Jennifer Gregory - Standout Web Design Blog

If you own a website or are considering building one, you've probably already done some research into what makes a good website tick. There are many different aspects to this but the one that often takes people the longest to pull together is the content and its not just about making up enough words to make the screen look busy and important - you need to capture the attention of your reader and hopefully get them to follow through on an action of some type - this might be calling you to enquire about your service, downloading a document to read more about what you do, purcahsing a product or a service, etc.

I have just watched a fantastic 7 minute video clip of an interview with Robert Gerrish who talks with Paul Jones about how 'persuasive writing' can help a business.  I have worked in office environments for years before getting into website design and its amazing just how good writing tips can influence your every day actions from writing an email to request the help of a colleague or some information you require to complete your own tasks, to writing intranet articles to inform staff of important events or even actions you want them to complete, such as being spam-savvy or taking care of their equipment or their own body with workplace health and safety. And of course, it is so important today to have efficient content on your website in the tech-savvy but time-poor world your readers live in.

This article is short and sweet and takes you through 6 steps to persuasive writing.

On a regular basis, someone will ask me about using a flash page as an introduction to a website and my only answer is, "No, you don't want to do that."!  This is often not the answer that the person wants to hear.  A flash page is the page you find that shows a movie or animation that then provides a 'click here' or 'enter site' button for the user to get to the actual website they want.  There are quite a few reasons for not having a flash introduction page and of course, each set of website users is different so the reasons not to use a flash page will differ.  Here are a few:

• A good percentage of users will immediately leave a website when they see a flash page
• It is difficult to optimise a flash page for search engines
• Most users immediately click on 'skip intro' or 'enter site' without hangning around to even see the flash animation / movie / picture / sound / etc.
• Users with slow internet connections will find a flash page takes a long time to load creating frustration and a high rate of impatience and ultimately leaving before they even got there...!

I read of a web design agency recently creating this simple, single-page website giving readers 13 reasons why they should embrace the web.  Its hard to pick out which of those 13 would sit in a top 5 or even 10 and ultimately the areas importance be unique to each and every business. From my limited experience so far I have found that these are my top 5:

• The web adapts and grows with you
• The web is measurable
• The web is improved communication
• The web builds brand awareness
• Your competition is already here

I recently came across this headline and was compelled to follow the link to find out why someone wanted to 'eliminate small business'.  Thankfully when I arrived at the website I found that this was not the case at all.  The suggestion is that instead of referring to a "Small Business", we use the term "Private Growth Business".  I thought this was a great exercise in thinking about how one views their buisness, whether that be small, medium, or large, and how others might view your business too.