Designing A Website That Sells

Copyright 2005 Sandi Clements

Would you buy meat from a grocery store that left the bad

meat in with the good meat or wasn’t clean? Would you buy a

car from a sales lot that had totaled automobiles on the

front lot? I wouldn’t and neither would you. Your website

is your grocery store; your car lot. You must have an

atmosphere that is pleasing to buyers. One that tells that

buyer that you are not an amateur, but instead a trained,

seasoned professional. Your site is a direct reflection of

your product and that is why that having a well designed

website can make or break your sales.

The first thing to keep in mind when designing your

website, is “surfability”. Take a few minutes a look around

at several web pages. What makes them appealing? Were there

some that you closed out of immediately? Why? Take notes

and do your research. Keep in mind that when a person

visits your site they have a goal in mind. They are either

seeking information or shopping for a product. Give the

person what they want without having to search for it. Be

sure that all the information on your site is relevant to

your product. Make the buyer think that they need your

product to solve their problem.

Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It should be

an avenue by which the customer can shop your site. It

should be easy to view and load very quickly. This is your

first impression and we all know that first impressions can

either close the deal or loose the deal. Make it simple. It

is best to have links that are easily viewable by the

reader that will navigate them to where they want to be.

Tables are often a great choice when deciding on a way to

design the main page of your site. Your main page should

load very quickly, chances are if it takes the page more

than ten seconds to load even on a 56k modem, the customer

will click away to save time, hoping to find the

information or product elsewhere. To increase the loading

speed of your main page you should avoid large graphics or

excessive graphics. To many banners or special effects can

cause a page to load slowly as well.

To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you

should stick to mild colors. If your site is a content site

where the user will be doing a lot of reading, it is best

to stick to black and white. Color can be added when using

tables, as a way to brighten up the page, but remember to

keep the overall look of the page professional and

appealing to the audience that will be visiting most often.

Since screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good

idea to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may also

choose to set the tables in your web page to span a

percentage of the page rather than a set number of inches.

This will be sure to accommodate all screen sizes. You

should remember that a lot of Internet users will not use

the same browser as you, and therefore you should be sure

that your site looks as good on other browsers as it does

your own. You can do this by downloading several browsers

through which to look at your page.

Be aware of the fact that the overall look of your website

is a way to make money. The appearance of the site, if

designed properly, can be an excellent marketing strategy

for your product or service.