefer to manage their websites on their own, providing support for social networking communities, providing RSS feeds for distributing their content, integrating e-commerce, and using search engine optimization and internet marketing services to promote their brand and services online.
Whats the need of redesigning a site?
The website developed years ago for your company may have special place in the hearts of some of your core members in the company, but if your site is not worth then what is the need? The market demand for your services and products are not being fulfilled by your site then what's the benefit in having that site.
6 Big Questions Every Coach's Website Must Answer
If you want to convince prospects to hire you as their coach, you'll need to answer some very basic - but very critical - questions. Most coaching websites don't do this at all. Instead, these websites merely have contact information, a summary of credentials, maybe a picture of the coach and perhaps a simple list of services.
How To Create Usable Websites
A usable site will: Help users achieve a goal, usually to find something, such as information, or obtain something, such as an article; Make it easy for them to achieve that goal; Make it possible to achieve the goal quickly; Make achieving that goal a pleasant experience.
New concepts in web designing | web development - offshore outsourcing
This article is about designing a web page and it will help you in selecting a right web designing service provider. For a successful web designing we need professional expertise in web designing which guarantees rapid delivery of any projects - from small websites to complex ecommerce software and custom solution programming.
The Benefits of a Website
There are many ways a website can help your business that differ depending on the kind of work you do. Why a web site? There are many ways to take an approach to the Internet. If you plan to sell products or services on line the need for a website is obvious.
Tips on Website Designing that Helps in Better Ranking
Website designing plays a critical role in search engine optimization. And it is due to this reason that many organizations prefer to get their websites designed by a website design company where professionals would know how to make website designing search engine friendly.
Website for Your Business -Tips to make the right decision
Nowadays when almost every business is going for a website, you might have wonder does your business also need a website and what is the best way to get one. Not necessarily every business needs a website hence first of all it is important to find if your business will benefit from a website.
Why & How to choose a Web Designing Company
Do you believe that anyone can make a website? Nope! But I do believe. Anyone can make just a website but only a good web designing company can make an effective web site. Lot of difference is there between just a website and an effective website.
Importance Of Structural Website Design In SEO
Website in order to attract heavy targeted traffic needs to be user friendly and have a gimmicking look and on one hand and search engine friendly on other. User friendliness helps to increase the number of your returning visitors developing users trust and loyalty towards you.