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| Making a Great Website: |
1. Great Images
2. Creative Colors and Design
3. Well Written and Organized Content |
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We know, as small business owners and managers, you've got a lot on your mind. To help expedite things for you, we've come up with some helpful tips for you as you establish your corporate identity and put together your marketing materials. These are the things we've discovered through the years, that we wish someone would have told us! So, check them out. If you come up with any helpful tips of your own, be sure to email us and let us know! |
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Photos are one of the most important visuals you can include in your web site. High quality photos can give a small business just the right touch to help you stand apart from your existing competitors and to compete with the big boys. You can’t always afford to hire a professional photographer, so here are some tips that we suggest:
- If you have outdoor pictures, avoid taking pictures on a day with dreary weather.
- Close up pictures are good and can be used as interesting design elements.
- Choose pictures with good color. Coordinating a web site color to complement or emphasize a striking color in a photo is a great way to make your site look professional.
- Pictures that are farther away look better if they have less detail in them. Distance makes the detail more difficult to distinguish and they’re less eye-catching.
- Photos don’t always have to be specific to your product or service. General pictures can invoke an emotion or feeling that goes along with the product or service that you offer. For instance, you may be in the business of selling handmade soaps, or beauty products. Instead of nice pictures of your product, a few pictures of smiling, healthy faces would do the trick!
- If you don’t feel like you have the equipment, the eye, or the time to take the pictures yourself, consider using commercial stock photography.
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Ahhh…color! The fun part of designing your website! A world of color combinations is at your fingertips. You just need to open your imagination to figure out what colors you want to use. Here are some helpful tips:
- Pick colors that complement your logo. That will help to develop a cohesive marketing look.
- You might want to derive your inspiration from a striking image that you have. Coordinating your photos to match your colors is a great way to establish a professional look.
- Be careful of the “clown effect” of having too many contrasting colors competing in one page. If you like a bright color, that’s great! You might want to consider pairing a toned down color with it, or different variations of the same shade.
- Consider using a “neutral” background shade to draw attention to striking photos or neat images.
- Look at other websites to get ideas of color schemes and trends.
- Coordinate your colors so they go well together.
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Compiling all your content may seem like a daunting task, so we’ve put together some guidelines to make your job easier and your website better:
- Use good grammar and spell check. You won’t be perceived as professional if there are glaring typos, and grammar mistakes.
- Be concise. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. People are busy these days and the easier it is to find information, the better!
- Write in “active” voice instead of “passive”. It’s more powerful and takes up less space.
- On the front page, include a general description of what you do, why your customers need it and how to find out more.
- Tailor your sub pages to the menu items you’ve clicked on.
- Keep your menu item names simple.
- If you have a lot of content on one page, you may want to consider dividing it up with subheadings or bullets so it seems less daunting to the viewer.
- For your menu items, think about what are the most important things people need to know about your company and divide it up that way.
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Now, with all of that said, it’s your website, so whatever you want is fine with us! Get those creative juices flowing and come up with your own stuff. We’re just here to help you get started!
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us any step of the way! We look forward to being your online design house! |
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