7 Habits Of Highly Effective Websites

7 Habits of Highly Effective Websites Michael Reynolds, President/CEO michael@spinweb.net www.spinweb.net | 317.324.1100

SpinWeb • Professional website design and development ﬁrm • Founded in 1996 • Works with businesses and nonproﬁts • Services: website design and development, SEO, online marketing coaching Web: www.spinweb.net Twitter: @spinweb

Michael Reynolds • President/CEO of SpinWeb • Blogger, speaker, productivity nerd • Speaker for Web 2.0 Expo (New York), Accrisoft SP Summit (Tampa), CMS Expo (Chicago), Blog Indiana (Indianapolis) • Plays tennis, loves sushi Web: www.michaelreynolds.com Twitter: @michaelreynolds

SAY NO TO BROCHURE SITES

CUSTOMERS AND CONSTITUENTS DEMAND MORE FROM TODAY’S WEBSITES

1. Design 2. Content 3. Usability 4. Transactional Tools 5. Cross-platform 6. Social Media Integration 7. Findability

DESIGN MATTERS “... they make a snap judgement about a site's overall design and appearance-- within 50 milliseconds, according to a 2006 study published in the journal Behavior and Information Technology.” - Entrepreneur Magazine, July 07, 2009 A research team lead by Dr. Gitte Lindgaard found that people can make rough decisions about a Web page's visual appeal after being exposed to it for as little as 50 ms, which is 1/20 of a second. - Jakob Nielsen

“Professional means that the design meets certain standards in its typography, layout and style. When visitors see a site that skimps on these standards, it's a short leap to assume the business might skimp on other things as well--customer privacy, for instance.” - Entrepreneur Magazine, July 07, 2009

"We had a customer come in today for an estimate. Her comment to me was… 'Wow, whoever designed your website did an outstanding job!' She then told me that was a deciding factor on where to get her car repaired." - Ted McClintic Church Brothers Collision Repair

ELEMENTS OF GOOD DESIGN • Professional photography • Proper brand color management • Consistent typography • A creative ﬁrm (not just development)

GIVE YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS SOMETHING FOR THEIR BRAINS (Like good content)

Content should be: 1.Professionally-written 2.Clear and concise 3.Frequently updated* *Google likes fresh content and so do people

Don’t bury your visitors in big blocks of text

Writing for the web is not like print. Website content should be SCANNABLE. • Subheads • Bulleted lists • Highlighted keywords • Short paragraphs • The inverted pyramid • A simple writing style • De-ﬂuffed language devoid of marketing-speak

“leverage cross-media channels” “streamline strategic metrics” “evolve proactive solutions” “enhance enterprise e-markets” “architect e-business services”

Keep content fresh for both GOOGLE and PEOPLE Consider a BLOG

You are using a Content Management System, right?

“If everything is equally prominent, then nothing is prominent. It is the job of the designer to advise the user and guide them to the most important or most promising choices (while ensuring their freedom to go anywhere they please).” - Jakob Nielsen, Usability Expert and Principal of Nielsen Norman Group

Time online is COMPRESSED

0.1 SECOND: Time needed to decide on the visual appeal of a website

1 SECOND: Maximum response time for website elements to update after a click before users feel lack of control.

10 SECONDS: the time users typically allocate to examining a page before deciding that it's so bad that they're going to leave.

Users should be able to complete simple tasks in about 1 MINUTE. Awkward sites that require much more than a minute for basic tasks (such as ﬁlling out an application form) will be abandoned.

10 MINUTES would be a long visit to a website. One study followed users researching a B2B purchase across 25 site visits. The longest site visit? 7 minutes.

RESIST THE URGE TO CRAM EVERYTHING ONTO THE HOME PAGE (This is usually the result of too many committees)

$%@!&*

Ahhhh...

Deﬁnitely built by committee. Where do I start?

Much cleaner, smaller navigation. Easier to make choices.

Website visitors scan in an “F” pattern Eye-tracking heatmaps Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, 2006

Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites proﬁtable. Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April, 2010

The most important stuff should be showcased between Keep navigation all the way to the left. This is one-third and halfway across the page. This is where where people look to ﬁnd a list of current options. users focus their attention the most. Keep the main content a bit Keep secondary content to the right. It won't be seen as further in from the left. much here, but that's okay — not everything can get top billing, and you need a place to put less-important material.

Use card sorting to create a logical navigation

Form Labels Work Best Above The Field* *A study by UX Matters found that the ideal position for labels in forms is above the fields. On many forms, labels are put to the left of the fields, creating a two-column layout; while this looks good, it’s not the easiest layout to use. Why is that? Because forms are generally vertically oriented; i.e. users fill the form from top to bottom. Users scan the form downwards as they go along. And following the label to the field below is easier than finding the field to the right of the label.

Visitors focus on FACES Eye-tracking heat map of a baby looking directly at us, from a UsableWorld study. And now the baby is looking at the content. Notice the increase in people looking at the headline and text.

DON’T FEAR WHITESPACE IT IMPROVES COMPREHENSION

ARE YOU INVITING VISITORS TO COMMIT TO THE TRANSACTION?

MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO GIVE YOU THEIR MONEY

DON’T MAKE ME CALL OR (EVEN WORSE) RESORT TO PAPER! Visitors need instant gratiﬁcation

REMOVE OBSTACLES (like needing directions)

B2B sites need online payment options, too

So do non-proﬁts...

Invite visitors into your sales funnel (Then read “Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin)

Give visitors online research tools

Give them downloads Bosses like to print things* *(and that’s ok)

Offer a clear path to your objectives

Make sure everyone can see your website. The world is made up of more than just Internet Explorer and Windows* *Thank goodness!

SERIOUSLY?

Sample browser stats for www.spinweb.net

Ask your agency or web developer: “What DOCTYPE do you code for?” Acceptable answers: “XHTML Strict 1.0 DOCTYPE” Unacceptable answers: “Ummm...”

DON’T BOX IN YOUR WEBSITE (let it breathe with social media)

MAKE IT EASY FOR OTHERS TO SHARE YOUR CONTENT

Automate your website announcements to social networks

ENCOURAGE SOCIAL COMMENTING (Echo and Disqus are popular social commenting engines)

YOU NOW HAVE MORE THAN ONE PERMISSION MARKETING CHANNEL...

WHAT IF NO ONE CAN FIND YOU?

3 things that improve search engine rankings: 1. Fresh, relevant content 2. Human-readable URLs 3. Relevant inbound links

• Blog • Industry articles • Press releases • Fresh case studies KEEP CONTENT FRESH AND RELEVANT!

“website design” (242,000,000 results) BLOG USING LONG TAIL KEYWORDS “credit union website design” (6,270,000 results)

Use Google’s keyword tool to check for demand (Google “keyword tool” to ﬁnd it)

Structure your title with the keywords you are targeting

Test your results

Apply these techniques to... Press releases Web pages Event landing pages Case studies etc...

HURL? Human-readable URL = A page address that is structured with relevant keywords describing the content* *(this means more for Google to gobble up)

RELEVANT INBOUND LINKING CAN LIGHT UP YOUR SEARCH PRESENCE

Break down the barriers between you and your customer

7 Habits of Highly Effective Websites Michael Reynolds, President/CEO michael@spinweb.net www.spinweb.net | 317.324.1100

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7 Habits Of Highly Effective Websites

by Michael Reynolds on Sep 16, 2009

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7 Habits Of Highly Effective Websites — Presentation Transcript