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Home::Newsletters
Flashy Web Site Designs are Bad for Business
Author : Cheryl Carnright & Joann Marsili
** B2B Marketing News ** The Newsletter & Resource Site for
Marketing http://www.b2bstrategicmarketing.com
IN TODAY'S ISSUE:
1.)... Flashy Web Site Designs are Bad for Business... 2.)...
Recommended Reading 3.)... Does Your Web Site Work?
FLASHY WEB SITE DESIGNS ARE BAD FOR BUSINESS
Have you heard yourself saying, "I don't understand? I have a
gorgeous site, a really cutting-edge splash page with a flash
introduction, up-to-date technology, I paid a small fortune for
this site, and I'm getting plenty of hits but no one is buying
or staying in the site."
Well, you may be one of a growing number of businesses, both
large and small, who believed all the hype about the latest in
new technology. Many business owners want their website to have
that cutting-edge look, and so will ask for things such as
animation, music, flash, and other "bells and whistles" that
would be detrimental to their site. These extras are probably
driving potential customers away because they increase download
time and are not search engine optimized.
In the rush to join everyone else on the Internet, businesses
have ignored vital steps in the process of getting their
business on-line. They assumed that because everyone else had
gimmicks such as a splash/intro page, this was the right way to
go. The result: businesses chose design companies who readily
took their money and who designed exactly what the client wanted
without clearly focusing on marketing goals. To be fair,
oftentimes the graphic design company has no idea that a site
designed with all the latest technology doesn't necessary
translate into a site that has the functionality that an on-line
business needs. This is because the graphic design firms
specialize in graphic design, not in marketing. Many graphic
design sites are full of splash pages, scrolling text,
animation, etc. They use these tools because it allows the
graphic designers to display their creativity and their
knowledge of these "bells and whistle." Creativity is good but
all the latest cutting-edge technology translates into a lack of
functionality to effectively market any on-line business
including their on-line presence.
When having your site designed, remember that first and
foremost, you are building your site to increase prospects and
sales. Don't look for a graphic design firm that believes all
you need to do is get in the search engines and place banners to
be successful. Don't hire a designer that is new to the
Internet--meaning they have years of print design experience but
have just decided to expand their horizons to the Internet.
Don't hire a graphic designer that doesn't have a professional
copywriter or marketing person on staff and don't hire a graphic
designer just because they are the cheapest. Remember, cheap can
cost you money--you get what you pay for. Hire a
marketing/design firm that understands the difference between
form and function and can apply it in a marketing perspective.
Remember, many of these latest bells and whistles are very
expensive and your site may not need them to be effective.
There are several elements, that when pieced together give your
on-line business proper form and function and provide you with a
fighting chance of succeeding. Hand this to your designer before
you begin:
INDIVIDUAL PAGE SIZE: While every day more Internet users are
signing on with DSL, satellite, or cable modems, the majority is
still using dial-up access. Dial-up is the number one way people
access the Internet because of one of two reasons: DSL,
satellite, and cable is not available in rural areas or they
cannot afford the extra costs associated with these cutting-edge
technologies. What this means is that the majority of your
potential customers will download pages at 3-4 KB per second
versus the 0-1 KB per second with DSL, satellite, or cable
modems.
What does this mean? Studies have shown that if a web page
doesn't load in 8-10 seconds, you will lose 1/3 or more of your
potential customers. The total size of a page should not exceed
30 KB including text, graphics, JavaScript, animations, HTML,
etc. The absolute maximum recommended download time is 30 sec
over a 28.8 modem, which is 15 sec over a 56k modem. Anything
longer and you've lost your potential customer.
Even though your logo, fonts, colors, images, etc. are necessary
for your brand, it is important to use them in such a way as to
not cause your pages to load too slowly. If the page does load
too slowly, then your brand is in jeopardy because customers
remember the bad far longer than they remember the good. To keep
top-of-mind awareness, it is necessary to pay attention to these
details as they, too, are part of your brand. Another aspect of
pages loading too slowly is loss of revenue. Customers come to
your site to see what you offer and they need an overall
experience that will stay with them and make them want to
recommend your site to others.
SPLASH PAGES/FLASH INTRODUCTIONS Research is necessary to any
business as this allows a business to track what is happening.
