Website Building Blocks

8/3/2019 Website Building Blocks

1/6

Web site Building Blocks

If you have a web site or plan to build one soon, its helpful to understand the basic building blocks of

successful web sites: browser compatibility, search engine visibility, good design, quality hosting,

keyword-rich content and much more. This article provides an outline of the important points to

consider when building (or re-building) your web site and will give you a clear starting point for futurearticles.


2/6

WHY HAVE A WEB SITE?

More and more people are using the web to research products, find prospective companies, and

compare their buying options. As a result, every business (no matter how small) should have a web site.

Most importantly, the web site is there to provide information to prospective customers and to reducethe burden on your sales and marketing efforts. Even if your primary sales interaction and lead

conversion with customers is face-to-face, a web site helps you get more customers that would have

otherwise never found you.

There are other reasons for having a web site besides providing company information and increasing

lead conversion:

Post-sales customer support Product news and updates Software and Document downloads Data collection through Forms, Surveys and Polls

HOW WEB SITES ARE MADE

The best web sites always start with two important questions you should ask about your business and

your customers:

1. Who is your target audience2. What are they looking for

Understanding your target audiences skill level, what they do online, and knowing what information

they look for before making a purchase is where every web site project should start. Insight gained from

these questions provides the starting point for web site planning, content organization, and web

development later on. Taking the time to learn these points is important because better web sites lead

to happier users, and that means more customers.

Make a list of the top questions customers ask before buying from you. Dont leave

anything obvious out. Provide a complete answer to each question. Once you have

that list, prioritize it from most common to least common. Use that list to design all

aspects of your web site including menus, landing pages, home pages, sidebars, etc.

Once you understand your audience and content requirements, you can begin to plan and implement

your web site:

1. Design Pages and Menus2. Installing Forms, Images, and other Media (video and audio)3. Install web-based software to make site editing easier (called a CMS)


3/6

4. Ensure your web site is optimized for search engine visibility5. Test for multiple browser compatibility so that all users can use your web site6. Install Web site data tracking and submit to search engines

THE BUILDING BLOCKS

DESIGN PAGES AND MENUS

What are your customers looking for when they come to your web site? Answers to that question

should drive the design of your web site menu and the design of content on every page of your web site.

For example, if a customer arrives at your services page, what do they expect to see? Obviously, your

list of services should be presented. What if the services page also has a sales form, customer

testimonials, or live support? Try to put your customer hat on and think about their expectations and

avoid designing from your own perspective.

Listed below are some additional tips worth following:

1. Keep the text links in your navigation menu simple and easy to understand. For example, useservices instead ofwhat we do here. Menus should be easy to use, predictable, and leave no

room for misinterpretation.

2. Design all pages for a 1024x768 screen resolution. The recommended site width for thatresolution is 960 pixels wide.

3. Keep the sidebar (the narrow column of content on a web site) in the same place on all pages.4. Design your page hierarchy from general to specific: child pages should have more specific data

then the parent page.

5. Design your home page last because it provides links to all other pages of your web site.6. Use a 2-column page layout (one wide column for the primary content, and a 2nd narrow column

for additional links and information) for most pages of your web site. Experiment with 3-column

and 4-column layouts only if you have a lot of content that needs to be shown.

7. Place the most important content at the top of pages (called the first fold). Not everyone scrollsdown web pages. Test the first-fold of your web site athttp://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

8. Break up written content into short paragraphs and bullet points. People tend to scan webpages rather than read them.

When planning your web site, start with the list of common questions mentioned in

the previous section (How Web Sites are Made) and this information into sensible,

functional categories. For example, all questions about product support and

maintenance could go on a page calledProduct Maintenance. Keep related

information together or reference related pages with links.
http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/


4/6


5/6

INSTALL A CMS

CMS stands for Content Management System. A CMS

allows you to separate the design of your web site from

the content. Most CMSs today are web-based and are aseasy to use as a web-based email account. The primary

benefit of having a web-based content manager is that you

can edit your web site with without any programming skill.

If you want to launch a web site using a CMS available from

Microsoft, visithttp://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-web

site. Other popular and free CMS tools available include:

Wordpresswww.wordpress.com Joomlawww.joomla.com Drupalwww.drupal.org

There are many more free CMSs in the market. Visitwww.opensourcecms.com for an exhaustive list of

CMSs available.

ENSURE YOUR WEB SITE IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZED

Search Engine Optimization is a crucial ingredient in online success because an optimized web site is

more likely to be found on search engines, and search engines are where most users start online.

Although this topic will berevisited in future articles, here are some tips to get started:

Check that keywords relevant to your business appear on all-important pages of your web site. Write page titles (called the title tag) that are eye-catching. The page title is what appears on

search engine results pages (the page users see after searching).

Use H1, H2, and H3 tags (called heading tags) to separate content on pages. Heading tags helpsusers understand content hierarchy on pages, and helps search engines recognize which

keywords to give more importance to.

Populate the Keyword and Description meta-tags of every page of your web site.To see how well your web site is optimized, visitwww.web sitegrader.com. Microsoft also offers an SEO

service to partners which you can learn more abouthere.
http://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-websitehttp://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-websitehttp://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-websitehttp://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-websitehttp://www.wordpress.com/http://www.wordpress.com/http://www.wordpress.com/http://www.joomla.com/http://www.joomla.com/http://www.joomla.com/http://www.drupal.org/http://www.drupal.org/http://www.drupal.org/http://www.opensourcecms.com/http://www.opensourcecms.com/http://www.opensourcecms.com/http://j.mp/duU0Qhhttp://j.mp/duU0Qhhttp://j.mp/duU0Qhhttp://www.websitegrader.com/http://www.websitegrader.com/http://www.websitegrader.com/http://j.mp/nh4AZhttp://j.mp/nh4AZhttp://j.mp/nh4AZhttp://j.mp/nh4AZhttp://www.websitegrader.com/http://j.mp/duU0Qhhttp://www.opensourcecms.com/http://www.drupal.org/http://www.joomla.com/http://www.wordpress.com/http://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-websitehttp://www.officelive.com/en-us/free-website


6/6

INSTALL DATA TRACKING SOFTWARE AND MONITOR USAGE

A lot of data is available on visitor activity to your web site. Most web servers track this activity alreadybut better reports are available through data analytics software like Google Analytics

(www.google.com/analytics). After installing analytics software on your web site, monitor the following

key data points tounderstand how users are finding and using your web site:

Traffic Sources tell you how users are arriving at your web site. Look for Direct Traffic (whereusers type in your web site address), Referring Sites (sites that have a link to you), and Search

Engines (showing what keywords users type to find you).

Pages/Visit tell you how many pages users view on your web site before leaving. Higherpages/visit indicate better web site activity.

Top Content, Landing Pages, and Exit Pages tell you which pages of your web site are viewed themost and where users end their activity on your web site. Ensure your important web pages arebeing viewed more than other pages by looking at total page views.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

- People use the web to research products, find companies, and compare buying options.- Web sites can be used for:

o Post-sales customer supporto Product news and updateso Software and Document downloadso Data collection through Forms, Surveys and Polls

- Learn what customers expect when they come to your web site and make sure to provide it.- Keep your web site design simple and easy to understand.- Design it to 1024x768 and to be compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari browsers.- Install data tracking and/or analytics software to gather information about your visitors.
http://www.google.com/analyticshttp://www.google.com/analyticshttp://www.google.com/analyticshttp://j.mp/ahq5SAhttp://j.mp/ahq5SAhttp://j.mp/ahq5SAhttp://j.mp/ahq5SAhttp://www.google.com/analytics

Documents

Website Building Blocks