Why have a web site?

If you are contemplating a web site for your business then you are very wise as any business without a web site today is missing an opportunity to promote themselves to new and existing customers all around the world 24 hours a day.

You need to be absolutely sure of the purpose of your web site - before you contact Windmill Web Works.

Web sites can have many purposes. You may want your site to actively secure further business by offering on-line trading. Or you may want to enable potential clients to see what your company can offer. There is always a need to keep existing clients informed of new products or services and to give potential clients or customers sufficient information in order for them to contact your company.
Many sites exist to promote a particular cause or campaign. Those sites are full of information and content to attract and retain visitors.

The purpose of the site:

Whatever your reason for wanting a web site, your first decision is to decide the purpose of the site. You can do this by thinking of answers to these questions:

The Content:

Once you are satisfied with your answers to these questions, you need to think about the content for your site. Whatever content you have, it will need to support the purposes and goals of the site and be of direct and important use to the site's visitors.

Some companies just reproduce their existing marketing materials into a web site which is the wrong approach as a web site can achieve things that a pamphlet cannot. I have even seen a site where the front page of the latest marketing brochure has been turned into a graphic image, added to a web page with a few contact details and that is the web site!

On the web, content is important. There are now over one billion web pages out there. People look at and may read the best bits from a site, then move on. Web surfers nowadays are probably the most demanding consumers of any sort of media. They have little loyalty to any one particular site and even less patience with poorly designed and slow to load sites.

Do make sure that your web content contains good grammar and is well written with no spelling mistakes! Good web site content is essential.

You therefore need a site which is lively, up to date and has interesting and informative content at all times.

Navigation:

One of the most important elements of a web site is how visitors navigate around the site. They will not stay long if they cannot find the information that they are looking for. Remember navigation is important and it should take your visitors around the site with no surprises.

People have become accustomed to certain web site conventions. They feel at home on a site because these conventions are usually (but not always) followed. For example, most sites have the navigation buttons down the left-hand side or across the top of the page and your company logo in the top left hand corner or centre.

Some sites have amazing home pages with flashy animations, clear menus and navigation, loads of graphics and punchy text. Great! But you can't assume that all your site visitors will arrive at your front door! A search engine result could turn up any page from your site and this will be where people enter. So do make sure that visitors to any page can quickly orientate themselves to where they are within your site with clear navigation and an easy route back to your home page.

Be prepared:

A web site is not built and finished in the way that a car is built and finished. Web sites are dynamic creations that change and evolve over time. You need to add pages to them with new and exciting articles, free offers and special offers for your visitors. You need to give people a reason to return to your site, again and again. So be prepared to keep nurturing your new site!