Therefore, research has generated reports about splash pages and
flash introductions. These reports have indicated that these
particular pages are not popular with the buying public. They
are, however, extremely popular with designers and people who
want to keep up with the latest technologies. This raises the
questions, "Who is buying and who will give a return on
investment?" Is it the buying public or the designers and the
people who want to keep up? Obviously, the answer is the buying
public. Therefore, it is a no brainer that a web site needs
functionality for the buying public's needs and not for a
business owner's or designer's ego. Unfortunately, many business
owners are talked into a splash page by the designer simply
because it allows the designer to be creative and, of course,
the extra revenue for the design company. If you have or are
thinking about having a splash page for your on-line
presence--DON'T. They take too long to download, they don't
provide your potential customer with enough information, and
there's nothing there for the search engines to spider.
Remember, potential customers are in your site for one reason
only and that is to see what you have to offer them, get the
information they're looking for, and to potentially buy.
A flash introduction is just as bad for an on-line business.
Although I love flash personally, I do find times when it's a
pain and often leave the site before seeing anything else. The
rule of thumb to remember is to keep the number of clicks a
potential customer must make to get to the information they are
seeking is three or less. For every added click with a splash
page/flash introduction, you are running the risk of losing that
potential sale which decreases your return on investment.
In conclusion, it is in your best interest to avoid the use of
splash pages/flash introductions. Have actual text that your
customer can read and the search engines can index. If you
really want to have innovative technology on your site and are
willing to pay the added costs, offer it as an option. Have a
hyperlink to a flash introduction on your home page that people
can choose if they have the time or like flash. Another option
is to create a parallel site that potential customers who covet
the latest technology can access. By doing this you will see an
increase in your sales and search engine traffic.
HYPERLINKS Hyperlinks are extremely important for search engines
to index your site. These are what the search engines follow to
find all the pages in your site and index them. However, if it
isn't a true hyperlink then some of your site may become
invisible to the search engine.
Remember use a true hyperlink. While 90% of most browsers will
recognize JavaScript hyperlinks, they don't give search engines
anything to follow.
A true hyperlink is:
BODY TEXT Search engines can only index text. Therefore, graphic
representations of text or large graphics are useless unless you
have alt tags attached to them. Even then, search engines don't
like long descriptions in every alt tag. Thus, to get the full
potential of a page, it is necessary to have content that search
engines can index.
Content is also your calling card to your potential customer. A
recent study/survey (according to MarketFacts) has shown that
one of the major reasons people go on-line is to gather news
and/or information (87.8%). Another study by Forrester Research,
Inc. showed that the highest-ranking reason people go back to a
web site is high-quality content (75%). Consequently, body
text/content is necessary on every web site over lots of eye
appealing graphics.
When laying out the content, it is important to keep in mind
continuity. When a designer uses complex tables (multiple nested
tables), frames, and other design elements, it breaks the flow
of the text on a page. Although we see the page as flowing
nicely, search engines do not. They see the code as unrelated
fragments instead of part of a continuous sentence or paragraph.
Thus, every table or frame breaks the flow of text.
Consequently, the simpler the page design, the better for your
search engine ranking.
Keep in mind the following research when designing your web site
and how it will function (according to Forrester Research, Inc.
as posted on http://www.quickinfo247.com/304895/FREE).
High-quality content: 75% Ease of Use: 66% Quick to download:
58% Updated frequently: 54% Coupons and incentives: 14% Favorite
brands: 13% Cutting-edge technology: 12% Games: 12% Purchasing
capabilities: 11% Customizable content: 10% Chat & BBS: 10%
Other: 6%
This tells me that when building a web site, potential customers
and repeat customers are looking for three basic elements on a
site:
1. Good content. 2. Good navigation/site design. 3. Fast
download time
SUMMARY Every single design element affects your web sites
functionality and marketability--from the decision about how the
navigation will work to choosing the right colors, fonts,
graphics, content, HTML code, and more. These will not only
influence potential customers but search engine indexing as
well.
Therefore, a business plan and marketing strategy that includes
the above elements for your site will increase your chances of
succeeding on-line.
Are you ready to be successful?
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Cheryl Carnright and Joann Marsili have years
of graphic design and marketing experience. They are the authors
of a free monthly newsletter: "B2B Marketing News." Visit their
site http://www.b2bstrategicmarketing.com.
RECOMMENDED READING "Ice to the Eskimos. How to Market a Product
Nobody Wants" by Jon Spoelstra
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887308511/b2bstrategicm-2
0 If you need to jump-start your marketing effort, this is a
great book to read and apply. Everyone will get at least one
very useful idea from this book.
DOES YOUR WEBSITE WORK?
Is your website doing what you want it to do? B2B Strategic
Marketing http://www.b2bstrategicmarketing.com/ will give you a
5 - point free analysis of your website. We will look at:
- design - navigation - copy - coding - marketing focus
We will give you some ideas on how we would do things
Differently and also give you some free advice on what you need
to do to make your site more successful.
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